Unequal Charges For International Students In Australia: A Shared Responsibility

Question:

Discuss about the Unequal Charges for International Students.

One of the Global issues where shared responsibility for common good is not being realized is Unequal Charges for international students in Australia, undoubtedly is an serious issue, Australia is very expensive for the International students for education purposes, because the international students are paying are higher amount as compared to the national students. This is not fair, students in the same universities should be charged the same amount of tuition fees (Jiang 2014). For international students it becomes a burden to manage the high fees, they have a high person maintenance as well because they are staying away from their home. The annual fees for International students for bachelors degree is AU$ 15,000, US$ 11,750 to AU$ 33,000, US $ 25,800. For masters degree AU$ 20,000 to $37,000 for doctoral degree it costs from AU$ 14,000 to AU $37,000, the students visas in Australia costs up to AU $535 (Day  Nakata and Martin 2015).

It has been observed that the International students studying in Australia pay upto 400 percent more than the Australian students, that is a huge gap in the fee structure of Australian students and International students.  The reason according to Peter Osburne has nothing to do with the taxes rather it is an issue of national privilege, which is very biased decision and very unfair for the international students, the students from all around the globe pursue their education in Australia because Australia is ranked fifth in the world when it comes to global education. (Chapman and Ryan 2005). It is the responsibility of the authorities of the Institutions to make sure that those international who seek to pursue studies in Australia, should be treated equally, they should be not made to feel that they are outsiders. This can create differences among the students which will not good for the institutions to maintain harmony in the institutions.

Students from all around the world want to pursue higher education from Australia, students from some of the developing countries like Asia and students ftrom African countries might find the expenses and the fee structure too high to be maintained if they choose to study in the Australian Universities. Education strives to give equal opportunities to all the students, fee structure should be a hindrance to the students education, two students pursuing the same course should not be made to pay different charges.  It stops some of brilliant and talented students from pursuing education in Australia. Whereas, those already studying find it difficult to manage their their expenses and hence forced to opt for employment while studying.  It does not allow the students to concentrate properly on their studies, which could affect their results.

What needs to be done here is that the government should intervene in the unfair treatment of International students, they should pass a law that clearly instructs the institutions to regulate a fair fee structure that does not differentiate between the Australian students and International students, since it is not legally wrong, but ethically it is very wrong. Government Intervention might help resolve the grievances of the International students who are paying a higher tuition fees. The Institutions should also consider that the international students already have their personal expenses, on summing up their all expenses that is a huge liability on the students. It is the duty of the institutions to lighten up their burden. Another thing that the Institutions can do is provide some concessions for the students so that they it can lighten up the financial burden on students (Kaiser et al. 2014). The authorities should also offer more scholarships to the international students who are exceptionally good in the studies (Gale and Parker 2013). Government should make policies that would help the students who are not able to pay such high tuition fees. The countries from where the students belong, their home countries should help the students by offering student loans to those who are planning to study abroad. Financial barrier should not hinder the students education, they have equal rights to pursue education wherever they want to, without being discriminated (Marklein 2015).

Disadvantages of Unequal Charges for International Students

The most important thing that should be done is a strict order should be passed on the Institutions which make the education system a business, changes needs to be made for the in the laws that would restrict the Institutions from implementing two different types of fee structure in the same university (Meuleman et al 2014). The Colleges should provide accommodation facilities for the international students, this could help the students by reducing the expenses on accommodation. Cheap Hostel facilities for the International students within the college premises could help to a great extent in reducing their food and accommodation costs (Marginson 2015). Those students who desire to work while pursuing should also be given an opportunity to get an employment in the institutions, provided their studies should not be hampered. The government should also revise the student visa charges, so that it is not too much for the students to pay.

It is the shared responsibility of the Government of the Australia and the authorities of the Universities, to think for the common good of all the students, irrespective of their nationality that aspire to study in Australian universities. If they open doors for international students, they should avoid discriminating the students based on their nationality. They should consider that once the students take admission in their institutions they become the part of the institution so they should not be treated differently. All institutions have the rule of treating the students equally, maintaining two types of fee structure is nothing but discrimination. Moreover Educational Institutions should not be treated as business, if it is has objective of providing education to students irrespective of the nationality.  They should make sure that international students get equal opportunities for studies and education, just like the Australian students.  

A uniform fee structure should be formulated and implemented by the authorities of the Universities, the gap in the fee structure creates a huge gap among the national students and international students. For every institution maintaining a cultural diversity is very important, that can only be done if the fee structure is not biased and beneficial for Australian students where as a burden to the International students (Harmon 2015). But none of it can be done without the Government implementing effective regulations in this regard, the Australian students should also realize that this discriminating fee structure is very unfair for International students, they have other expenses as well as they are staying away from their country and they stay on student visa. They should come forward and stand for the international students so that the authorities take this matter very seriously. Raising voice against this serious issue, in a very peaceful manner perhaps will draw the attention of the authorities and the Government bodies. The different NGOs working for the cause of education should also come and stand for the international students, so that they can create pressure on the management of various Institutions to stop this practice. Which very discouraging for the International Students, moreover it would one day make Australia less preferred as the destination for pursuing education if the students choose to study in Universities of other countries and not Australia (Gale and Parker 2013).

References

Chapman, B. and Ryan, C., 2005. The access implications of income-contingent charges for higher education: lessons from Australia. Economics of Education Review, 24(5), pp.491-512.

Day, A., Nakata, V., Nakata, M. and Martin, G., 2015. Indigenous students' persistence in higher education in Australia: contextualising models of change from psychology to understand and aid students' practices at a cultural interface. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(3), pp.501-512.

Gale, T. and Parker, S., 2013. Widening participation in Australia in higher education.                  

Harmon, G., 2015. Australia as an higher education exporter. International Higher Education, (42).

Hazelkorn, E., 2015. Rankings and the reshaping of higher education: The battle for world-class excellence. Springer.

Jiang, K., 2014. International student flows between Asia, Australia, and Russia: a network analysis. Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia, 13(1), pp.83-98.

Kaiser, F., Maassen, P., Meek, L., van Vught, F., de Weert, E. and Goedegebuure, L. eds., 2014. Higher education policy: An international comparative perspective. Elsevier.

Marginson, S., 2015. International education in Australia: The roller coaster. International Higher Education, (68), pp.11-13.

Marklein, M.B., 2015. Legal Implications of International Students. Journal of Mason Graduate Research, 2(1), pp.13-29.

Meuleman, A.M., Garrett, R., Wrench, A. and King, S., 2015. ‘Some people might say I'm thriving but…’: non-traditional students' experiences of university. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 19(5), pp.503-517.