www.virwc.org.au

 “Heartbreak Hotels"

October 2010

The Crisis in Melbourne’s luxury hotels” report is now available. Read this groundbreaking research that exposes the dangerous workloads, poverty wages and a toxic climate of fear in many of Melbourne’s 4,4.5, and 5 star hotels.

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A Survey Report on Female International Students
October 2009
Support Needs of Female International Students in Melbourne’s TAFE and Private Colleges

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In recent years there has been a phenomenal growth in overseas students that have entered Australia under the student visa program of the Australian Government. The City of Melbourne has the largest concentration of international students in Australia. The plight of female international students has gradually become a big concern to us. When these women come to seek help, they are in serious difficulties with no organizational backup. They have no financial support and are mostly dependent on the 20-hour job they have and on their husbands or partners for tuition fees, house and transport. They come to us because they have nowhere to go. They cannot get proper help from existing agencies because they are not permanent residents and/or recipient of Centre link benefits.

Tapping on the language skills of our students on placement, we decided to survey the needs of Chinese and Indian/Sri Lankan female international students. In the process, we discovered there was an unfinished survey of information needs of female international students that was also done by students on placement at the Women’s Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE), an agency also based at the QVWC. We asked the permission of WIRE to use their survey as it contributes to the surveys we have done.
This Report is underpinned by the surveys we conducted as VIRWC and the WIRE survey. From these surveys we are able to get a deeper understanding of the international students’ phenomenon from a woman’s perspective.