Jaime Wu Wiki – Jaime Wu Biography
Jaime Wu from Singapore is studying business at the University of Melbourne and ‘loves Australia’ but took to TikTok to complain about how she is treated at university and when applying for jobs and internships. A frustrated international student studying in Australia has unleashed a seething tirade highlighting some of the issues facing foreign university students.
“I’m so sick of universities treating us like cash cows,” Wu said in the video that went viral. Overseas students generally pay more for their courses than Australians, despite generating around $29 billion in overall revenue for the economy last year, according to the Bureau of Statistics.
“I’m always excited about how great Australia is and I really think it’s a very good country for international students to study here.” ‘But we are not just our money! We are real students who want to learn.’ Ms. Wu, whose course costs up to $25,000 per semester, said she often feels abandoned by the university in favor of local students. “I feel like the school doesn’t care if international students graduate or not,” Ms. Wu told Yahoo News.
International student’s furious TikTok rant went viral
She also said there was additional pressure to pass her classes due to a time limit in the country. “Local students can extend their degree, but we can’t, as our visa would have expired and we will have to pay additional costs to extend it.”
Universities have been cashing in on the international student boom with foreign enrollment in higher education nearly doubling between 2012 and 2020 to over 418,000. Most of Australia’s universities have also systematically raised fees for their courses for international students above the rate of inflation for the past seven years, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Annual raises of more than five percent targeting foreigners were common before 2020. Ms. Wu is also angry with the process for securing paid internships, saying that in her experience, companies often ignore requests for international students.
‘I get that you have to prioritize your own citizens first, really.’ “But I would really appreciate it if you said ‘I’m only looking for local students’ on job applications.” “I don’t want to spend an hour trying to write one, only to submit it and never (later) hear from someone else that they’re only hiring local students.”
‘(Employers) need to do better.’ She explained that securing an internship was a requirement in order to graduate, but she has not been able to find one despite many requests. The stress of being beaten combined with worries about graduating and ‘counting every penny’ since she arrived in another country in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis prompted the video of her.
Read Also: Who is Karina Gasparova? Wiki, Biography, Age, SUES boss for harassment after mistaking
She added that she has repeatedly raised the issue through student feedback surveys, but hasn’t heard anything. International students can work in Australia during their studies. They can also apply for a temporary postgraduate visa (subclass 485) which allows them to work freely in Australia for two years after graduating with a bachelor’s degree or up to four years for master’s or doctoral degrees.
But despite this, and despite the fact that companies are reluctant to say outright that they are looking to hire local students and graduates, experts say there is often a bias. Dean of business research at the University of South Australia Nancy Arthur said companies may view international students as less stable.
‘Employers may be confused about visa requirements and what to do. There can be misunderstandings and employers can assume it’s a difficult process,” Professor Arthur told ABC. Thanh Pham of Monash University, who researches the employability of international students, agreed.
“They assume that international students cannot stay in Australia for long and are unaware of other visa avenues, such as bridge and residency visas.” She added that international students can also be discriminated against through ‘accommodation’ culture.
‘If they don’t feel like they’ll fit in, they won’t employ them. This makes a lot of international students disappointed and confused because they say, ‘I interviewed well, I answered all the questions, and prepared well.”
They both agreed more communication between businesses employing graduates and universities was needed about the benefits of hiring foreign students. Ms. Wu said a register of companies open to hiring international students would be a great help. This along with the promotion of advocacy groups like the Council of International Students Australia was needed to ensure overseas students don’t fall through the cracks.
Note: We strive to generate original and high-quality articles. Content posted on Wikibious.com may not be republished, copied, or redistributed, in whole or in part, without acknowledgment or permission. This article is for educational purposes only and the information mentioned here may not be 100% correct. We are collecting information from our sources, if you have any problem with the item, you can tell us. Follow us on Facebook.