Kang GURU and Australian Alumni

Sweat and Sweet Being an International Student

By Suparto, a PhD student, Monash University

Early March 2003 was the onset of my life history living in Melbourne when I came alone to the ‘grey’ city of Melbourne. I cam for study at Monash University under the sponsorship of Australia-Asia Award. I think my feelings were just the same with that of other international students when they embarked at the first time on such a lonely place. I'd never dreamt to be a ‘Melbournian’. Adjusting myself to the exotic weather of Melbourne was little bit thorny, as I just realised that this city is indeed a heaven with four seasons in one day. Melbourne is unlike Jakarta whose weather is warm and humid all the times. Yet, sooner I began to acclimatise myself to such a new environment and enjoyed often drastic climate changes. Natural climate is not that big deal as my body can easily fiddle with such a climate. Nonetheless, heaps of pitfalls were waiting for me at this fortress of intellectual training. In this short essay I would like to share my happiness and sorrow as an International student. So that why I put title “sweat and sweet being an international student” for this article.

It is my second stay in Australia. In 1999 to 2000 I lived in Adelaide doing my masters at Flinders University which financially was supported by ADS. Living in Melbourne was quite new experience for me. It was then I had to learn to adjust my life with the academic climate in Monash University. In the beginning, I did not know what I should do as a new PhD student at the School of Education in Clayton campus. On the first week I just wandered and strolled around the campus by my own, tried to familiarise with the buildings and facilities. I found it was quite stunning and interesting, since the campus provides whole range of facilities for various students. Religious facilities are also provided for multi-faith students. I saw a Muslim prayer room at the Religious Centre is available for Muslim students. The Beddoe ‘mosque’ is located in the end north-west of campus just close to the parking area. Booklets on Islam and halal food were also available at the administration building; the information was very informative and helpful for me as a new Muslim student. I did not find any serious problem in conducting my belief and ritual activities.

Being a PhD student, I had to admit that my life activity is considered as a twenty-four hour and seven day a week activity. I found no holiday at all, as times are so demanding and critical. Clock is ticking so preciously. Thanks to Monash University which provides 24 hour access to a student like me. There is no word “finish” after seeing my supervisor, as one task will always come after another. For example, after having discussion and receiving my supervisor's feedbacks I have to think of doing another thing. Days were always full of reading and writing. When I was getting stuck and being trapped within the cage of nowhere, I questioned myself as to why my mind just went idle and was empty of creativity. In this condition, I was so gloomy.

It was often desperate when I had to devour books that full of difficult words and discussion. I know it was due to my shortages and lacks of reading ability. When I was cornered by this reality, I felt so frustrated and poignant. In addition, I felt flummoxed as to the direction of my study. Sometimes I pushed myself to do something even writing a tiny peace of paragraph. But, I plunged myself into a point of darkness when sitting in front of the computer. My mind was lying idle and was not able to capture ideas let alone pushed them out from the head. In this frustrating situation, I emailed my supervisor about my obscurity in a hope that I could release myself from such a giddy situation. Additionally, meeting with my supervisor was quite impressive.

I found the relationships between students and supervisors are no more than an ‘academic-friendship’. Discussion took place in informal way and there was no such an imposing ideas to me from my supervisor. I always found ideas were offered and suggested. The last decision was laid in my mind whether I accepted them or otherwise. Although it was deemed as an ‘academic-friendship’, be punctual and self disciplined was a must if I had to finish on time. Clearly, in such a friendly atmosphere of discussion I felt very much welcome in this campus. In short, I felt free from daunting burdens for a while.

To lessen the burdens of academic problems I tried to share with my friends in the office and consult with my supervisor. I believed my problems were just the same as other international students'. I needed to hear other people’s experiences when they ran into academic problems. Having nice friends was very beneficial and rewarding in terms of building self-esteem and confidence, not to mention forcing myself to practice my conversation skill in a friendly informal discussion. Sometimes we went to the cafés within the campus just for having refreshing mind and fresh air.

In terms of writing up my thesis, I found that the more I wrote, the more I did not know; the more I read, the more I felt dummy. It was like diving in a deep and dark ocean where I had to portray a clear picture of what I was attempting to unravel. Not only did I explore information from various literatures, but I was also pushed to use my critical capacity in digesting such information. Like many other Asian students, I did not use to criticise and disagree openly against other people’s opinion, particularly those who were considered as knowledgeable people. I considered the authors from whom I borrow their ideas and my supervisor with whom I always discussed on my study as the knowledgeable people that ought to be respected. Criticising them was seen culturally impolite and ethically unaccepted.

Well, my name is Ir. Filiyanti Teta Ateta Bangun, Grad.Dipl.PM, M.Eng. It's a bit stressful to read it, isn't it? I'm a lecturer at the Dept. of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sumatera Utara (USU) in Medan. I got my Bachelor Degree from USU (1987-1994) under DGHE-Jakarta (DIKTI). I automatically became a lecturer since 1994 because of the agreement with the scholarship.

I pursued my Master degree from March 2001 - 30 Dec 2002 under AusAID Scholarship. I studied Project Management integrated with Transportation Systems at School of Science and Engineering, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne.

During my Master studies, I got 4 out of 8 academic awards from the faculty. The awards were from the Dept of Infrastructure (The City Government of Melbourne) and from various industrial institutions in Melbourne related to the subjects I've done.

Nina Kurnia Dewi born in Pekalongan, Central Java, 18 May 1971. Graduated from Agro-industrial Technology, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) in 1993, she was awarded an Australian Development Scholarship to pursue further study at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and completed her MBA on December 2002. Mother of two, Nina now is working as Credit Monitoring Manager at one of the state owned companies (Perum Sarana Pengembangan Usaha) in Jakarta, where she coordinates all of the credit monitoring activities, controls the credit performance and solves non-performing loan problems.

It was a kind of day dream for me when in 1999 I was thinking to continue my study. Master degree? In Australia? No. No way, that's impossible. Australia is too far. Too expensive. I was not even able to fund my postgraduate study in my hometown Jakarta.

At that time, I was just an ordinary employee in one of the state owned companies in Jakarta. I wanted to further my education but there was neither allowance nor subsidy from my office for that purpose. It was also a dream to finance the study using my own income.

The opportunity to study arose when the ADS Office in Jakarta advertised the scholarships in the media. Under the Australian Government's Aid program (AusAID), ADS gave the chance for Indonesians to continue their study in a Master or Phd Program in Australia. The advertising was published in newspapers and throughout government departments in the country. The applicants had to pass some selection steps to get the scholarship.

Without any delay, I joined the ADS selection process. By fulfilling all requirements, I was invited to take some further tests here in Jakarta. After passing the first selection (English test) and having some interviews, I was selected as one of the ADS awardees. Yes! I was successful… Oh, God… This is a miracle.

Before starting a six-month English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at IALF in Jakarta, I found that I was pregnant with my first son. The doctor said that I was four months pregnant. Now confusion set in. Apart from my health, I was worried by one big question: whether it was better to bring my baby to Australia or leave him in Indonesia. But, you know it wasn't easy for a new mother like me to make such a decision. In the end, my son won: I decided to postpone the scholarship. Fortunately, ADS allowed me to defer my EAP.

In May 2000, I started my English Course in IALF Jakarta. Six months was enough time to prepare myself with English skills as well as making some good friendship with ADS fellows. I had a score of 7 in IELTS and I got a place in the MBA Program at The University of Queensland (UQ), Brisbane Australia. For this reason, I departed on 16 January 2001 to continue my study.

My husband, Taufiq, after deciding that joining me in Australia would give him some added value to his life, resigned from his job and followed me. He came with my beloved son, Ilham who was 20 months old. Taufiq planned to have some Australian experience, including working and or studying in an Australian university.