Life for jobless students is a study in despair
International student Alesha Parthiban has lost both her jobs and fears she can support herself for only a few more months.
Alesha Parthiban, an international arts student at Sydney’s Macquarie University, has lost both her part-time jobs and fears she can support herself for only two or three more months on her savings.
Until the COVID-19 crisis struck, Ms Parthiban worked as a student assistant for the university, conducting campus tours and helping out at events and on field trips.
But with the university now virtually empty, and classes being conducted online, that work is no longer available. She also worked as a sales assistant at a national retail chain. That job went too when the chain shut its doors.
“I’m living off my savings, but I don’t have tons of savings,” she says. “Right now it’s hard to find casual employment.”
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International students are required to warrant, before coming to Australia, that they have enough funds for their living expenses for their first year but, beyond that, it is common for them to rely on part-time jobs for income. They are permitted to work for up to 40 hours a fortnight.
Ms Parthiban, who arrived from Malaysia to study at Macquarie in mid-2018, is now studying her performing arts bachelor degree online, and that has its problems too.
The performing arts degree, which has a lot of practical content, doesn’t lend itself to online teaching. She says that a friend doing a business degree was managing fine with online study. “But for me, it’s not working out well,” she says, stressing that the university is not to blame for the situation.
She could go home and continue part-time study from there, but that is not her preferred option. “I chose Sydney because it’s so good for the performing arts,” she tells The Australian.
Ms Parthiban lives in university accommodation, which is very different now to what it was last year. Domestic students have returned home and only a few international students remain.
“It’s so quiet, so sad and lonely. It’s the first time I’ve seen it dead and silent at this time of the semester,” she says.
“I really want to experience the Aussie culture and lifestyle but, the last couple of weeks, I’ve just stayed in my room.”
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