Nations act over safety of overseas nationals
Countries with large numbers of international students are finally paying attention to safety concerns after avoiding the issue out of fear they might scare away potential business, according to a working paper to be published on Monday.
The US, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Russia are discussing how to ensure international students' safety following reports that they had been attacked, robbed and exploited, Australian academic Chris Nyland writes in his paper, 'The International Student Safety Debate: Moving Beyond Denial'.
The professor of international business at Australia's Monash University says that although a safe environment is an asset in the international education market, until recently there has been little debate about how to ensure students' safety.
'This has been primarily because the safety issue has been deemed a topic to be avoided lest discussion undermine the growth in student numbers,' he said.
This situation, he writes, is now in 'rapid transition', with the leaders of the education export sector in an increasing number of nations accepting the need to focus on international students' safety. Professor Nyland writes that while Russia, the US, New Zealand and Britain began to prioritise international student safety in 2005, Australia began responding only late this year despite regular reports of exploitation and threats to the students' safety.