In a competitive international education market, the opportunity to gain post-study work experience in the host country is one of the key drivers of international students' decision making and critical to education export, especially in top destination countries, such as Australia, Canada, the UK and US. Understanding the impacts of poststudy work for international graduates is crucial for both host countries' international student recruitment and employment agendas and their ethical commitment to delivering on promise to the international cohort. Drawing on analysis of government policies and in-depth interview data, this study provides evidence about the effects of the post-study work policy in Australia. The overarching view from international graduates indicates that the temporary graduate visa does not seem to provide them with a competitive advantage in the Australian labour market as employers either are unclear about this visa or hesitate to recruit those on this visa. However, the visa brings multiple side benefits, including the chance to round off their employability skills, improve their English proficiency, and get a return on investment in overseas study. Many international graduates see the post-study work visa as a pathway to permanent residency despite the fact that visa reforms have broken the direct education-migration pathway.
In earlier times, the postal service made learning-at-a-distance possible by 'correspondence', particularly in remote areas of Australia. Advances in radio communications made it easier and the interactivity more immediate. Television sets and later video cassette and DVD players and recorders made it more visual. The telephone provided a tool of communication for teachers and learners; the best of them understood that most people were both at different times. Then simple low bandwidth tools like email and web browsing provided new ways for students, teachers and their institutions to communicate and distribute and share information. Learning management systems like Blackboard have been widely deployed through the education sector. Information that was once housed in libraries is now available online and social media platforms are providing new ways for students to collaborate. Ubiquitous, faster broadband and mobile access via smartphones and tablets promise further transformations.At the Institute for the Broadband Society's annual symposium in late October 2012, the University of Melbourne's director of eLearning, Gregor Kennedy, identified three features of the contemporary university environment that make communications especially important: students spend less time on campus but more time online; the student population is bigger and more diverse; and educational researchers are encouraging teachers to move away from lectures as a primary teaching tool. Within this environment, the last year or so has seen what Kennedy calls the 'small explosion' of 'MOOCs', 'massive open online courses' run by organisations like Coursera and edX. Coursera was formed a few months ago with original partners including Princeton, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, and recently added others, including Brown and Columbia Universities, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and
LEARNING FAST BROADBAND AND THE FUTURE OF EDUCATIONTELECOMMUNICATIONS JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIA, VOLUME 62, NUMBER 5, 2012 SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
______Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of Melbourne. Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Minister Stephen Conroy recently warned: "universities know if they don't act now they will become irrelevant".So what should educational institutions do? Kennedy argues they should try to make smarter use of technology to promote faster, more convenient and widespread access to education, to promote genuine engagement and to do things they couldn't otherwise do.There are many possibilities. To promote faster, more convenient and widespread access to education, experts can teach classes from a distance. An expert scientist can teach a high school class, or an eminent professor can take a guest lecture. Regional and remote communities can be helped to overcome specialist teacher shortages and be given access to specialist facilities such as ScienceWorks in Victoria that are typically located in or near major cities. 'Anywhere, anytime learning' can help people fit stu...
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