Melbourne City Council's draft International student strategy

The City of Melbourne is a council which covers the CBD and Inner city suburbs like Kensington, West, South and East Melbourne.

The aim is for a better Melbourne for International students

About 30000 students in one day; studying working, playing and living there. Melbourne has changed a lot during the years. Six years ago Melbourne didn't have as many Asian eateries. But now it has so many.

Likes about Melbourne

International student love the culture and diversity here. Over the years the culture and diversity has changed so much

Dislikes about Melbourne

Costs are really high, particularly rent

Transport- there is no concession for students on public transport.

Safety was always a concern

 Housing was very difficult to find in Melbourne and with limited budgets students couldn't afford to live in the city hence many moved to cheaper suburbs which is far far away.

What is COM going to do about these?

Here are the goals that City of Melbourne is thinking of doing. The full draft strategy can be found here

Goals:

Goal 1: Research and Consultation

1. Conduct and participate in research projects that will inform City of Melbourne’s internal strategies and programs, and assist us to inform and advise other levels of government, education providers and services, on issues such as transport concession, housing affordability and quality and student well-being.
2. Explore opportunities with local government and education providers to develop responses to enhance students’ wellbeing, housing access and affordability and employment opportunities
3. Research and identify ways that international students can connect with other students, families and communities to reduce social isolation and enhance connections and inclusion.

Goal 2: Partnership and Collaboration

Melbourne has some of the best partnerships in the world. One of the major ones is China and Japan. This year RMIT Japan club as they have done in recent years has spent some time with the Japanese students from Japan.
Create opportunities for council, students and stakeholders to engage

Goal 3: Knowledge and Innovation

This one is about knowledge. Melbourne is a knowledge city and CoM is wants it to be for the next few years. Through this they plan to include more International students in events and their council programs as well as have a virtual careers fair.

Goal 4: Promoting Diversity

This is all about promoting Multiculturalism. This year there were so many multicultural events to make students fell right at home.
Implement the Retail strategy for  2013-2017 which can be found here. 
Support International students through community grants. 
The Lord Mayors event was a great event and they plan on having more of this sort of event

Goal 5: A Destination of Choice

This video promotes Melbourne as a destination of choice. CoM wants to foster relationships between education providers and overseas governments as well as work with the International education sector to improve the economy.

Wanna have you say?

Visit this site. They have an online survey as well as many face to face forums. The online survey closes on the 31/10/2013 at 5pm.