Sympled 2023: Symposium on Leading Education Recruitment took place today at the Rydges World Square in Sydney.
Master of Ceremonies Simon Costain from NextEd provided the opening with positivity asking each table to introduce themselves and discuss what we do well. Overwhelming, a sense of having the student and their welfare at the centre of what we do prevails through the noise that is growing from mainstream media around immigration.
Helen Kronberger provided an update on Austrade’s work. She reminded attendees that Austrade is responsible for the Study Australia brand and works in conjunction with state destination marketing agencies via the Study Australia Partnership to market Australia in a cohesive way. Austrade has been working hard to refresh the website and provide numerous resources for the sector to utilise to promote Australia.
Trevor Jackson from Experience Gold Coast spoke on the strategic direction of the City of the Gold Coast around international student attraction. As he pointed out, it’s so much more than attraction. Students’ needs are wide and varied and Experience Gold Coast seeks to support students while they are studying on the GC. One example is accommodation and Trevor outlined a business case that is currently being developed to incentivise purpose-built student accommodation on the GC.
Simon Tracy from Studylink outlined their new partnership with Flywire with humour. The new “Flymates” use lots of “fly” puns, apart from that, there is a lot of admiration for colleagues and alignment in work is significant. He outlined how EDTech will play a significant role in student administration and recruitment, from recruitment to service management. A savvy approach.
The Hon. Julian Hill MP, member for Bruce, provided the most anticipated talk of the day. The Villains/Hero/Victims triangle was a key theme for his talk. Villains are finger pointers, the ones that blame Intl students for society’s ills that may pop up from time to time. Heros – we love students they can play a role in wider society, namely working longer, wider hours. Then Victims – students are all here being exploited, some are but not all are. These are three common lenses’ that international students are seen through.
He advocated we needed a balanced view. Most students are good. Most providers are good. Most agents are good. But not all are. He knew his audience underscoring that folks in this room aren’t the dodgy ones.
He provided a personal, but on-government message, talk which was to the point as per heis style. The Koala has long sung the member for Bruce’s praises, and again, it’s reassuring to hear someone in parliament have the in-depth knowledge of our industry which has been missing for some time.
Melanie Macfarlane, a board member of ISEAA, provided an overview of the migration review. The session started immediately after morning tea with attendees joining Melanie in a chorus of “We are one, we are many” – a passionate way to kick off the session and unify the conference. Melanie took attendees through specific visa circumstances and provided an in-depth wrap-up of the migration review.
Akram Mardini, Director Student World, led a student panel. The panel, made up of 4 students from different global locations (Bazil, Nepal, Vietnam, and Bangladesh), walked the student journey and paused at key points to discuss their experiences from how to find what course to study to visa applications, health insurance and so on. The discussion focused on the value and value add that agents provide. In one particular example, the agent was significant in sourcing accommodation and steering the student choice from one accommodation location (and provider) to another, which was going to be closer to their study location, which, in hindsight, the student said was critical to their success while studying.
Next up, Kevin Schefe from Allianz Partners spoke of the requirement of OSHC and provided a story asking, “What if your child was on the other side of the world in intensive care and not expected to live?”. Kevin spoke of “Ben” who had tried to end his life by taking fentanyl. Ben’s attempt was thwarted by housemates who returned home and Ben was transferred to the hospital. His parents came to Australia and it was requested by the parents to return Ben to his own country. At a cost of several hundred thousand dollars, this was made possible. The coordination and care that was required was immense and Ben’s case lingers in the organisation. To this day, folks within the organisation still ask, “Have you heard from Ben” or “How’s Ben doing”. Ben made a recovery and it’s a reminder why health insurance is so vitally important.
Post lunch, the Koala provided insight into the reviews that are currently underway and likely due for conclusion (for a number) in December, in the next week or two. The presentation was interactive, where the Koala took the temperature of the room and will publish another piece on it.
Melanie Duncan from IEP Advisory and VP of ISANA worked through compliance and provided a thorough insight into compliance regimes for agents.
On the home stretch, Simon Costain appeared on the stage again and led an exciting panel of Gagan Singh of Planet Education, Rod Hearps of ICEF and Ben Bagshaw of Kaplan Business School. The ensuing workshop challenged attendees to think about what an agent regulation model may look like. With varied responses from each workgroup, the outcome of taking ICEF’s model and adapting it for local engagement appeared to be the consensus to move forward.
Study NSW’s Katie Hanna provided the wrap and thanks. She demonstrated Study NSW has been active in assisting the promotion and engagement of students who choose NSW as their study destination. In addition, several initiatives were highlighted.
The Koala wishes to thank SYMPLED for the invitation to attend and especially thanks Robert Parsonson for his work to make the day such a success.
