Vietnamese students drawn to Australian education

Updated June 8, 2010 09:52:49

The very competitive and lucrative overseas-student market pumped 18 and a half billion dollars into the Australian economy last year. Most of that money came from fees and spending on goods and services by foreign students. Vietnam is in the top six as a source country for students who come to Australia, with about 19 thousand Vietnamese currently enrolled with Australian education institutions. Negative publicity over attacks on Indian students and reported student labour exploitation, have not stopped the flow to Australia.

Presenter: Kate McPherson
Speakers: Thanh Nguyn, former student; Hang Le, President of the Melbourne Overseas Vietnamese Student Association

MCPHERSON: While China and India make up the largest portion of international students in Australia, Vietnamese students are one of the fastest growing groups.

Vietnam continues to be a popular place for Australian educational institutions to market their programs - increasing Vietnamese student numbers by almost 22 per cent between April 2009 and April this year.

Thanh Nguyn arrived in Australia in 2001 to do a Masters in multimedia at RMIT in Melbourne.

THANH NGUYN: After I finished my study I applied for permanent residency in Melbourne and I now work as an I-T developer. I'm very happy because everyone in Australia is very friendly the environment is good for study and they have good facilities for study, a good library and a good teacher.

MCPHERSON: Many students choose to study in Australia because it is cheaper than the United States or Europe.

THANH NGUYN: Most of my friends when I go back to my home, when they talk about study overseas they talk about Australia. Australian universities do good marketing in Vietnam. They set up many agencies and branches and offices in Vietnam to provide information about study in Australia.

MCPHERSON: Between July 2009 and March of this year, more than 6 and a half thousand Vietnamese students were granted visas.

Thanh Nguyn says it is an easy process to apply for a visa to Australia.

THANH NGUYN: That's right; it is easier than to go to other countries for study. For example, I applied for a visa to study in the U-K before I applied for Australia. I failed my visa to go to the U-K, so I applied for Australia - it was very simple.

MCPHERSON: Hang Le is the President of the Melbourne Overseas Vietnamese Student Association. She arrived in Australia in 2008 to study at Melbourne University.

Hang Le thinks lecturers in Australia are of a very high standard, but outside of the classroom, students face problems with housing.

HANG LE: Australia is a developed country so they expect that the housing standard would be much higher than Vietnam. But, the funny thing is that most of us, when we come here, we realise that our housing standard in Vietnam is even higher in most cases.

MCPHERSON: In order to save money, Hang says many students rent houses and convert the living room into a bedroom to fit an extra person in.

She says overseas Vietnamese students usually put up with overcrowding because education is their main focus.

Finding good paying, part-time work is also a struggle.

HANG LE: I have a friend who is studying in the U-S, and most of them can get fairly good jobs. But most of my friends here living in Melbourne, they just get low paid jobs like waiter or waitress or cleaning or selling at the markets. It's usually around 8 to 10 dollars per hour.

MCPHERSON: Low wages aside, Hang says that Australia is appealing because, overall, it is cheaper than the U-S. It is also perceived by Vietnamese students as safer.

HANG LE: And often, on the Vietnamese media in the country there is a lot of news about terrorism in the U-S.

MCPHERSON: Australia's southern state of Victoria has recently been portrayed as racist and violent in the Indian media, after the stabbing death of an Indian graduate in January and a series of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne. In the 12 months to April, the number of Indian students enrolled in educational institutions in Australia dropped almost five and a half per cent.

Hang Le says some students in Vietnam have expressed concerns over security and safety in Australia.

HANG LE: And they ask questions but the students who are studying here in Australia they say no you guys you don't have to worry much about it because they are very rare cases. And they say compared to Vietnam the situation in Australia is seen as much safer.