The huge numbers of Chinese students in Australia dominate a number of popular finance and business courses offered by metropolitan colleges and universities. In some courses, more than 80% of students are international students, especially Chinese students.
The imbalance is a cause for concern because it limits students` chances of knowing Australian students and improving their English skills and could lead to dissatisfaction with expensive foreign degrees.
In April, a Chinese girl named Daisy vented her grievances on Weibo. "there are so many Chinese students. All the group discussions are in Chinese and you still have to go out with the Chinese after class. " She wrote. "what`s the difference between staying in China and studying in China? Only fresh air and expensive prices remind me of myself in Australia. I can`t feel the richness of any foreign culture. This makes me wonder: what`s the point of studying abroad? "
On China question and answer website Zhihu, Chinese students said that the quality of Australian universities had been "reduced" because of the large number of Chinese students, especially business schools. A Chinese student named MiziMiziN complained two years ago: "as a student in Australia for two years, I can assure you that business schools have always been dominated by Chinese students. Although you can still learn something, 80% is useless. "
The imbalance may be a problem in the university`s curriculum, says Chapman (Steve Chapman), president of (Edith Cowan University) at Idrisovan University. "if you go to a university that offers business courses, 80% of the students are Chinese, and that`s not good for the rest of the class, because of poor diversity, and it`s bad for Chinese students, because they go abroad to gain international experience," he said. But it turned out only to be with my fellow countrymen. " "it`s something a university can manage, because it`s a matter of individual courses, not of a university," he said.
Twenty percent of the school`s students are international students, but scattered, so there is no overwhelming majority of Chinese students in individual courses.
Martin (Fran Martin) of the University of Melbourne, who is studying the lives of 56 Chinese women studying in Australia, found that the vast majority of respondents struggle to make friends with non-Chinese people, and social isolation is a common problem.
"they are concentrated in some cities, in certain courses," she said. "I listened to the students` own estimates, as well as the estimates of the faculty and staff, and about 8 to 9 percent of the students in some master`s programs are Chinese. So it`s hard for them to get to know any local people in this situation. "
(Robert Brooks) Brooks, interim director of the School of Business and Economics at Monash University, says China is the biggest source of international students. "our graduate program has proved very attractive to international students." He said。
According to figures released by (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), an international authority, the Masters of Business programmes in Monash in 2016-17 averaged 81.95 percent of students studying abroad, compared with 18.05 percent of local students.
Brooks explained that the dominance of international students in some courses meant the school was focused on helping international students integrate and make full use of university life. The school now offers a variety of courses and joint activities for international students: career development courses, academic skills development courses and internship courses, which combine students of different majors to help them meet and collaborate with different groups of people.
According to the association`s 2016-17 data, 80.12 percent of the Masters enrolled by Adelaide`s Business School are international students. But Dean Findlay (Christopher Findlay) said even so, the school also provides the "Australian experience."
