Scholars who analyse the policies that provide for the rights of international students have tended to focus on challenges posed by racism, discrimination and unjustified stereotyping. This discussion has focussed overwhelmingly on the higher education sector but recently has begun to be extended to vocational and training education (VET). We…

This case study aims to contribute some understanding as to why a research oriented university with many thousands of full-fee paying international students was believed not to provide adequate funds for international student support services. Drawing on Bourdieu's notions of fields of power and disciplinary hierarchy, we suggest that the…

"International student security" refers to the international student's maintenance of a stable capacity for self-determining human agency. The article focuses on the role of English-language proficiency in the security of students from English as Foreign Language countries, drawing on evidence from a program of semistructured interviews…

In Australia, all vocational education and training (VET) qualifications must be based on competency-based training (CBT) and training packages. Yet, since 2005, there has been a major expansion in the number of VET international students in Australia, 85% of whom are from Asia. Given this development, the teaching and learning contexts in which…

International VET students have divergent, shifting and in some cases multiple purposes for undertaking their VET courses. Students' motives may be instrumental and/or intrinsic and can include obtaining permanent residency, accumulating skills that can secure good employment, gaining a foothold that leads to higher education, and/or personal…

Student security is a composite social practice that includes the domains of consumer rights, entitlement to a range of welfare supports and pastoral care, and freedom from exploitation and discrimination. Three traditions shape the systems used for managing and regulating international student security in the nations that export education:…

The omission of international students from the Australian Vice-Chancellor's Committee (AVCC) 2007 national study on student finances is indicative of a pattern of exclusion. The exclusion is unacceptable from a humane perspective and feeds the belief that Australians perceive international students primarily as "cash cows". This study…

Security is an integral component of the relationships that shape the lives of students hosted by foreign countries. International student security became a source of contention between nations in 2008 when China's Government charged that Australia was failing to adequately provide for the safety of Chinese students. We discuss Beck's theorisation…

In the period immediately preceding the 2007 Australian election, much attention was accorded to the impact of the nation's labour laws on vulnerable employees. This debate centred on specific groups including women, youth, migrants and workers on individual employment contracts. International students, by contrast, were ignored in the debate.…

In a study of international student security, consisting of 200 intensive interviews with students, resident onshore in Australia, it was found that two thirds of the group had experienced problems of loneliness and/or isolation, especially in the early months. According to Weiss, students experience both "personal loneliness" because of…

International education has generated complex problems of governance. As well as being beneficiaries of educational services and consumers of a product, international students are also migrants, workers and beings with civil rights. Arguably, the regulation of international student security as consumer protection fails to recognize this full range…

The notion of "security" is an elusive concept that attracts varying interpretations. In this article, the authors adopt a definition that views security as a broadly applicable term that encompasses physical, social, and economic dimensions that relate to human rights, cultural difference, and relocation. The approach embraces the…