A federal government decision last week to further tighten the eligibility requirements for foreigners seeking permanent residency seems certain to have a serious impact on the already faltering recruitment of overseas students, especially those from China and India, writes Geoff Maslen
Indian students
Higher ed in trouble: fix visas, increase funding, or bailout with billions
Despite a 49% increase in foreign enrolments in universities alone in the four years to 2006, the committee said five of Australia’s top 10 markets had been in decline over recent years, writes Geoff Maslen.
Higher ed in trouble: the Indian market has ‘dried up altogether’
Australia’s vice-chancellors are not usually given to wild alarmist cries but the sudden collapse of the Indian export education market has caused consternation in their ranks, writes Geoff Maslen.
Hartcher: We totally messed up the Indian students debacle
Australia has failed to address the violence against Indian students issue , leaving dramatically reduced student numbers and a severely damaged Australian reputation. This will have a major long term effect, writes Peter Hartcher.
Vindaloo a feel-good gesture, but the stigmas remain
Eating curry on a Wednesday night doesn’t mean you’re not a racist, and it doesn’t make Australia a safer place for international students, writes Bhakthi Puvanenthiran.
Suffering in silence: the plight of the international student
A quarter of Australia’s student population are international students. But our universities remain almost segregated, international students are seen to get preferential treatment because they are paying and yet they are often at threat of violence or mistreatment.
Video of the Day: How to be a Melburnian
To combat the problems of violence against Indian students in Melbourne, Hungry Beast examines a local prep school helping Indian students assimilate, with classes in thinly veiled racism and hating bad coffee.
Calming the Indian crisis
The violence against Indian students issue isn’t going anywhere, and while the Australian government fails to fix it, the Indian media will run inflammatory, blanket coverage. It’s time for an independent inquiry to help mend our relations.
Big Ted steps into the race debate
Victoria’s opposition leader Ted Baillieu has accused the Brumby government of being “in denial” over violence against Indians in Melbourne. It’s garnered him some headlines, but how will it play with the electorate?
Kohler: The bulldozer crushing of our education industry
The new changes to the skilled migration program are crushing one of Australia’s biggest export industries: education. It wasn’t all shonky colleges, writes Alan Kohler, international students spent a whopping A$13.7b in 2007-08.
Crikey Says: Our relationship with India: a nasty problem and it could get worse
Australia’s global reputation is taking a battering over attacks on Indians in Melbourne. Is this a beat-up by the over-zealous Indian media, or is it a genuine foreign policy dilemma?
Foreign students: Cité Universitaire à coté de la Yarra?
The story about violence and racism against Indian students in Melbourne isn’t going anywhere, but the real issue is our reliance on international students to fund our universities, writes Michael R. James.
Are Australians racist? The view from India
The local press has been full of “Are Australians racist?” op-eds over the past few weeks, and the issue is just as popular amongst pundits in India. A look at what the country’s commentators have been saying.
Bishop: Let’s send India a peace offering — uranium
Deputy Opposition leader Julie Bishop has a novel idea for how Australia can repair its relationship with India over that whole “beating up Indian students” thing: agree to start selling the nuclear state uranium again.
Henderson: The myth of Australian racism
Gerard Henderson defends the wide brown land from recent accusations by an Indian magazine that we are a nation of racists: The Australia First Party and One Nation hardly make for credible sources.
India: Australia, a nation of repressed racists
A fascinating article from Indian magazine Outlook India on the recent spate of violence against Indian students in Melbourne, suggesting the attacks stem from Aussies’ “latent racism” that has been inflamed by the GFC.
Peter Cosgrove: Assimilation is not a dirty word
From the Cronulla riots to the violence against Indian students, there is obviously an undercurrent of racism in Australia, says General Peter Cosgrove. But we shouldn’t panic and change our immigration laws because of it.
BBC: Melbourne is still Australia’s “most successfully multi-racial city”
Melbourne’s self-declared reputation as “one of the world’s most harmonious and culturally diverse communities” has taken a blow with the recent killing of Indian student Nitin Garg — but the vilification is unfair and unfounded, says the Beeb.
Not racist, just complacent: how self reflection is un-Australian
With all the issues surrounding Indian student violence, we’ve been getting caught in all the hysteria over whether Australia is or isn’t racist, whether the violence is race related and what we should do about it. Tim Watts debunks the myths.
A snapshot of the neighbourhood where Nitin Garg was killed
The park in which Indian accounting graduate Nitin Garg was stabbed is bordered by some of the poorest and most poorly educated suburbs in Australia, writes Rob Burgess.
Why violence against Indians is about way more than racism
Locking the debate of violence against Indian students into either racist or not-racist means the issue becomes highly polarized and hysterical. Let’s have a rational debate about the cultural and economic issues, minus the rhetoric, pleads Tejaswini V. Patil.
Students’ broad-brush approach paints wrong picture
It is the responsibility of student organisations to promote an inclusive and open environment and realise that angry “kill 10 birds with one stone” protests are not always the most productive, writes Matthew Incerti.
Murder, racism and Melbourne
The murder of Indian student Nitin Garg has reopened the debate about racist attacks and the safety of Indian students studying in Melbourne. What are the pundits saying?
The confused, clueless and racist Australian public
Many Indian students in Melbourne are terrified, with little or no support system. And it’s not just males under attack, women are just often too fearful to report to police or even their parents. Who will help them? asks Gautam Gupta.
Colebatch: When it comes to violence, India shouldn’t point fingers
The outbursts on Indian televisions about recent attacks on Indians in Melbourne is unfair, particularly when you look at India’s violent history of honour killings and other crime, writes Tim Colebatch.
