Throughout the pandemic, international students who remained in Australia faced many challenges. Experts feared that the impact on international students, Australia’s international education community and our people-to-people connections globally could be adverse and enduring.
In a recent research project, we sought to explore the experiences of Indonesian students in Australia during the pandemic; to understand the potential damage done to Australia’s reputation as a global centre of educational excellence and the consequences this may have for future student mobility and broader university engagement between Indonesia and Australia.
We focused on Indonesian postgraduates who have scholarships funded by either Australian or Indonesian governments and, as such, occupy positions of influence within this crucial bilateral relationship. While they might be only a small fraction of Australia’s international student cohort, as studies tracing alumni of these programs have shown, as future academic, business and political leaders they play highly important roles in building enduring connections with Indonesia.
Pandemic impacts
We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 15 Indonesians, mostly higher degree research students from various disciplines enrolled in an Australian higher education institution from 2020 to 2021. As scholarship holders, they were in a privileged position during the pandemic compared to self-funded international students who relied more on casual and part-time work in sectors impacted by lockdowns.
Participants spoke about experiencing anxiety due to uncertainties related to their studies in the early stages of the pandemic.
None of our respondents reported significant financial hardship during the lockdowns. Whilst some took advantage of university offers of food parcels and similar handouts, none admitted to relying on them to get by. On the contrary, some students provided help to others, and a reduction in their living expenses during lockdowns meant that some were able to contribute to their savings. The sense of community among Indonesian students was high. Some also acknowledged their particular situation was not the norm for all international students.
Participants spoke about experiencing anxiety due to uncertainties related to their studies in the early stages of the pandemic. Once it became increasingly unlikely that students enrolled in Australian universities would be permitted to carry out fieldwork overseas, the students opted for very pragmatic approaches. The supervisor–student relationship was another key factor providing stability and ensuring good outcomes.
What caused this extraordinary resilience?
The participants in our study are high-achievers and have undergone competitive selection processes, providing them with a special kind of ambition, which we argue contributes to their resilience and the way they struggled through the pandemic.
Most students were well-connected into the community, particularly through religious groups, which was a source of great support.
Most students were well-connected into the community, particularly through religious groups (for Muslims, pengajian or for Christians, church), which was a source of great support. Some setup food exchange chains and online religious activities, such as sermons, prayers and singing. Additional networks included Indonesian student associations and the scholarships programs as well as graduate student associations. These networks and their own personal drive meant they were highly resourceful, accessing support and taking advantage of programs offered by their universities, scholarships programs as well as government and community organisations in their local area.
As mature-aged students, most were also accompanied by their spouses and children. The presence of family was another highly significant factor providing stability and comfort for students during this period of uncertainty and restriction.
Border closures
They observed that international students were largely neglected in the national conversation, despite repeated references to their importance to the education sector.
Our interlocutors raised the inconsistencies in Australian government messaging as a source of confusion and anxiety. While they generally agreed that the strict rules were necessary, some pointed to exemptions granted to business people and celebrities. Some wished those specific exemptions would have allowed them to return temporarily to Indonesia, particularly in cases where family members had passed away. They observed that international students were largely neglected in the national conversation, despite repeated references to their importance to the education sector. Students also referenced the Indonesian context, explaining that they felt safer being in Australia and weighed the risks of returning home.
We do not see these findings as a corrective to the narrative outlining the struggles of many international students during this period, but rather as a way of adding nuance to the critical discourse about international students in Australia more generally. Given that international students are a diverse cohort and a highly socially stratified group of people, we sought to offer a targeted examination of a particular cohort to enrich understandings of who an ‘international student’ is, and to also include their voices in the conversation.
Our findings reveal that whilst financial security was the single most important factor in protecting our respondents during this period, also critical was the comfort and support provided by family, community networks, pastoral care and professional support offered by their universities. In combination, these elements provided students with a high degree of resilience in the face of significant challenges. It is not possible to replicate these conditions for all international, or indeed domestic students, and financial precarity is a concern that pre-dates the pandemic and will continue beyond it. This study, however, contributes to existing evidence showing that students with a strong emotional support base and with good connections to local communities, be it diaspora, faith-based or other community links, are likely to have the best outcomes.