Hossain is one of the hundreds of international students who have had a terrible start to their stay in Sydney as a projected record influx is expected to coincide with the twin challenges of a rental crisis and restrictions on working hours. There are fears this will result in the return of illegal housing,over-crowded rooms and “hot-bedding”,where multiple students share one bed on a roster.
“I am from Bangladesh and it is well known as a third-world country,” Hossain said after landing in Sydney this month. “But the place I’m currently staying is a thousand times worse than Bangladesh. After two days of long flights,I was hoping to get a good night’s sleep,only to end up in a bed full of mites.”
When Anna,who asked for her name to be withheld,moved to Australia in 2019 as an international student at 17,she spent her first few weeks living in a homestay. Once she turned 18 she shared her first apartment in Haymarket with 12 people – four people per room in bunk beds. It cost her $180 a week.
“We couldn’t really open up the blinds because the building management would sometimes fly drones to see how many people were living there because that building is known for people leasing it out for more than it’s allowed.”
A in 2019 found a quarter were sharing a bedroom with another person (who wasn’t their partner),and 3 per cent were hot-bedding.
As international student numbers return to pre-pandemic levels,Sean Stimson,a solicitor from Redfern Legal Centre,believes universities and government have a responsibility to set up guaranteed and affordable accommodation during at least their first semester. Most international students,like Hossain,have their worst experiences within the first few weeks of landing.
“There’s almost this scrambling type of effect that happens for international students where,understandably,they take whatever they can take because they need a roof over their head. And they may be placing themselves in a less-than-desirable position,” Stimson said.
How we got here
Travel restrictions as a result of the pandemic laid bare major universities’ reliance on international students as a source of income.
International students contributed $3.1 billion of the $5.8 billion NSW universities made from student fees and charges in 2021,the NSW Audit Office reported.
Although universities have become less reliant on international students than they were before 2020,Andrew Norton,the Australian National University’s professor in the practice of higher education policy,said the University of Sydney was an exception.
Overseas undergraduate enrolments at Sydney University grew by almost 3500 in 2021,faster than its nearly 1500 enrolment growth in domestic students in the same year.
Forty-four per cent of Sydney University’s cohort in 2021 were international students,whose course fees are often higher than their domestic counterparts. International students pay about $48,000 a year for an undergraduate business degree,compared to a $15,142 contribution for local students. As a result,income from overseas students made up 38 per cent of Sydney University’s operating revenue and 77 per cent of its income from all students.
For its part,Sydney University says the benefits from its reliance on international students “go far beyond the obvious boost to our economy and funding for education and research”.
The dependence on international students has also converged over time. About 43 per cent of university revenue from course fees came from three countries in 2021,and Chinese students represented more than half of all overseas student enrolments. The audit office said this posed a “concentration risk” for NSW universities.
Norton said universities’ reliance on international students was risky,but it was an enticing source of revenue to fund research. “Yes it is risky but,from the universities’ point of view,why would they forgo millions of dollars?” he said.
“International students provide income to support research activities,which is the principal reason universities are so aggressive in that market.”
Stimson warned:“If the government and universities want to reap the benefit of the revenue that is generated,I think they need to do a little bit more to actually protect those students,so[Australia remains] a desirable destination.”
The threat of wage theft
For Anna,now 21,her first job in Kingsford paid just $15 an hour,cash. “I think a lot of people[international students] just accept the fact that your first job is going to be underpaid,and it’s going to be cash in hand.”
Wage theft occurs when employers pay below the minimum wage in cash to avoid scrutiny. Fewer than half of international students report it,fearing they will lose their work or,worse,their visas.
In a,the Migrant Justice Institute found 77 per cent of students were paid below the minimum casual wage – and 26 per cent were paid $12 an hour or less. Sixty-two per cent of students do not report it.
The report found the best way to end wage theft was “to remove the 40-hour fortnightly work condition on student visas that gives rise to their vulnerability and related fear of visa cancellation”.
The institute’s co-executive director,Associate Professor Bassina Farbenblum,said while the turmoil of the past three years had made it difficult to survey students overseas,she expected the problems to be the same now students have returned to campus.
“Nothing has actually changed since then,” she said. “There’s no reason to believe that any of those practices will have improved over that time.”
Fang worked as a receptionist in a 24-hour business well beyond the legal hours.Joe Armao
Under an arrangement between the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Department of Home Affairs,visa holders can report mistreatment to the ombudsman without fear of visa cancellation,even if they’ve breached their visa conditions.
But fewer than 200 international students have taken advantage of the amnesty and,when they do,there is no guarantee they will receive visa protection.
Fang,who requested anonymity for fear of losing her visa,sought assistance from the Employment Rights Legal Service and complained to the ombudsman after she discovered the $10-an-hour base rate she was being paid for a receptionist job was illegal. She moved to Australia in 2018 to study law but needed to work more than 40 hours a fortnight after losing financial support from her family back in China.
She believed reporting the wage theft would mean she wouldn’t get in trouble. But Fang said Fair Work told her they couldn’t prove she was a victim of wage theft because she was paid by cash and couldn’t provide payslips as evidence,therefore she was not eligible for protection.
“I was angry,shocked and felt let down,for sure,” she said. “Without Fair Work’s help,my visa status could be in danger if my previous employer noticed my underpayment claim and reported me to the Department of Home Affairs.”
A spokesperson for the Fair Work Ombudsman said they were unable to comment on the individual matter.
But the Migrant Justice Institute wants reform,to provide stronger protections from visa cancellation for migrant workers who take action against their employer,including a short-term visa with working rights while they pursue a claim.
Farbenblum said the ombudsman was not providing adequate safeguards for international students to come forward.
“Whatever penalties are put in place,if international students are too scared to come forward because they think it will affect their visa – nothing’s going to work.”
The Fair Work spokesperson said that although language barriers and fear of losing their visas could prevent migrant workers from seeking help,the ombudsman only provided information to Home Affairs with the informed consent of the worker.
Natasya Zahra,an Indonesian national who studied at the University of Sydney,said it was difficult to strike a balance between financial security and studying well.
“I feel that these two challenges are further exacerbated if you’re not financially well off,” Zahra said. “There’s always this stereotype where we’re this Hypebeast-wearing,old money type of community,so domestic students often find themselves surprised when they hear that some of us are actually struggling.
“The threat of being deported is always on our minds.”
Kartika Dilip Kharat,a master’s student at Macquarie University from Mumbai,said education was her priority,but she’s worried about earning less due to the return of a cap on working hours.
Although education is her priority,Kartika Dilip Kharat is concerned that the government re-instating a cap on working hours for international students could make it harder for her to afford to live in Sydney.Nick Moir
“Sydney is quite an expensive place to be,” Kharat said. “I feel like it was really good to have a bit of an extension when it came to work hours,to pay for your tuition fee and the rent and everything else. I would prefer to work as much as possible.”
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Education Minister Jason Clare announced the cap would be expanded to 48 hours of work per fortnight rather than the pre-pandemic restriction of 40. Kharat said the extra eight hours a fortnight did not make a huge difference.
“I believe having no restrictions does help international students to pay their expenses and feel less stressed during their education,” she said.
Former managing director of The Cheesecake Shop franchise Ken Rosebery wrote to the Senate’s economics reference committee a year ago,arguing the cap on working hours should be removed permanently. He said the restriction created an incentive for workers on student visas to breach their visa conditions and potentially mislead their employers in order to earn enough money to support themselves.
He said the regulations were unnecessarily complicated and should be abolished.
“What’s the government doing in the business of trying to determine what the appropriate hours of work are for a student? They don’t do it for domestic students,” he said. “It seems like you’re punishing both the foreign students and the employers for no particular gain.”
Private colleges enjoying less regulation
Students forking out thousands to study at private educational colleges also face challenges.
The Overseas Students Ombudsman received almost 6000 complaints from students enrolled in private education colleges over the three-and-a-half years to June 2022.
Students mostly complained about fees and refunds. The ombudsman found in 40 per cent of resolved cases,education providers had “failed to substantially meet their responsibilities”.
Students complained that providers failed to give refunds when they were forced to return to their home countries at the beginning of the pandemic,and many classes were cancelled or moved online.
The Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000,which governs the conduct of the private sector,only requires education providers to refund students for “unspent” tuition fees if the provider shuts down. Refunds are based on a weekly average fee – so if a provider shuts down a week before the end of term,students are only eligible for a week’s refund,despite receiving zero qualifications.
Language barriers and adequate support
“I know a lot of my peers struggled in our first year because of the course expectations that were sometimes quite different to what we were used to before,” said Zahra,who joined the Indonesian Students Association at the University of Sydney and made a directory of student support services for fellow international students.
“I wasn’t informed well by my faculty and peers about the different types of support you can get from campus like deadline extensions,counselling,and disability support and I sort of had to figure it all out by myself.”
Zahra said students came to Australia for quality education and freedom of thought,but living conditions,financial pressures and language barriers led to a very different university experience compared to their domestic classmates.
“Seeing the prices for international students and domestic students side by side always leaves a bad taste in my mouth … sometimes the discourse surrounding international students in the policy landscape dehumanises us and treats us only as commodities,” Zahra said.
“I feel like studying and living are almost two separate experiences in Australia.”
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