Kumamoto Earthquakes devastates students in Melbourne

Last month there was a huge earthquake in Kumamoto and students are worried about family back home in Japan. We explain the huge devastation.

Earthquake damage. Photo by Wikimedia Commons

About 41 people died in this terrible tragedy and more were injured. Many houses and business were destroyed. Many people had become homeless because of this. Students in Melbourne are worried about family back home. It was a magnitude of 7.0. Some students could not sleep upon hearing the news and some were depressed and had to go home for the funeral.

One student had to send lots of money back home to support his parents who are doing it tough.

Fundraising efforts in Melbourne
Much has been done to raise money for the earthquakes but there was a luncheon on Sunday the 29th of May to raise money.

There have also been some Zumba classes to raise money for Kumamoto.

Students if you are depressed or sad do contact your university's counselling service as they are there for you in times of need. And don't forget that if you need special consideration, do apply for it at your uni.

Malaysian student allegedly spends more than she can afford

A Malaysian student spends more money than she can afford. Christina Jiaxin Lee (21 years old)  is from USyd in Sydney and was preparing to go home to Malaysia when she was caught by the authorities. We explain here

She was charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime which she knew that it was a huge glitch by Westpac.

Christina is an International student studying Chemical Engineering in USyd.

Christina. Image courtesy of smh.com.au

Christina had $4.6 million in overdraft by Westpac. This was accidental and she claimed that her parents gave her that money. But in actual fact this was Westpac's fault (as it was a banking error) and she should have paid it back. Instead she spent it on designer clothes and handbags from July 2014- July 2015

She was granted bail but failed to meet them as her boyfriend was a Malaysian national.

Now she will be going to court and maybe jailed. Her parents will pay it back when they come to Sydney in June. Initially they were not happy with her.

What we think
As students ourselves it is not fair that she had all this money. Moreover the money that she spent gives international students a bad name. The money was not even hers to begin with. Upon discovering the mistake she should have notified the bank.

Understand your limits
When you first sign up for your bank account make sure that you understand the limits. If you don't understand ask the bank. And if your parents will be sending you money make sure that you ask them how much and it should be in writing.

Whatever you can't afford, you shouldn't spend. And don't even think about spending other people's money as that is a crime.

If you notice anomalies in your bank account, notify the bank

Recent crimes ar Melbourne Uni worry International students

Many students are worried about their safety after a recent spate of crimes had been committed around Melbourne Uni. We reassure them that it is safe to study in Melbourne.

Last month a spate of crimes against International students has happened at Melbourne Uni. Whilst RMIT has no crimes happening students are still worried.

These crimes happened late at night when students are studying after hours. Here students are being pickpocketed or called names. Sometimes even bullying. Students don't know where to go for help.

The Age has reported that there were recent muggings in Melbourne. There was a home invasion in Ormond just recently. It was reported in Meld that there were 69 offenders, including 56 for robberies and 13 for assaults since January 1 this year.

Our concerns for the International student community
If the crimes increase against students, particularly Asians, students will tell their friends and go elsewhere. Many students are afraid to speak up because they think that they will lose their visa, but that is not the case.


What now?
The police have ramped up the security and are working with Melbourne University to help solve the problem. But there are ways in which students can not be the target of theft and assault. One of them is not to carry so many valuable items to uni such as a laptop and expensive phone. Most smartphones these days come with WI-FI capabilities which means that students should leave their laptop at home.

Studying late at night? Uni security do have free escort service for students to the train station etc. There are protective services officers at stations looking out for people. Also do let your roommates know if you are out late at night.

Migrants scammed yet again

 Migrants are scammed yet again. We explain below

Image courtesy of australiaforrum.com

This time they are scammed by a Mr Prasad of SLV legal services. About 20 people were scammed in February 2016. Students could not sleep and were left penniless after they were scammed $17,000- $41,000 in fees. They never got any jobs or a visa. Most could not sleep after finding out that they were duped by this con man. Some were suicidal.

Ashley Chen was one such student after paying $41,000 for no job and no visa. She was threatened by Prasad who said that he knows where she lives and she was suicidal. Other students were stressed out about losing their money.

Mr Prasad has been arrested by the Police and the Police are working with Immigration on this matter.

This visa scam is a concern for us as we want International students to have a good time in Melbourne and not waste any money. Unfortunately these things happen.  But there are always ways to avoid the scam, such as seeing a registered migration agent with a MARN (Migration Agent Reference Number). One such agency is the Education Migration Agents Service. This is a legal service which is based all around Australia.

Be careful of scams such as these. Students should use their university support services to assist them with finding a registered migration agent.

Tim Ho Wan restaurants comes to Melbourne

Tim Ho Wan is a famous Hong Kong restaurant. Here we talk about why it will appeal to students in Melbourne.

Many students are from Hong Kong and are always longing for home. Now they need not travel far as there will be a taste of home in Melbourne. Voted number 1 best restaurant in Asia this is a must try restaurant for yum cha in Melbourne and I am dying to try it when it opens. But like the Sydney one there will most likely be long queues.

Dim Sum served at Tim Ho Wan. Image courtesy of Dailyaddict.com.au

It is run by "Mak Kwai Pui" of Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong and now they have branches in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia.

The restaurant is known for good yum cha dishes such as the baked BBQ Pork buns, the vermicelli pork liver rolls. They had their first store in Sydney just last year and it is going well. They are due to open a second store in Melbourne's Chinatown in March 18th.

Also known for fresh dim sum after the customer ordered it. Not like Melbourne where everything is centrally made. The yum cha dishes range from $4-$20 per plate depending on what is ordered

Image courtesy of timhowan.com.au

The chain started in 2009 in Hong Kong where it was famous for the four king dishes.

Do go to their Melbourne branch when they open and let us know in the comments below what you think of their food.

RMIT turns a cool 128 years old

Happy birthday RMIT!

Image courtesy of RMIT University on Facebook.

RMIT turns a cool 128 years old. It is one of the better colleges in Melbourne and today is the day we celebrate with a huge bang. With balloons and cake and free food for all.

It has never been a better time for them as they attract hundreds of new students each year and lots of money. It used to be the Working men's college but now they offer all sorts of different courses mainly specialising in business and management.

To their wealth and to another 100 more years. Happy birthday RMIT

What do you think RMIT can do to be more successful in terms of retaining students?

Le Cordon Bleu set to open in Melbourne

A culinary school will be open soon in Melbourne. We explain.

Le Cordon Bleu is one of the world's greatest culinary schools which has great success. It is based in Sydney  and Adelaide but now it will have a campus opened in Melbourne. Melbourne is the culinary capital of Australia.

They will feature at this year's Melbourne Food and Wine festival in a bid for people to win scholarships and promote their campus. The move to Melbourne was only natural for them.

And the fees for the course is the same as the domestic students so Internationals don't need to pay high fees. The only con is that it is far away from the city, near Moorabbin station out in zone 2.

These are the courses that will be offered in Melbourne to prepare students for the workforce:

• Advanced Diploma of Hospitality (Commercial Cookery) or (Pâtisserie)
• Grand Diplôme
• Diplôme de Cuisine - Certificate III in Commercial Cookery
• Diplôme de Pâtisserie - Certificate III in Pâtisserie

To apply and to find out more do check out their website.

Sydney was under siege

 RNIS is deeply saddened by the events this week in Sydney and they would like to give praise to the police and government for intervening in this difficult time.

On Monday the 15th of December, the ever so popular Martin Place was under siege by a lone person. A lot of train and bus services were disrupted and people were evacuated from the CBD in Sydney. This is a time where students should be happy that they have finished uni for the year or in some cases are graduating,

The siege happened at 9am in Lindt café where an Arabic sign was placed against the window by the hostages. Police were soon outside the building.  Pandemonium ensured and some International students were scared

On Tuesday morning at 2:45am all the hostages were freed, but two were dead along with the gunman. Our condolences go out to the victims.


On that same morning Martin Place was reopened.

Tony Abbott the prime minister urged everyone to stay calm and the police are doing everything they can to keep people safe. He also said that "Australia is a safe, generous and open place". We also remind students to stay calm and like CISA we also believe in unity not racism.

Like CISA we are saddened for the people that died and all the other victims.

The opportunities for graduate jobs are about to get worse

Students are you looking to stay on in Melbourne after you graduate? What are your future plans? We explain the job situation.

The Jobs market at the moment. Image courtesy of Adam Troyn on Facebook.

The Financial Times has just released on a report on the difficulties of finding work after graduation. The reporters did a small survey about four months after graduation and they spent many months analyzing this data.

At RMIT about 58% of graduates have difficulty in finding a job after graduation for Creative Arts. This indstry is slowly dying. Graduates in the psychology, science and communications field have had some difficulties in finding jobs even though they are well paid ones.

Melbourne is no better with 65% of graduates looking for psychology jobs after they graduate. Also Health sciences, languages and science graduates are having difficulty finding jobs. Science jobs is also hard to come by for VU graduates with about 65% of them still out there looking. Psychology and science at Latrobe is pretty similar with well over 50% of graduates looking for full time work. Swinburne says that 54% of graduates are looking for jobs within the Science sector but their IT sector is pretty good with only 35% of graduates looking for an IT job.

Latrobe's dentistry sector is pretty good with only 6% of graduates looking for jobs.

So what next for students?
"Its better to do some part time casual work whilst at uni" says Anna McCloud@Navitas at the latest AFIS info day. Danny Ong from Monash said the same thing, but he also stressed the point that volunteering helps you to get your foot in the door.

Anna also stressed the point that recruiters are now looking for candidates through Facebook and Linkedin. "Do start early and don't leave it to the last minute", she says. That advice is true as Sally has struggled to get a great job.

What are your tips for looking for a well paid job? Do share it below.

Daiso underpays its staff

Another store underpays its students. We explain the story and why its important to speak up.

Daiso is a Japanese chain store which has five stores in Melbourne. This year it was found that Daiso has been underpaying 27 of its staff. This happened a lot at the Mid town plaza store in the city. Mid town was opened in 2012 with others opened shortly afterwards.

Everything there is $2.80  Most of the time when I went into that Daiso most of the staff were really unhappy. Some of them claimed to be local, eventhough they are not.

Most of its staff are on student visas which is a big concern for us. But at least Fair Work has forced Daiso managment to repay their staff and do an enforcable undertaking.


The 27 current and former employees complained to Fair work. This is not the first time that this incident has happened in 2012 where 10 people were underpaid. Most of the employees were not paid all of their entitlements. Most were not paid penalty rates for working nights and weekends. Daiso was forced to pay back $38,000,000 to its employees.

Lets hope that Daiso lifts its game.

Lesson learnt: You need to speak up if you are being unpaid unfairly.
Says Connie of Eastern Legal district centre on AFIS day: " You need to know your rights and the minimum legal pay per hour". The minimum wage is different for each level and you can check on this site   .

Otherwise that employer will just get away with their wrongdoing. Most employers do the right thing but there are some that employ international students and think that they can get away with this.

Lord of the Fries Southern cross

A new Lord of the Fries is open. And it has been opened for a week.

Here this is more of a takeaway shop which has no seating. Most customers get their food for the train. It is outside DFO.

I went on their buy one get one free day which is Tuesday.

The chips itself weren't bad and I loved the classic ones without the sauce. The other one was burnt. The vietnamese spicy sauce really wasn't spicy. It was sweet.

You order and pay and then you collect your chips from one side.

A little birdy told me that there is a student special of $5 during their happy hours on weekdays. Their happy hours are from 3pm-5pm.

Do visit this one if you are going to the country and then you could have a meal on the long train ride.

PTV now issues on the spot fines

Just recently the PTV introduced another new TV ad about on the spot fines. This initiative will be trialled for one year in Metropolitan Melbourne.

Passengers will now have the option to pay an on the spot fine of $75 or have their name and address recorded and then have to pay a $217 fine for no valid ticket. People will have the option of paying via VISA, Mastercard and EFTPOS.

It comes as the rate of fare evasion increases throughout the city. There are more checks daily mainly at Melbourne Central and Southern Cross.

It is time consuming according to the PTV site to take down someone's name and address and then send it in the mail. It is much more convenient for the inspector to do it straightaway and then they can do more checks more often.

What will that mean for you?
People having to pay the $75 fine will not have to give their name and address, but it will mean no avenues for appeal. This is especially if you touched on and the MYKI did not register or if the most of the machines did not work that day. If you did appeal (based on a valid reason for not having a valid MYKI)  you could save a hell of a lot of money.

Our advice is simple: Buy a pass and you won't have to worry about constantly touching on and off as it is valid for a certain period. The only problem is: you do need a little bit of money for this to work.

CISA Awards honours the Couch

The Couch has won its first award from CISA. CISA had just had their conference and at the gala awards the Couch received its award. Weeks prior to the conference people had to vote on Facebook and the Couch was the most popular.

With the money they plan to have more events to assist new International students such as the passport booth which costs students only just $5 to print photos.

The brilliant Carnifest event that the Couch Organised

In August they plan to host the Lord Mayors event at the place itself with free food and drink something which they have never done before. It has been five years since they opened its doors to new International students. It is on the weekend from 13-15th August (exact date to be announced soon).


Do visit the Couch at: 69 Bourke st Melbourne from Monday- Thursday (5pm-9pm). Each night of the week there is different activities for students to mingle and have fun.

The Couch also has their own blog and you can check it out here.

Kiehls shampoo and their superstore in Melbourne Central

Kiehl is an American beauty brand. Here they have a superstore in Melbourne Central. The superstore is staffed with friendly, down to earth people that can give you all the advice you need on skincare and haircare.

It is a fun looking store with their products targeted for the young and old. 

They have always participated in the Melbourne Central shopping days giving away free samples and stuff.

But they also are in Myer for those that hate traveling to the city.

The one that I have at home smells like citrus and its great for my hair. Normally I have a very sensitive scalp as well as oily hair. This is great for washing my hair

RNIS received this product courtesy of Myer and Kiehls. It is normally $28.

Kiehls also have some great lip balms and body lotions.

But Kiehls is for those that prefer to spend a bit of $$$ and isn't for the everyday uni student. They are mainly a luxury item for many students

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17

And the tragedy that struck.

 

MH news story courtesy of Youtube.com

About 300 people were killed on that flight when a missile crashed into that flight in the Ukraine as it left Amsterdam. About 28 Australians died including an International student from Melbourne University.

Elaine Teoh was one such Malaysian from Penang and Melbourne Uni who had died in this horrible accident. Along too was her boyfriend.

As such the University of Melbourne is offering free counselling to all affected staff and students. Swinburne is offering the same too as one of their students died.

Ms Teoh worked in IG a financial services company and so did her boyfriend. As such IG wishes to offer its condolences to the couple.

“IG Australia wishes to send its deepest sympathies and our heartfelt condolences to the families of our colleague and former colleague Elaine Teoh and Emiel Mahler (the boyfriend),” the company said in a statement, according to Meld.

At the airport everyone was sad on that Friday and Saturday but afterwards everyone was back to normal.

As such the fireworks had been cancelled in Melbourne and students were devastated. President Naphine expressed his sympathies and so did Tony Abbott.

What would this mean for people?

More scares might mean less flying and less international students especially from Malaysia for now. But maybe in a couple of months time there might be more of them as people may have restored their confidence.

But for now all the universities are offering free counselling services for their students who are affected by the tragedy.

If you are affected by this tragedy then do go and see your university's counselling service as they are offering it for free to all students and staff

Troubled Starbucks chain due to close and be rebranded

Last week it was said that Starbucks will close and this week it is said that will be rebranded. We explain.

Starbucks is an American chain store which started in 2000 in Australia. 
Starbucks was always known for its shit American coffee. In Melbourne it was rated the worst coffee and we agree. The coffees that we had in the past year was watery and tasted like dishwasher water. It had no body and no flavour.

Most of their stores are unclean and everything there is $3.50 or more.

In 2008 Starbucks had closed 64 of its stores in Melbourne. On the 29th of July they are set to close all of their stores and rebrand them as part of the 7-11 franchise. This move comes at a time when Starbucks is losing money.


Business Insider reports that it is been handed down to the BD Withers Group that the owns 7-11 franchise.

But what will that mean for the consumers and students?
It might mean equally as crap coffee for us students. But it is said that their coffees might be a bit cheaper.

For the New International students who are coming into Melbourne you might not find a proper US Starbucks in Melbourne

Renea Lau's death shocks all

Renea Lau- photo courtesy of the Age

Renea Lau was a student from Hong Kong who studied at William Angliss. Her body was found earlier this month in Kings Domain. She studied in 2010-2012 in a patisserie course. Her death made headlines in the Age

She was walking to work at 5:30am on a Saturday Morning when it was dark and cold. She worked in an upmarket dessert bar on St Kilda Road. On that morning she was chased into the park by the accused and then she was sexually assaulted as well as physical.

Colleagues at her workplace were deeply distressed and so were her friends at William Angliss. Strangers left flowers for her at the gardens.

The American born- Australian man, Scott Allen Miller (42) was charged with her murder and is in jail. He had been living it rough for a while now. He was arrested in Eden in NSW.

At the CISA conference this week student safety was one of the higlights and we as RMIT Newintstudents are always concerned about this sort of thing. Many students work in the early hours of the morning and late at night and sometimes transport is not an option.

Accomodation in the City of Melbourne is very expensive. Many students live in the outer suburbs where there is a train line and many buses don't run past midnight. Transport is costly too, but the government has announced for discounted tickets as of 2015 for International students at some universities such as Monash.

Important news about International student fees

International students there is some good news after all for you guys. We explain the good news.

“The proposed deregulation of university fees remains subject to new laws being passed by the Australian Parliament and would only apply to domestic Australian students.” Study Melbourne site.

There is good news for International students at this point in time about the fees. Ever since Tony Abbott's budget announcement announcing that universities can set their own fees from 2016, most of the majors ones in Victoria have decided to keep their fees the same for International students. This is in a bid for universities to obtain more money from the International student sector and for Australia to keep its competitiveness in the market.

Universities have decided not to change the fees for International students. Instead they have decided to keep the fees the same. Local students fees will rise meaning that the locals will have to pay more money.

Swinburne has already released a press statement and so has Vic Uni. RMIT has said nothing about the fees for International students. Nor have they mentioned anything about the concession cards

But there are still concerns that fee may rise according to CISA and this was mentioned at the conference this year. Meld is covering the conference widely and has also covered this issue too.

Free wi-fi for the City of Melbourne

The City of Melbourne will soon have free wi-fi for everyone to use in each part of the city. At the moment only the libraries and universities have free WI-FI.

It is pilot project which was introduced by the Naphine Government at the start of this year.This is a part of their plan to attract more people into the CBD, especially students.  This is to support small businesses, students and residents within the CBD.

In hindsight: this is great for students who work, study and live in the CBD. But it won't be until later this year.

Lets talk about gambling- a problem that is getting worse for International students

Gambling is a problem that affects many International students. But did you know that it got worse last year? We explain the problem that many International students have.

Image courtesy of RMIT New International students blog.

 Last month the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria had released a paper about gambling in Melbourne and how the problem is getting worse, particularly some pubs and pokie places. Most of them are in the suburbs near the train line. Gamblers Help were thinking about putting ads up around the train station.

Image courtesy of RMIT Newintstudents blog

Gambling leads to a lot of problems such as financial hardships, homelessness etc. Many students gamble because they are lonely and homesick.

 Things the team took out of that paper
 * People (particularly International students) have more freedom when they come to Melbourne or Australia. When they see the casino, they think it is a safe haven to get away from stress
 * Gambling problems remain a secret amongst university students. They are too scared to get help and they worry about losing face.
* The City of Moreland has developed a Smart phone app to help people control their behavior at the Casino.
* Online gambling is increasing and councils cannot stop this from happening
 * The need for more alternative ways to gambling
 * There is a need for more research on Cultural diversity to be done by the Uni's and the Federal Government. Monash has done a lot of research about this which is great

But what about the City of Melbourne? Funnily enough they weren't included in the report. But what the team did last month was to attend a forum about gambling where a Tamil lost a lot of money gambling and he didn't know where to get help

As for the team we don't usually visit places with pokie machines; we usually like to stay away. One solution is for the pubs to focus more on food and drinks and take away the pokie machines. You don't need that to have a good time at the pub. If they really want some games its better to have arcade games or pool just for fun.

We also feel that many students turn to gambling because they feel isolated in society. Actually not many of the City of Melbourne's initiatives are properly advertised to students. Only about 100 students turn up to the Couch's salsa classes at night. Most of them leave after dinner.

But the football on the 15th of June was great as there was a huge turnout. Everyone enjoyed the game.

If you have any problems with gambling do give Gamblers Help a call as they are a free and confidential service that will assist you.