By Chow Pei Qian

ALWAYS thought that being an international student meant becoming a mere transient figure in a foreign land?

Never imagined that your views would matter to the government of your host country?

Think again!

On July 27, Federal Minister for Education and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard invited all international students in Australia to apply for the International Student Roundtable.

The Roundtable aimed to provide international students with the opportunity to communicate their experiences and suggestions to the Australian government directly, to enhance the quality of Australian international education.

As many as 1,300 applications were submitted to the 'Study in Australia' website; from that number, 31 from 16 countries including Sweden, Indonesia, Ireland and Nepal were selected. I was honoured to be the only voice for Singapore and the Australian state in which I was based - the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

On Sept 14 and 15, we met at the Parliament House in the capital Canberra. I was armed with a well-researched list of current policies and issues affecting international students, based on discussions with fellow international students.

They raised issues such as the lack of social inclusion in universities and inconsistencies in transport concessions across various states. Also, insufficient measures to ensure safety, citing a spate of attacks against Indian students in Australia.

Personally, I urged the government to implement measures to keep in check employers who exploit international students, and establish a permanent one-stop body facilitating communication between international students and the authorities, including providing the former with information on visas and school fees and a feedback channel.

But I had my reservations.

Could our views make any impact at all? Was the government actually prepared to take on board what we said?

As if to placate our doubts, the government later announced that key suggestions brought up at the Roundtable would be consolidated in a communique to be presented to the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment.

That was two weeks ago and, hopefully, concrete policy changes will emerge.

This experience meant much to me - it was a chance to have our voices heard. For me, it was a strong impetus to continue contributing to the wider student community in Australia.

I hope to collaborate with other international student leaders in the ACT and the local ACT government to establish an ACT international student body and, where possible, work with other Roundtable participants in future.

So much for the long-standing myth of the international student being merely a transient figure.

The writer, 20, is a second-year law and music student at the Australian National University.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.