2010 International Students Forum

About the 2010 International Students Forum

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) and the National Union of Students (NUS) are pleased to announce details of the 2nd Annual International Students’ Forum, which will take place at the University of Tasmania Hobart from the 4th-7th of July 2010.

The Forum will host workshops, presentations and discussions with guest speakers from education providers, other international education industry stakeholders and Government. These sessions will address issues faced by international students, and invite discussion on how stakeholders can get involved in improving the welfare of international students and the international student experience in Australia.

The event will also see the Inaugural General Meeting of a new National Organisation of International Students, a democratically elected body will the representative voice for all international students across Australia. 

The Forum represents a unique opportunity for all international students to come together with the strength of a united voice. In this way we will be able to make change happen - and together, We Can!

For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact:

• Tammi Jonas, CAPA National President at president@capa.edu.au or 0422 429 362
• CAPA's National International Student Officers Rohani Mohamad, rohani@capa.edu.au or Cham Thuy Ha, cham@capa.edu.au.
• Lily Yuen, NUS International Student Officer at international@nus.asn.au or 0411 097 316

Support to attend

Support from your institution

Universities have an interest in active and effective international student representation.  If you are interested in attending the forum, you should contact your university Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor International or international student services unit to seek their support to attend. 

You may want to send them a letter or an email outlining the following:

• offer a brief overview of the program, highlighting any specific items of interest
• emphasise for them the importance of a representative and well informed international student voice
• tell them how attending this forum will contribute to your capacity to inform international student issues at your institution
• highlight for them how this will raise the profile of your university
• Make it clear that this will reflect their commitment to improvements for international students   

In many cases, if you make a convincing case they will be able to cover ALL of your costs, including registration, travel and accommodation.

Other support

As one of the aims of the forum is to support participation from as diverse a group of international students as possible, a small number of grants are also available to support participation in the Forum.   

If you would like to attend the forum, but are unable to secure funding from any other source to support your attendance, you can submit a funding support application, available via "related links" at the bottom of this page.

Successful applicants will be eligible to have the following expenses waived or reimbursed:

• Registration fee (the $75 registration fee would be waived)
• Flight costs (a proportion of your flight costs will be reimbursed following the conference)
• Other costs (other costs, such as accommodation, may be reimbursed depending on funding availability)

Background: the 2009 International Students Forum

In July 2009, in response to crisis of legitimate International Student representation in the absence of a democratically elected National Liaison Committee (NLC), NUS and CAPA convened a forum of international student representatives from their respective member organisations, as well as representatives from other International Student Organisations, to discuss the future of International Student representation in Australia.

The forum concluded that there was an urgent need for democratic international representation be restored in Australia, and Working Groups were convened to:

1. Make recommendations to NUS on the constitutional framework by which an International Student Officer may be elected to NUS.
2. Establish guidelines by which a National International Student Voice can be re-established in Australia, and the framework of future annual International Student Forums.

Recommendations were put forward by the first working group and NUS Conference elected an International Student Officer in January 2010.

The second group, Chaired by Tammi Jonas, distributed a discussion paper on October 25 2009, inviting responses from international student representatives from across Australia by 16 November 2009.

In April 2010, the Council of Australian Governments announced that "an international student consultative committee will be established to give international students a national forum to put forward their views on issues affecting their study and living experience in Australia"  NUS and CAPA strongly believes that a democratically representative student body should be represented on the committee, and the new international student organisation that will be set up, through a year long consultative process with student representatives from across Australia would best serve this purpose.

In 2010, NUS & CAPA once again calls on their member organisations and constituents to make resources available for their campus international student representatives to attend the 2nd NUS - CAPA International Students Forum.

The International Student Representation in Australia Working Group (formed at the 2009 International Students' Forum) will be facilitating consideration of a draft constitution, regulations, and the structure for the new representative body, leading to an inaugural general meeting and election of representatives for the new body on the last day of the conference (July 7th, 2010).

New Beginnings: Theme for 2010 International Students Forum

New Beginnings has been chosen as the theme for the 2010 International Students Forum, in recognition of:

1. the creation of a new International Student representative body;
2. the restructure of various Government departments involved with the International Education portfolio;
3. the establishment of TEQSA; and
4. the implementation of outcomes from the Baird Review of the ESOS Act and the new regulatory regime for education providers. 

1. Provide a forum where International Student Representatives from campuses across Australia may be able to network and share skills required to perform in their respective roles.
2. Provide opportunities for International Student Representatives from campuses across Australia to learn about current trends in Australian International Education Policy, and interact with representatives from Government and Industry.
3. Establish a framework for future National International Student representation.
4. Draft, discuss and endorse policy for the newly established International Student representative body
5. Elect inaugural members to the National International Student representative body.

***   Download the international student representation Discussion Paper   ***

Postgraduates wishing to attend should contact Katya Pechenkina at katya@capa.edu.au or 03 9650 7666. 

For other registration payment details please contact:
Adrian Wong isd@nus.asn.au This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Leanne Hill admin@nus.asn.au This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 03 9650 8908.