Mr Sostenis Pasang1, Mr Brett Lyon1
1International Student Sydney NSW
In 2017 the Australian Embassy in Indonesia confirmed that ‘the number of Indonesian students choosing to study in Australian higher education institutions has increased by more than eight per cent…with one in four students who study at university overseas choosing Australia.” (Australian Embassy Indonesia, 2017)
“Enrolments from Indonesia across all Australian education institutions – from universities to vocational training centres – reached more than 20,000 in the year to June as more Indonesian families recognised Australia as being close, affordable and safe, with world-class universities,” Ambassador Grigson said (Australian Embassy Indonesia, 2017)
This presentation will discuss an internship project that aims to better understand information seeking behaviour of Indonesian students. Coming from different backgrounds and experiences, the authors shared their insights and observations on the trending topics pertaining to international student life in Australia. Sexual Health, Mental Health and Workplace Rights are current concerns for those working with all International students and thus became the focus of the study.
An informal anonymous survey was developed in May 2018 and was distributed to international Indonesian students throughout Australia primarily through social media.
Ten closed-ended questions relating to wellbeing issues were asked to find out about their awareness of the current concerns and how they might access services should they have concerns pertaining to these issues. The survey will be finalised in November 2018 and the results of this survey will be presented to provide a better picture of this student cohort to stakeholders such as student advisors. This information will enable the development of better tailored approaches to address students’ behaviours towards the issues, and how best to promote relevant services and resources.
Biography:
Sostenis Pasang is a student from Indonesia, currently undertaking postgraduate studies (masters by coursework) at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia. He commenced the Combined Masters of Arts and Social Sciences specialising in Educational Leadership and TESOL in February 2017. He is on leave from his position of School Principal at Sekolah Papua Harapan in Jayapura, West Papua, Indonesia. He will return to Jayapura at the end of 2018 and plan to implement several key plans, a particular interest of his focus is on providing high quality education by working with the foundation and the government of Papua to improve educational services there, especially the remote areas. He is a recipient of an Australia Awards Scholarship funded by the Australian Government. As an Australia Awards awardee, besides his academic duties at university, he has been involved in several award-enrichment activities such as participating in workshops and seminars organised by Australia Awards.
Brett J Lyon has more than 20 years in education. He spent his early career teaching primary school and English in Australia, Britain and Switzerland in the International School system. Since then he has been a deputy head teacher, project manager, curriculum and course developer, policy writer, student services manager, assistant registrar and is currently quality and compliance manager for a non-profit RTO. He has worked in early childhood, primary, vocational and higher education as well as for the NSW state government in learning and development. Brett completed his Masters in Education in 2015 and recently a Diploma in Marketing. Brett is very active in social media and uses this to support students online and build supportive communities. Brett commenced as National Communications Manager in 2015.