National sex education policy needed for overseas students
Updated
Researchers are calling for a national sex education strategy for international students coming to Australia.
A University of Adelaide study, prompted by a high abortion rate among Chinese students, revealed an alarming lack of sexual knowledge and found that overseas students had little idea about where to go for help and advice.
Presenter: Richard Ewart
Speakers: Professor Nigel Stocks, University of Adelaide; Jill Michelson, Marie Stopes International; Chester Tan, Chinese Students Association, University of NSW
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EWART: The University of Adelaide researchers questioned four groups of female students from China and Malaysia about their knowledge of and attitudes to sex.
They found that the students were more likely to become sexually active in Australia, even though they lacked the knowledge to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy.
Co-investigator Professor Nigel Stocks says the idea of going to a doctor for help and advice had never occured to them.
STOCKS: They didn't quite understand the role of general practitioners in Australia for instance, and that this help was available to them, and as all of them have to take out private health insurance to cover this, then it seems a real pity that they're not accessing sources of information, because they do not understand the role of general practitioners.
EWART:Professor Stocks says it's clear there is a lack of sexual education in students' home countries, but also an eagerness for culturally sensitive sexual education while in Australia.
And by accepting the students, he says Australia has a responsibility to look after them.
STOCKS: They're quite young and this may be the first time that they've lived away from home and they need more guidance, and I think there is a duty of care on the universities, the education system and also government, to provide some additional services to mitigate the effects of this transition from one country to another, so that they don't run into problems and cost both the healthcare system and themselves, more than it should.
EWART:The non-government organisation, Marie Stopes International, offers family planning and reproductive health care advice among its many services.
National clinical advisor, Jill Michelson, says it's vital that schools and universities step in and help vulnerable foreign students.
MICHELSON: They're thrown into a situation that they haven't been in before, they're away from their families, they're mixing with other students for the first time. They've got a degree of freedom I suppose, as well as a degree of uncertainty in that that they're not knowing what they're doing. .
EWART:Chester Tan is president of the Chinese Students' Association at the University of New South Wales.
He says sex education in China is very basic and information in Australia in a formal setting is also hard to come by, so overseas students tend to glean their knowledge from networking sites online.
CHESTER: I think it's the very last knowledge or information for international students because there's nobody in charge for the overseas. (students) The best way is on the Internet, a lot of students use (sites) like Facebook to provide some of the information.
EWART:But to be most effective, Nigel Stocks says it's important that information and advice is made available on a consistent and nationwide basis.
STOCKS:Australia benefits greatly from having all these international students here, and I think that rather than just leave it up to individual institutions, there should be some sort of national program to provide appropriate information and education for students, so that they can adapt to the Australian environment.
MICHELSON: Certainly a number of these students have had virtually no sexual health education and so they're quite ignorant of the issues, which is very sad. We need to really assist these students as soon as they get into the country.
EWART:And Jill Michelson agrees that a national strategy is the way forward, but if it's to succeed, she says it must be culturally sensitive.
MICHELSON: I think it would be a good solution because there are a lot of other international schools besides the universities that are taking these international students in now. So we really need to get to all the international schools and ensure that they have some very good orientation for their students, and it is done by people who understand the cultural issues for these particular students, and can perhaps convince them of the necessity of this education.
EWART:The Internet is certainly one way of getting information to the students, with many of them telling the Adelaide researchers that's where they would go in the first instance.
Marie Stopes International is one of a number of organisations that offers advice in translation on its website.
And Chester Tan at the University of New South Wales says students are most likely to get their information from the Net because there is still a reluctance to talk openly about sexual matters.
CHESTER: We normally don't talk about it during the day with friends, because it's hidden stuff for Chinese people, not too much open for older people. Sometimes as students we talk to friends, just a little bit.
EWART:Nigel Stocks says older students may have a mentoring role to play in getting information across about a subject which can still be taboo in many countries.
STOCKS: Some groups have been very much opposed to giving information that might lead young people down the path to sexual activity. But it's been repeatedly shown in research that the more knowledgeable young people are, the less likely they are to get pregnant and to get sexually transmitted infections. So I think as an educationalist myself, I would have to come down on the side that the more education the better.
