Don’t panic! You got us!
Sydney Studymate: Online
Guide for International Students
When I first came
to Sydney, I didn’t know anyone or anything. All I could rely on is a few pages
of ‘Free Official Sydney Guide’ in Chinese that I picked up at the airport. Like this:
 |
| (From here) |
As an
international student myself, I understand how difficult it would be to study abroad.
To cope with a brand new environment is painful enough, not to mention that people
all around you are speaking in another language.
So I went onto the
magical Internet for help – the most convenient and efficient way of getting
information in modern days. However, when I googled them, surprisingly there is few websites that
especially serve for international student’s needs. Some governmental official
websites, such as Official Sydney Website, City of Sydney, and Department of Immigrationand Citizenship only have limited information, which does no better than my
poor manual.
I wish there could
be a website with not only general informative knowledge, but also useful tips of
both studying and living in Sydney for desperate international students like me.
Now, we make my wish
come true.
We are a group of
university students of different nationalities and backgrounds. In fact, most
of our members are international students ourselves. We noticed this kind of
informative website focusing on international students in Sydney’s region is a
gap in the industry. So, we decided to build one on our own.
Our project Sydney Studymate is a guide for international students in
Sydney. It has everything you need to know about studying and living in Sydney,
no matter when you firstly come here, or you have already lived here for a
while.
International students are a very important
group in Australia. International education activity contributed $16.3
billion in export income to the Australian economy in 2010-11. In fact, education
services is Australia’s largest
services export industry ahead of other personal travel and business related
services. According to the
data from Australian Government’s International
Student Data, there are
more than 230,000 international students of higher education in Australia now.
Therefore, this large amount of international
students coming to Sydney for their higher education is our main target group. We
aim to provide a useful and attractive guide for those students. We will infiltrate
both online and offline into mainstream university or college publications in
Sydney, such as UniLife, Honi Soit, and Vertigo, etc.
As international students ourselves, we have
the advantage of live personal experience. We may all have been through some
kind of trouble during our stay in this beautiful harbour city. We live in our
own cultural communities, and we hear from our friends from these communities.
We are able to know what other international students’ needs, because those are
exactly what we need.
So, here is what we will have on our website:
- Feature articles: informative and investigative, take an in-depth look at international students, with topics such as housing, daily life, and visa.
- Checking In: reviews of cool Sydney-based restaurants and pubs of student’s budget, with a Google Map check-in interactive section.
- My Calendar: a calendar of attractive events happening in Sydney, both local and international related.
- About Us & Feedback: get to know us here, and tell us what you think, what you want to know, or even submit your own pieces.
- Links: useful websites and documents that would help you during your stay in Sydney.
Stay tuned, Sydney Studymate will not let you down! :)
Great advice and nice to here that international students are helping out others in the same situation. You can also visit our site at studylane.com.au if you are looking for any other tips to pass onto students or talk to our counsellors and educational agents.
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