Essay: Accommodation Challenges Of International Students In Sydney CBD And Solutions.

How the accommodation challenges of the international students in the Sydney CBD can be solved or mitigated by the Australian government?

• What are the reasons that make the international students in Sydney to choose the accommodations in the CBD areas over the regional areas?
• How the possibilities of growth in the regional areas can be improved to attract the international students?
• How the government of Australia can take mitigation measures regarding the accommodation challenges faced by international students in the CBD areas for the benefit of the locals and the students?

Introduction to accommodation crisis in Australia

Accommodation crisis is a major social problem in Australia. The residents of Sydney and almost all the other major cities are facing the challenge of shortage of housing supply and continuously rising housing prices. This is a problem for the student communities of these cities, especially in the CBD area of Sydney. This research proposal aims to explore the increasing accommodation challenges faced by the international students in CBD of Sydney. As per the data of the Australian Immigration Department, in the current year, there have been an inflow of 525,000 international students in Sydney, which is 12% more than the past year, and 80% of these students reside in big cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. This research will also explore the difference between the living conditions between the cities and regional areas and how that can be addressed.

• To explore the accommodation challenges faced by the international students in cities like Sydney and how to address that issue, since Australian government is planning to undertake 1 million international students per year by 2025, which can make the situation more complicated.
• To explore the challenges faced by the local residents due to increasing number of international students in Sydney
• To highlight the universities that are located in the regional universities but are unable to draw international students due to lack of modern infrastructure
• To recommend how to address the issue of accommodation crisis so that the problem can be mitigated in the future

The scope of this research project is to explore and describe in detail about the challenge of accommodation crisis faced by the international students in the larger cities, like, Sydney and creating an alarming situation for the government. There are needs of more accommodation facilities in the city; however, unresponsiveness and negligence of the government have contributed in aggravating this crisis. The scope of this project also covers the advantages given to students in the regional areas and the offers the regional universities give to the students to attract them. However, the study will also focus on why the international students prefer the city universities and how this crisis situation can be handled to improve the situation.

Studying in abroad has its own pros and cons and that differs from one country to another. Australia is one of the most popular destinations for higher studies among the students from all other countries. It has many reputed universities located in the larger cities of Australia that draw millions of international students every year. Australia has already been suffering from housing supply crisis and rising housing prices. With a steady inflow of international students, the accommodation crisis has been increasing at a rapid rate. As majority of the international level universities have their campuses in and around the cities, the students also prefer to reside in the city areas, and along with increasing migration of the skilled and unskilled workers, the accommodation crisis is getting severe. It has been found that the universities can provide accommodation to only 15% of the total students and with rising number of students every year, the demand for accommodation is rising too.

Increasing accommodation challenges faced by international students in CBD of Sydney

It has been found that unawareness, negligence and unresponsiveness of the government has contributed in the housing crisis for the students. The government did not pay enough attention to the challenges faced by the locals due to the rising number of migrated population in the city and hence, the infrastructures were not developed timely. Since, 80% of the migrated population is the permanent settlers in the large cities, this is affecting the quality of life of the local residents. This phenomenon is affecting the problem of shortage of housing supply also, contributing in the rising housing prices.

It has also been found that a large number of students are now moving to the regional universities of Australia as the cost of living is lower and the accommodation challenge is less. The pressure on the public transport is less too. Furthermore, the universities in the regional areas charge 20% less fees than that in the CBD area of Sydney. Along with cheaper accommodation and transport, the authorities are now providing various types of student loans to start businesses in those regions after completing their studies, so that, there is job opportunities, as well as regional economic development. The authorities have also formulated various investment plans for attracting flow of money into the regional economy, such as, tax free business opportunities for the international students. Hence, the Australian government must take initiatives for building adequate infrastructures in the regional areas for attracting more international students in those areas, which can reduce the pressure from the cities, like, CBD areas of Sydney.

However, it is seen that the international students have a preference to stay in the urban areas only. The reputed universities of Australia have campuses only in the city areas, which is the major reason for increasing pressure of students in the cities. In the regional areas, there are high quality universities that meet Australian standards, but these are not universally reputed. Furthermore, in the CBD area, the students can get room sharing options that is beneficial for the students. However, this room sharing option is not much prevalent in the regional areas. The number of rented places or hotels in the regional areas is much less than in the cities and the lifestyle is also quite different, which is a challenge for the international students. Therefore, although the cost of living is higher in the larger cities, the international students have a preference for enrolling in the internationally reputed universities located in the cities like Sydney and the housing crisis is getting increased.

Difference between living conditions between cities and regional areas and how it can be addressed

Research hypothesis:

H0: university campus expansion in the regional areas of Australia will not mitigate the accommodation challenges in Sydney CBD

H1: university campus expansion in the regional areas of Australia will significantly mitigate the accommodation challenges in Sydney CBD

Research design and methodology refers to the actions or strategies of the researcher to conduct the study in the most comprehensive and scientific manner. This comprises of the process of data collection, analysis and interpretation for addressing the research questions (Mackey and Gass 2015). Research methodology is determined by the nature and source of information and the analysis type to get the findings in the desired manner. In this study on the accommodation challenges for the international students in the Sydney CBD area, the researcher will apply both the qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Qualitative research process involves semi systematic, informal and subjective research methods that emphasize on the humanitarian and social aspects and on the words spoken than on the numeric data, which is collected through the data collection process (Silverman 2016). The qualitative research process is mostly inductive in nature as it allows the researcher to explore the research subject in a new direction without any preconceived notion. Hence, this research process aims to analyze and understand the humanitarian and social aspects of the research topic.

The  primary steps of qualitative research process includes formulation of research questions, design of the study, collection of data, analysis and interpretation of the collected data, validation, and reporting and presentation of the findings.

Research question formulation is the first and foremost step of the research study, which determines the direction of the study. The researcher must design the research questions in a manner that addresses the research subject in a proper and precise direction (Ratan, Anand and Ratan 2019). In the given study, the researcher will focus on exploring the accommodation challenges of the international students in the Sydney CBD and also the factors creating differences between the regional and CBD areas regarding the accommodation of the international students. Hence, the research questions are designed in that angle that would help the researcher to explore those particular aspects in a specific manner. The social and humanitarian facets of the research topic will be addressed through the questions. In this research, the design of the study will include a case study. As the students’ perspectives are highly important in this case on accommodation challenges, it is essential to collect information directly from the international students. Hence, University of Sydney will be selected as the case study organization for this study. It would help the researcher to understand the research problem in the real world perspective (Hancock and Algozzine 2016). The process of data collection includes methods for primary data collection. Qualitative research process involves qualitative data collection. Thus, interview process will be considered as the data collection process. Open ended questions will be designed to get in depth information about the accommodation challenges faced by them and the potential solutions. The researcher will apply purposive sampling technique, which is a non-probability sampling, for selecting three international students of the University of Sydney and conduct the interview. In this sampling technique, the choice of samples is not equal or random, and based on the judgment of the researcher (Etikan, Musa and Alkassim 2016). In the analysis and interpretation process of the gathered data, qualitative methods will be applied. Narrative inquiry, grounded theory and thematic analysis are some of the commonly used qualitative analysis process to analyze the social and humanitarian facets of the research topic (Silverman 2016).  In the given study, thematic analysis process will be applied, under which several relevant themes will be selected and the information or data will be analyzed accordingly. This will help the researcher to keep the study in the specific direction (King and Brooks 2018). Variables that are chosen in this study comprises of the factors of campus expansion in the regional areas by the university and its impact on the accommodation challenges of the international students in the CBD of Sydney. Validation measures the ability of the research variables in the measurement of the research topic in the most accurate way (Walter and Andersen 2013). The findings from the qualitative analysis process will be validated by using the triangulation of quantitative data analysis. Lastly, presentation of the findings and reporting will be done.

Challenges faced by local residents due to increasing migrated population in the city

Quantitative research process includes the systematic, objective and formal research procedures, which deals with numeric data or information (Lewis 2015). This method is primarily deductive in nature in which research hypotheses are examined on the basis of already established theories. The primary steps of quantitative research process are formulation of research hypotheses, design of the study, data collection and sampling, analysis and interpretation, reliability and reporting (Neuman 2013).

Research hypotheses represent predictive cause and effect relationships between two or more research variables, which describe the research topic. These statements are examined using qualitative tools, that is, statistical and mathematical functions (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018). In this study, the researcher formulated the research hypothesis to find out the impact of campus expansion on the accommodation challenges on the international students and to highlight the potential solutions. Case study design will again be used for quantitative research process and the University of Sydney will be the case study organization. A correlational case study will be used in this study. Once again, primary data will be collected under the data collection process. A survey will be conducted on the students of the university to collect primary data on the research phenomenon. Probability sampling technique will be applied for choosing the sample size. By applying simple random sampling, in which the chance of the choice of sample is equal and random, the researcher will select 50 random students to conduct the survey. This sampling process helps to reduce sampling biasness and fluctuations (Nardi 2018). The survey questionnaire will act as research instrument and will contain 10-15 close ended questions, with replicable scale. It helps in converting the data into numeric values for the analysis process. Quantitative methods will be applied to examine the research hypothesis. Using SPSS, the researcher will apply cross tabulations, frequency analysis, correlation and regressions as per the requirement for the findings. To test the reliability or internal consistency of the data, reliability test will be applied and Cronbach’s alpha is the measure for the evaluation. Lastly, with the help of visual representation tools, the reporting will be done.

The limitation of this study is based on the time and budget constraints. The researcher will collect only primary data due to these limitations. Secondary data collection and analysis is a time and budget consuming process. Many secondary sources are not free and requires payment to unlock the papers. The sample size taken is also a smaller one to avoid robustness and to make data collection less time consuming. However, it might cause sampling fluctuations and biasness in the outcomes. Furthermore, many factors are responsible for the increasing accommodation challenge in the CBD region of Sydney that needs much in-depth exploration. This also requires more time as well as budget.

(Source: Author)

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above research proposal that the research study that aims to explore the issue of housing challenges faced by the international students in the CBD region of Sydney and how that can be mitigated by the Australian government along with comparison of the factors that creates a difference between the CBD and regional areas accommodation scenario. The researcher will apply both the qualitative and quantitative research methods in this study, however, due to time and budget limitation, only primary data will be collected. Survey and interview, both the methods will be used for qualitative and quantitative data collection. Using both methods is beneficial in getting a more in-depth insight about the research phenomenon from both the social and scientific aspects. Based on the comprehensive and extensive literature review, the analysis process will take place and the findings will be evaluated. Hence, a correlational study will be conducted to evaluate the causal relationship between the accommodation challenges faced by the international students in Sydney and the factors causing the difference between the CBD and regional accommodation aspects and to find out potential ways to mitigate the crisis.

References

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Ratan, S.K., Anand, T. and Ratan, J., 2019. Formulation of research question–Stepwise approach. Journal of Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons, 24(1), p.15.

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