Doing a thread on how overseas students were screwed over by Australia& #39;s higher education "industry". This is important because Australia& #39;s int& #39;l higher ed "supply chain" is largely agent-run. So, future students need to make informed decisions using unbiased info, not propaganda
2. Keep in mind that a lot of int& #39;l students save up or go into debt (for paying tuition) to be able to study in Australia. In such a scenario, it is valuable that they get to support themselves by working part-time or as casuals.
When a large chunk of these students lost their jobs, they were forced 2 turn 2 food banks [Over 4.5 million citizens/permanent residents have meanwhile benefited from govt& #39;s welfare measures over the past 5 months]. To shut out Int& #39;l students (+temp visa holders) from these...
6. Meanwhile projections of Universities& #39; losses mounted up. When Australia should have taken this opportunity to fund higher ed as a public service, they made a conscious choice to treat it more and more as a corporate sector. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/11/universities-brace-for-huge-losses-as-foreign-students-drop-out">https://www.theguardian.com/education...
9. Which is a point I want to stress upon. Australia sells itself as a "multicultural" destination for higher ed. IT IS NOT. If things go sideways, we are all NOT in it together.
11. The rotten cherry on top is how Australia& #39;s domestic students will be treated going forward. A recent policy measure announced says that Australia will cut funding to its domestic ARTS courses and spread it out over a longer period of time to "job-oriented" courses.
Hypocritically, this was done by a govt whose cabinet is largely made up of ARTS grads. If a higher-ed sector is ready to disregard its domestic students in such a manner; as an int& #39;l student, it begs the question for you, how will you be treated when you actually get here?
12. If you& #39;re reading this, & you& #39;re WHITE and are in academia in Australia, I think the time for you to speak up has passed. The best you can do now is to vow never to helm/coordinate a study/research that commodifies this suffering already inflicted. We will be watching you.
This is not for you to build academic capital over.
.
13. And, If you& #39;re a student overseas, thinking of coming to Australia to pursue higher-ed., my advice is - DON& #39;T.
Going to close this thread for good with this speech by @JacquiLambie:
Haven& #39;t cried this much in a while. https://twitter.com/JacquiLambie/status/1313949072559013888?s=20">https://twitter.com/JacquiLam...
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