As Australians struggle to find affordable housing, there have been hostile responses to reports of a sudden influx of international students from China. It’s time for a reality check.
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About one in four international students were in severe financial stress just before COVID hit, and soaring rents and record low vacancies are likely to make their plight even worse now.
Governments and universities have failed to prepare for an increase in housing demand amid planned enrolment growth in higher education and a crisis driven by treating housing as an investment.
Universities should look to democratic innovations seen in society like ‘mini publics’ where citizens deliberate about critical issues in representative forums.
Even before the pandemic added to their financial stresses, a survey of international students suggests more than 20,000 were renting beds that are available to them for only certain hours.
The residential hall for international and local university students equipped them for a globalised world, more than anything they could learn in a class.
Australia has student accommodation with nearly 100,000 beds, many now empty. The large purpose-built student housing facilities are well suited for quarantining returning international students.
Of the students with jobs, 60% lost them and and two-thirds of the rest had hours cut. As they struggled, and often failed, to get rents and tuition fees reduced, precarious lives became even harder.
Even before COVID-19, 22% of international students often went without food or necessities and almost half depended on paid work to cover the rent. With many of their jobs gone, they’re now desperate.
New research reveals that poorer students are less likely to leave home for university – and that has serious impacts on their experience.
Local residents of St Andrews feel university growth has come at too high a cost – it’s time for local councils and universities to overcome the divide between town and gown.
What does it really mean to be “ready” for university? Research involving more than 3000 high school learners and first year university students have tried to answer this complex question.
Mayfair, Belgravia and Kensington: all London boroughs associated with affluence and grandeur, not student accommodation. But today these areas play host to a burgeoning student population. With the internationalisation…
Top contributors
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Alan Morris is a Friend of The Conversation.Professor, Institute for Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Policy and Society, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney
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Postdoctoral research fellow, Western Sydney University
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Associate Professor of Sociology, Macquarie University
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Adjunct Fellow, Sociology, Macquarie University
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Lecturer in Real Estate, Bartlett School of Planning, UCL
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Professor in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Finance, University of St Andrews
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Senior Research Fellow: Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development, University of the Free State
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Lecturer, Department of Education, University of Bath
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Associate Professor of Business and Society, Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria
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Researcher, University of Bath
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Honorary Lecturer, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
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Professor of Global Studies, RMIT University
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Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Criminal Law, Queen Mary University of London
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Sessional Instructor Economics, University of Windsor
