Now entering its seventh year, the Council of International Students Australia is beginning to hit its stride as it develops a better understanding of the issues facing students and how best to tackle them. National president Nina Khairina spoke to The PIE about the international student advocacy group’s key goals for the next 12 months as well as how the organisation has grown since its inception.
The PIE: How did you get involved in international student advocacy?
NK: First it was through my involvement in my own campus organisation, Monash University International Students Service in Melbourne. That was the very first time I was exposed to the international student community and its struggles and challenges; Monash was where it moved me to go further. There was also a lot of encouragement from other people.
The PIE: And how did your work at Monash lead to you working with CISA?
NK: Through encouragement from other people who saw my past work. They believed in me that I had something to offer for CISA.
“We hope one day we can confidently say CISA truly represents the international student body in Australia”
I didn’t really have a big idea when I came into CISA, I wasn’t thinking in terms of the presidency role. I did it because I knew I had something to offer, but soon after that I realised student advocacy had turned into my passion.
The PIE: What is CISA’s vision?
NK: The vision is still to be that holistic international student voice and to be able to reach out to as many grassroots networks around Australia as possible. That was my intent last year and that’s why it’s reflected in this year’s conference. We have a lot more diversity in terms of delegates who’ve come to the conference and we hope to continue that way.
We hope to continue along those lines, that there’ll be more diversity in terms of speakers and delegates so one day we can confidently say CISA truly represents the international student body in Australia.
The PIE: What has been your focus during your first 12 months as president?
NK: We wanted to revisit our strategic plan. We have realised what was missing in CISA and what can be done to improve and really get ourselves organised and be more representative. The past 12 months has been reflecting on the challenges, what can be done in the future and lots of consultations.
The PIE: Based on those consultations, what are the plans for the coming 12 months?
“What CISA needs is support, not just from the student bodies, but from state and federal governments and communities, including cultural communities”
NK: The first three months we’ll continue those consultations and then we’ll finalise the discussions we’ve had over the past year as well as the discussions we’ve had during the roundtables at the recent annual conference.
The first priority of the next 12 months is to restructure the current CISA organisational framework. I think we all came to a consensus through the first roundtable at this conference that what CISA needs is support, not just from the student bodies, but from state and federal governments and communities, including cultural communities. We share the same story as migrant refugees and they’ve already gotten really good governance in place.
That’s the stage that CISA needs to be: good governance.
The PIE: You were elected for your second term as president and you are the second president to do so after your predecessor Thomson Ch’ng. Do you think that is a trend moving forward for CISA, so that the first 12 months can be consultative and the following 12 months focus on action plans?
NK: Hopefully that will be the trend. We’ve heard that pretty loudly and clearly throughout the first two days of the roundtable discussions. Everyone really wants continuity. It’s a challenge, definitely, for international students who are only here for sometimes one year, but we all believe that it’s possible.
Even if two-year terms aren’t possible, continuity can still be done.
The PIE: Is the turnover of students a challenge CISA continues to face for its ongoing vision?
“Hopefully by the end of my term and at next year’s conference, we can announce the full creation of the CISA Alumni”
NK: Yes. One of the initiatives we started this year was to get together alumni. We’ve formed a CISA alumni working group which will be in a consultation period and then an implementation period for the next 12 months. Hopefully by the end of my term and at next year’s conference, we can announce the full creation of the CISA Alumni.
The PIE: Has it been difficult to engage with alumni who are no longer international students and therefore might not be interested in international education anymore?
NK: That’s not too much of a concern. Whatever members’ aspirations are for the future, whether or not it’s international education or anything really, as long as they currently have the passion to contribute to international education that’s what matters.
Ultimately it’s up to them to decide, but it would be great if they do still have that passion to mentor and that’s why we’re establishing the CISA Alumni. We want to attract the past CISA executives who are keen to contribute back to the international education industry. Having seen the current people who are in the working committee and people who have been interested to come to the CISA Alumni, many of them are not involved in international education, but often they still have the passion for advocacy for international students.
The PIE: Five years ago, the talking points of the CISA National Conference were employability, student welfare and student accommodation. The same points are being raised at this conference. How are things changing?
NK: The conversation has changed to a certain extent. There has been more coordination among student leaders, industries and communities about what can be done, as witnessed in some of the speakers and roundtables. Things are happening and it might not be perfect yet, but change takes a lot of time. Australia is taking in a lot more international students so it’s part of that. Perhaps we’re changing not as fast as we can.
The next question would be: how can we move forward in terms of working together to make sure change happens together with the rate of growth of international education?