Student Review: My year with Fitness first

This is a student review by Claudia who hated gyms and was overweight for a while. She is a student who lives far away and who studies hard.

Lets face it: My gym at uni sucks. There is no ventilation and its cramped. And its dirty most of the time. I heard that some of the uni staff were not friendly.

It is $52 for Platinum membership but I can go anywhere with friends who are already on Fitness first. And Fitness first has some very friendly staff who are willing to assist you. And freebies of course.

There are classes to suit your timetable and the equipment is fairly clean. They even have a shower area. My uni does not have this. Occasionally the locker rooms are not always clean but that's alright as you are here to exercise and they can only be cleaned about once a day. At Flinders St I have seen the cleaner but at Melbourne Central all the equipment is outdated.

The staff at Flinders st are always friendly and they know you by name. At Melbourne Central its a different story. Some of the staff were not friendly to their members. One had told me off for wearing jeans, but I learned to adapt very quickly to the gym environment.

Image courtesy of chiukatherine on Instagram

Your card works like your MYKI. You tap and hold it and it will let you in. The staff are always happy to help. If you lose it you will be charged a hefty $5 to replace it.

Some tips for first timers
Be prepared to work hard and to learn. Go to a few classes if gym is not your thing. Be prepared to give up some of your old habits which made you overweight in the first place and adopt some new ones.

Do step outside of your comfort zone and don't worry about what others think of you. Others are doing their own things.

Be prepared to spend that money that you normally would for eating out for gym membership and protein shakes and bars and classes.

In the end if you go frequently you will get used to the environment and change your eating habits.

ASEAN games: DOTA and FIFA15

The ASEAN games is on again this year and it is bigger and better than ever. This time the committee has decided to have some online gaming activities as well as the usual sports.

The online games were held in the city. The FIFA was held at RMIT and the DOTA was held at MC Internet café which is a small, old, run down café.

The FIFA game has about 36 teams each of them playing for about 4-5 mins and then changing over. Here they had about 6-7 volunteers all manning a table each and recording the score. Players pick their teams and their countries and played well.

At the DOTA game it is playing until one player is dead and then after that the game ends. Here it is all about dragons and creatures killing each other. All the volunteers converged in that area. The café was quite small hence it was really noisy and crowded. Maybe they could have limited the amount of people or ask them to pay an entrance fee which can include food.

We got to try the broad beans. They were not spicy at all. However we didn't end up trying the lychee drink. A lot of drinks were sold that day at the Internet café especially Red Bull as players need that for their energy and spirits.

Stay tuned for part 2.

Melbourne International student Conference Day 2: Pitching and being corporate.

Day 2 of the conference was a much more formal event where delegates were in business attire. Here the ideas were more upon working and leadership. It was more upon making Melbourne a better place for International students

Employability
Employers are looking for people with skills and personality not just the grade. They want someone who can communicate and can make the business a success.

For students you should plan your career from day one and not wait until its too late to do so. You should also get used to the idea of speaking up in class. Many Asian students are used to learning by ROTE and are used to not speaking up unless being addressed and they are used to having their hand up. But in Australian universities it is quite alright to question the lecturer.

Pitching an idea
Students and graduates are expected to pitch ideas to people in the workforce. Pitching is not perfect- it requires practice. Be concise and to the point.

The business competition called Young upstarts.
There were a hundred applicants and four were selected to be presenting their ideas and the need for the money. The prize money is $500 to go towards their idea. Scholardeck won with their idea of students needing the right scholarship for uni. The other ones were a beer company wanting to start online, Hope with her free language service and the two friends and their car idea.

All the applicants wanted to have an online presence, but to me and others having an online presence is not everything. You also need to do the research from the ground up. For me the applicant I would have chose is the Scholardeck as tuition fees are very expensive.

Many thanks to Meld for having me

Students work in the sex industry

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

More and more students turn to the sex industry for work. Last year alone there were about 550+ brothels in Melbourne, most of which are small businesses.

An Illegal brothel. Image courtesy of news.com.au

Students are turning to brothels in order to find work which pays well. Some enjoy it because of the high amount of money that they get from working there.

According to the Age many of them go on to become managers of brothel. Most of them enjoy the work but there are some which don't.

In Victoria alone there is about 800 brothels, about 523 of them are a part of a smaller company.
According to the CAV report it said that many of them were happy to work there.

But there are a lot of diseases in the brothels, though and some students may be unprotected. Also the work is done after dark in a lonely street.

Clients pay somewhere between $100-$400. A licensed brothel usually gives most of the money to the girl but an unlicensed one keeps half the profit to themselves. A license is aroudn $90-$200 per year.

The disadvantages
Social stigma is one of them. Many workers cannot tell anyone that they work in this industry for fear of being stigmatised. Some of them felt discriminated against

Also the hours and work per week varies and they may have to move places. Some of the workers hated that.

Diseases are widespread so its easy for a worker to get an STI (sexually transmitted infection)

The advantages
Workers get to take home about $1000 a week and some don't have to speak English.
 It is also easy for those to work the 20 hours a week. 

The Sports and Recreation expo

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

This expo was on today at the Drill Hall and here lots of sporting clubs came- 20 to be exact. But only 30 students came and participated in the Bollywood and all.



Capoirera was my favourite one and I had a chance to play in the band. I had heaps of fun.

The aim of the expo was to showcase sporting clubs to many of the students who have never known them and win prizes such as free gym memberships. It was also a chance for them to get active. I know I will.

And it was also a chance for many students to interact with stalls and play their free games such as the shooting game that was played at the Malaysian stall

Ping Pong party at the Library on the Dock

RNIS was invited by the City of Melbourne
As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

The City of Melbourne along with AFIS had decided to put on a Ping pong partyas part of their aim to keep students healthy. About 40 of us turned up for free pizza and playing. The free pizza was from a place in Docklands called La Bene.

These pizzas had thin crust and are not like the other ones. They really kept the health conscious in mind. The fatty bases often have lots of sodium and too many carbs in my opinion. I like the thin bases better and the ingredients were fresh. I really enjoyed my vegetarian pizza as that was yum.

I had heaps of fun just watching the game and cheering people on. Although I did not win this was good.

Many thanks to AFIS and the City of Melbourne for such an event

Pride Mentoring program

RMIT has a program for queer students on campus and we talk about how good this is in terms of looking for a job

The Pride Mentoring program is for RMIT Queer Students only. But each university would have a similiar program. It has been operating for two years now and has been going well.

The other unis don't have this as there may not have been any funding for these services

It is a career focused thing. They can read over resumes.

Equity- not all workplaces are equal and not everyone is accepting. They can advise students but they are not legal experts.

It is easy to sign up and they match you to a mentor. And then you connect and then you initiate the first meeting. It goes for 24 weeks with one hour meetings every week. Your mentor will be there every single step of the way but they don't look for the job for you. You have to do that, but can suggest events for you.

The mentors are very friendly and they have been in the same shoes as you.

Do apply for it via their site.

Universities and others hit back on plagiarism and the ghost writing service

Universities in Australia now have harsher penalties for the students who use ghost writing services. It is only a small amount of them. We also have harsh $800 penalties for those who post their services on Facebook and other social networking sites as part of the crackdown on plagiarism.We explain.

A few months after the Mymaster scandal and universities are hitting back on this ghost writing thing. First up was University of Sydney. The University of Sydney now has stricter policies dealing with this.

When RNIS saw all the ads on Facebook they decided on an ultimatium: "Remove the ad or face $800 penalty for the ad and everytime you place the ad on Facebook". They also have been removing many of these ads on campus.

RNIS did a search bing.com and found a lot of ads. They found about 33,600,000 results online.

Our test question was this: Are iPads effective for the classroom? We also pretended that we had an assignment due a few days after and pretended to be the panicking student.

We tried out one site called assignmentwriting.com. It looks legitimate to one disconcerning eye who does not know that it is illegal to get someone to write your assignment for you. They had been going for eight years.It is about $312.00 for one website to write a 6,000 word research paper.

On Assignment helps it is about $720 to write a 10,000 word report. On another site called Aussie Quality it was the same price and they had been going for 11 years.

The message to students is don't waste your money using these services. Instead if you are having problems do talk to your lecturer or utilise university services. They are free for all students. Universities are known to have stricter penalties for this sort of behaviour.

Malaysian games the first day

RNIS was invited to attend by the project director.
As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

The event was free for spectators and about $14-$140 depending on what you are playing.

Chicken sushi

Tuna sushi

RNIS were also invited to try the food for the volunteers which was from Sushi Sushi in Mt Waverley. The sushi was not bad but not good. I really enjoyed the tuna one but that's where it stopped. The other two types of rolls (crab and prawn rolls) were not fresh and I had to throw some of it away.

But the Hainan chicken from Mr Loys Puff looked really good. I didn't get to try it as I was late.

They also were invited to try Dollee's peanut butter cookies. Dollee is a company from Malaysia and they do curry sauces and other things.

The Dollee peanut things were very good.

As for the games I watched most of them and the badminton and futsal were my favourites. The Malaysians are good at Futsal and Badminton and everything in between. In fact I really liked the two badminton teams that really stood out for me. They played very well and hit the ball really hard.

Futsal

Netball

Showbag

The futsal was going really well. Futsal is the Malaysian version of soccer.

The basketball games were so long. About 20 mins per quarter and 4 quarters. By the end I almost fell asleep

Many thanks to Malaysian Sports Association for the invite.

I paid $800 for careers advice

Students have you ever been targeted by a careers counselor and been asked to pay lots of money? Well this new students Xin Wang from China did encounter this and here is her story.

I am a new student who wanted some advice about a part time job and so I went onto Weibo.com and found an ad for careers advice near my house in Glen Waverley. I didn't want to spend one hour travelling to and from the city.

Initially at the first free meeting I was very impressed by the clean office and the very professional nature. Moreover the place was a short train ride away to Mount Waverley.

My consultant asked a lot of questions of me and seemed very knowledgeable. He also suggested some key areas in my resume to work on. I was not even told about LinkedIn which is a way to get your foot in the door.

Then there was the contract. I was asked to sign away immediately and not been given time to think it through or ask for advice. I was then asked to hand over $800 or go home.

I did hand over the money out of desperation to get a job and to get noticed by employers. I then booked for three more sessions with them to get them to help me find a suitable job and go over my resume. 

They helped me alright but I applied for hundreds of jobs and got nowhere.
Paying $800 was not worthwhile. In the end I had no job and no knowledge of doing a resume. I should have gone to the careers service in uni.

Also I had no knowledge about LinkedIn which the University said that it is important to know about. I could have got a job via LinkedIn.

LMSW 2015

The Lord Mayors Welcome was on and it was free for everyone. RNIS was there and can bring the details.

The Lord Mayor's event was at the Couch and there it had close to 400 people some of whom had kids. There was face painting, balloon sculpting, performances and fashion- you name it. But students had to collect 5-9 stamps for the activities and to be in the draw for major prizes.

Melbourne is home to some 50, 000 international students per year, some of which just arrived a little over a month ago. So it is really nice that the City of Melbourne put this on for students and showcased the student services as well as some of Melbourne's best sights and attractions which included the reptiles.

Students played with and patted the reptiles and some were really timid and shy.

Also a feature in this years event was the caricature artist which is a thing about Melbourne. You'll find them at the Rose st Artist markets and other art things.

The balloon artist is another thing found roaming the city. That and the face painting and there were orderly queues.

I really enjoyed seeing the ballgowns and evening wear. But I hated seeing the sky high heels. They must be really hard to walk down those steps in. But I enjoyed seeing the children at the end and their faces when they were face painted.

The food stations were really busy. I enjoyed getting the drinks for the thirsty visitors including water. But the only thing that I could want was for coconut juice and tea as soft drinks are not very healthy. Luckily though for them there were sandwiches and a spot of banana cake. At least they are healthy

Many thanks to the City of Melbourne for hosting this wonderful event and I hope that in semester two they include some fitness activities such as spin cycling for their drinks and featuring Cupp. What also would be a good idea is some yoga and body attack classes to teach students about being fit.

I hope that students made some ever lasting friendships.

7 signs that your friendship is not working

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015
International students make new friends all the time but some of them may be toxic. Do read on.

Students you need the right type of friends to get you through your university years and keep you happy. You want to go home at the end of your degree and take back lots of good memories.

1) You argue all the time
You don't have to agree with them but try and see things from their point of view. And try and get them to do the same.

2) They are just thinking about themselves
Friendships is about give and take remember?  They are insensitive to your feelings. If they are asking to always borrow your things and they never lend you theirs, you might be better off finding some new friends who will always think about others.

3) They are not there for you
But you are there for them. Every time you catch up, they dump all of their problems on you and not letting you have a chance to speak. Speak up if their behavior is hurting you or otherwise it will get worse.

Share your food if you can

4) They are being pushy all the time
You need your space and they need theirs. Friendship is a two way street. They are forcing their opinions on you as well. Communicate with them as strengthening the friendship is a process for two.

5) They are badmouthing people all the time
 Chances are they might bad mouth you too. Chances are they might also be controlling the friendship.Or they could be trying to protect you. They maybe feeling a bit insecure about the friendship so it is best to talk to them about it.

6) They are stressing over the little things
Stressing over little things can turn into a big thing and it can turn into a fight.

7) They are lying all the time (or not being honest)
Honesty is the best policy in any friendship. If they are lying chances are that they using you. Over time the friendship can be very toxic and draining your studies. It can also turn friends against friends.

If these are some of the signs then maybe it is time to move on, after talking to them. That is if they do not listen to you.

AFIS Info Day Sem 1 2015

RNIS was invited to participate in Info day and here is what they thought

AFIS Info day was a great success during the games and the food, but not many people turned up to the seminars which was the important part of the day.

This time it was held at Storey Hall, a place which is unfamiliar to some people. But luckily there were some AFIS volunteers lurking about, looking for lost students.

The seminars covered everything to do with work rights, fire safety, personal safety and all other aspects of student life. One of the major aspect was volunteering and writing blogs to get your foot in the door. If you volunteer for something or write a blog this is a good way for people to get to know you. It is also a good way for you to learn about the working culture in Melbourne. Danny said, "when you go out there to work, no one is going to tell you whether you are doing the right or wrong thing. Only university will guide you through that pathway". I thought about that advice long and hard and it is very true. That is how some students got sacked.

Danny also talked about utilizing university services and that to an extent is true. Only university services can guide you in the right direction but it is up to you to take the initiative.

One of the things that graduates and students need to work is good communication skills. You can improve your English through volunteering and blogging and meeting up with Australian people. That is where networking comes into play. Anna from Navitas really focused a lot on networking through her speech. The guys at Globall touched on this too where students can register for a free game to learn about Australian culture. When you blog and get invited to things, don't say no and do turn up as you'll have a chance to meet other like minded individuals and learn something about food and all.

Study Melbourne wants students to have a good time, hence their meetups and you can follow them on Facebook. They also have a blog too where students can write for them. Same as Meld who were also present. Or you can write your own and its easy to start. Just think about what you like and just write about your passions. Oh and do set some time for it each week. Trust us it will help you in third year where you will have to present a portfolio of work for your final course.

TAFE accused of letting students pass

Box Hill TAFE has been letting International students to pass their exams by altering them. We report on this latest cheating scandal that has rocked the TAFE side of uni

Exams. Picture is from independent.co.uk

In a report late last week it was reported that Box Hill TAFE have been letting International students to pass their exams when they should have failed. It is like plagiarism. It had been brought to the attention of the Victorian Government by 4 former teachers and 2 former students.

These allegations happened in 2012/2013 and it was reported to the Anti Corruption body. Since then they are still investigating the matter. In that year it was the Liberals that ruled Victoria. Now it is Daniel Andrews from the labour party who said that it is not ok. During that time there were a lot of TAFE funding cuts, hence the quality of teaching had diminished

The Victorian TAFE Association also frowns upon the fraud that is going on. But they support the Box Hill TAFE during this difficult time

In 2013 there was a survey and 54% of the TAFE teachers felt pressurised to pass students because students are paying a lot of money for a degree. CISA said that it was due "societial and cultural pressure from back home". In China and other Asian countries many parents put a lot of pressure on their kids to pass everything.

Our response to that matter is that universities need to have a more stringent and clearer guidelines around marking. RMIT has been good in that respect as to implementing some clearer instructions and guidelines for everyone including TAFE. When you apply to work for RMIT they will ask for the police check and working with children check.

When the Age published this story people were unhappy about the cuts to TAFE and were eager to shame "Box Hill TAFE".

It is the fair few International students that ruin it for everyone. In the long run when these graduates are working they may be asked to demonstrate something that they don't know. Something that was said to us a few days ago was "When you are working people will not tell you whether you are doing the wrong or the right thing. University will guide you through this process". It means that students need to find the answer for themselves, not rely on others.

In summary: we absolutely condone cheating and fraud (altering of marks just to pass students). If you need any help with your assignment you should use your university's student learning service. They are there for you.

Study Melbourne Info Day to come

This Saturday the 14th of March is a very important day. Why? It is the Study Melbourne day of course.
Study Melbourne Info Day is organised by AFIS in what promises to an amazing day full of fun, friendships and essential information.

In previous semesters the event was at the Drill Hall outside the market.

This time the event is in RMIT's Storey Hall which a purple and green building right next to the Green brain. The location is diagonally across the road from Melbourne Central and RMIT has its own tram stop outside the free tram zone.  Like previous years, there will be volunteers standing at the entrance to greet you.

There is bike parking available but its at the owners risk.

Like previous semesters there was always free food and the free food is usually a sandwich or two. But if it is a sunny day they might just do a BBQ outside in Bowen st.

The theme is fun, friend and fact and the event is on from 12pm-6pm. Do register for this free event on Eventbrite.

Setting goals

International students need to think about the goals that they wish to set for the year ahead. Now is a good time to think about these. Here we outline a short guide to setting them.

Image courtesy of blogging4jobs.com.

Goals should be set so that you know where you want to go. Many people don't set goals or set very vague ones. Many International students don't know what they want to achieve in their studies in Australia. Goals are a very good way to motivate yourself when studying or in life.

They should be SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable Reliable and Timely) goals. Think about what you want to achieve this semester. Be specific and think about the time in which you want to do them in.
Eg: have High distinctions for Mathematics by the end of the semester.
Think about how you will achieve the goal. Ask yourself: what do I need to achieve this goal/doing.

Be proactive. Do the work early. Plan ahead.

Long term and short team goals
Long term ones is for the year ahead and short term ones can be for the week ahead or for the next hour. Big goals (long term) take a lot of time and effort and smaller ones (short term) don't take a lot of time.

Doing it
Follow them to the latter if you can. Make a timetable. Also write a list of what needs to be done. This will help you to achieve them. Get help if you need to.

Do join up to Mind Tools to get some useful tips on studying.

How to love yourself

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

As International students it is hard to adjust to life in a new place. This is Sally's story about adjusting to life down under

This is a valentines love post.
Accepting yourself for who you are is really important. As new International students coming from a different country the high expectations of getting good grades and adjusting to a new country can make you feel stressed out. In reality no one is perfect and you have to love yourself for who you are.

Your values and outlook on life may change whilst you are living in Australia. Moving to a different country from another changed my perspective on life. I learned to make friends from different walks of life and that made me look at myself from a different side.

I really learned that grades are not everything. To my parents living in China and every other Chinese/Asian International students grades are everything to the parents. If I failed something in China my parents would spank me. In Australia I learned that my friends parents loved them and accepted them for who they are not their grades. This was from the local, Australian friends.

Aaliyah said "If at first you don't succeed, just pick yourself and try again", its very true. Grades are not everything, they are just a tiny part of you, its whether you can be happy and adjust to life Down under well.

Living down under is about rediscovering yourself and who you are. As someone once said to me it is not about the grades but its about find your true self and loving thy self

Students still get ripped off

Students are still being ripped off by their employer and its about to get worse. We talk about the latest case in Gloria Jeans.

The latest case is at the Gloria Jeans in Caulfield where about 22 staff, mainly International students were underpaid. According to Fairfax media the owners of that franchise were asked to pay about $110,000 in wages.  A third of its employees were under the age of 21.  The students were owed between $219- $18,000.

This coffee shop is performing very badly and yet according to the Judge this couple and their company Primeage Ltd were not paying the people properly. Primeage was fined $80,000 and the couple got a $30,500 fine as well the order to back pay their employees.

Many of them were not provided with meal breaks and other entitlements such as payslips. Payslips need to be provided at least one day after they are paid.

This has happened before last year and the courts and Fair work were really harsh in the ruling this time.

Natalie James from the Fair Work Ombudsman said that "this should be a warning to all other employers".  It is also common for the retail and hospitality industry when they are performing badly to underpay their staff, but it is illegal.

In Sydney many students still don't know their rights. They are being paid $8-$10 per hour cash in hand which is illegal. One Papparich place in Broadway is being investigated by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Many of the students there are in Australia to study English, TAFE or Foundation

It has always been RNIS's concern as well as CISA's and its about to get a whole lot worse especially for big branded companies like Pappa Rich and Gloria Jeans. We hope that these employers do the right thing or Australia will lose its students to other countries

International students being exploited in the workplace.

International students are working for about $8-$10 per hour which is way under the minimum wage. Yet on the other hand education agents and universities are painting an all too rosy picture of life in Australia. We talk about our thoughts on this issue.

Agents from various universities go to the prospective student's home countries trying to sell  their degrees and advertising for students to come to Australia. But what they tell students is only half the story. The other half of the story is the negativities such as being paid unfairly and the high living costs.

Many students work in fast food places and well known restaurants some of which pays terribly. One restaurant we know of in Melbourne is Dragon Boat on Lonsdale st. It has good yum cha at times but a friend told us that she gets paid $8 hour for the work she does which is pushing heavy yum cha carts and waitressing. She told me that they also do "trial shifts" which is illegal here in Australia. She also said that they ask her to work very long hours sometimes from 10am-12am.

In Sydney Fairfax Media reported that a lot of Sydney businesses including PappaRich on Broadway have been underpaying students for as little as $8-$13. In the last year alone the Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered $1.1 million in wages and businesses have been ordered to pay it back. This is a great start. And what else? The Fair Work Ombudsman has set up a taskforce just for overseas workers. But there could be more such as telling students of their rights in the first instance and that they can complain to the Ombudsman and need not fear about deported to their home country. Which many of them do if they complain to the employer. The only people that can do that is Immigration.

We hope that this year all the businesses in Melbourne and all over Australia pay their workers the right amount. Or otherwise Australia will lose students to other places such as the US. International students is just one of Australia's biggest revenues with about $15 billion dollars being earnt annually. There might be more businesses in Melbourne and if we come across some more we'd be happy to take it up to the Ombudsman and shame them on here.