THE SYSTEM of allocating overseas postgraduate research students to Australian universities needs improving to ensure students are adequately supervised in their chosen fields. This is the opinion of Marjaldi Loeis, an Indonesian student who is doing a PhD in engineering at the University of Melbourne.
Loeis, past president of the University of Melbourne branch of the Indonesian Studentsā Association, claims that overseas students sponsored by the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB) are not always sent to the universities which best suit their particular areas of research.
But an AIDAB spokesman told Ā鶹“«Ć½ that the scholarship programme the bureau sponsored tried to ābalance outā the allocation of students to ensure all of them did not finish up in Melbourne and Sydney ā Australiaās two largest cities.
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As a result, he said, difficulties sometimes arose. āItās a very large programme, so in some instances the matches (between student and institution) might not be quite as neat as everyone might like,ā he said.
Loeis gave the example of an Indonesian student who spent a whole year at the University of Melbourne without a supervisor, before eventually obtaining a transfer to a university in New South Wales.
āAs I understand the system, the Australian government allocates the students fairly among the universities ā which means that a particular student might be allocated to a particular place in order to fulfil some sort of quota ā and not necessarily because thatās the best place for that student to go,ā he told Ā鶹“«Ć½.
AIDAB currently sponsors 717 PhD and other postgraduate students from Indonesia. The AIDAB scholarships are keenly sought by overseas students because they include a stipend for a studentās spouse and children.
The majority of the students are recipients of Australian Sponsored Training Scholarships, which are targeted at areas the Indonesian government considers a high priority. AIDAB offices in Australia arrange the placement of each recipient at what they consider an appropriate institution in Australia. A minority of students are recipients of Australian Development Cooperation Scholarships, a scheme under which the students themselves select the courses they want to complete in Australia.
Loeis welcomes the scholarships and says they are beneficial to both Australia and Indonesia. But he believes the system of allocation should allow a bigger role for groups such as the Indonesian Studentsā Association to represent a studentās interests.
āPart of the problem is that many students wonāt speak up, and will remain in the wrong place because they donāt want to complain,ā he said. āThe students have regular meetings with AIDAB, and they are asked if everything is alright, but thatās not enough.ā
Loeis has been studying in Australia for two years, and has served as a delegate to the national Congress of the Indonesian Studentsā Association. Having completed his Masters degree at an American university, he believes Australiaās research and library facilities in his field of study ā the environmental impact of traffic design ā are equal to any in the world.
