UOW and City Council join forces to assist international students

Dec 12, 2006

International students, who provide a valuable cultural and economic contribution to the University of Wollongong and surrounding community, are keen to build friendships but often find it difficult to do so.

Recent research carried out with international students has shown that they want to integrate easily into the communities in which they live while they study in Australia. International students currently make up about 23 per cent of the student population in Wollongong.

In a study on international students carried out in 2005, UOW researchers Associate Professor Peter Kell and Dr Gillian Vogl from the Faculty of Education found that there was an important link between international students' level of English language proficiency and their social and cultural adjustment to life in Australia.

The researchers were told that it is not only members of the University but also others in the broader Wollongong community who play an important role in facilitating this adjustment. The researchers recommended that community organisations and local businesses should be involved in helping to provide opportunities for students to be exposed to "authentic local" Australian experiences.

These findings are now being put into place through a project that is being jointly funded by UOW's Community and Partnerships Office and UOW's Internationalisation Committee.

Dr Vogl, Professor Kell and Wollongong City Council are working alongside representatives from social, religious, community and business organisations to explore ways for international students to feel a greater sense of belonging in the Wollongong community.

A community working group has been formed that comprises international and domestic student representatives; Les Dion, who is the director of Dion's bus service and Junior Vice-President of Illawarra Business Chamber; Rebecca Perkins, marketing manager of Wollongong Central; community representatives from the Illawarra Ethnic Communities Council; Illawarra Multicultural Services; Volunteering Illawarra; the Community Relations Commission and representatives from Hope Church and Rotary.

This project also has the support of Barry Wood of the Illawarra Connection who has offered to keep his business members informed of the project.

The community working group committee is meeting once a month at Wollongong City Council over the next seven months to implement a project that responds to some of the adjustment issues that international students face in living in the Illawarra.

The project is intended to complement and enhance programs that already exist in the Wollongong area such as the Illawarra Committee for Internationals Students' Friendship program and Momentum, a program organised by the Wollongong University Postgraduate Association.

If community residents or any other groups would like to get involved in the community working group, they can e-mail Gillian at: gillian@uow.edu.au