‘Anxiety’ On Accommodation For Overseas Students

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31304, 25 February 1967, Page 2

‘Anxiety’ On Accommodation For Overseas Students

“Overseas students are the butt of undesirable people in every city in the world, including Christchurch. This is causing considerable anxiety here,” Mrs N. C. Jacobs, assistant liaison officer at the University of Canterbury, said during a panel discussion recently.

“If we don’t look after our overseas students, these people will,” she said.

Mrs Jacobs is looking for suitable private accommodation for a sixth-form pupil attending Cashmere High School, and is awaiting the arrival of two more students, both of whom will require board in Cashmere. “It seems no-one in Cashmere wants to have an overseas student. I have two more boys arriving and there is no home for them.” Mrs Jacobs was one of four speakers on a panel arranged by the Canterbury branch of the Federation of University Women. The subject was "The Asian and African Students in our midst” and other speakers were Miss L. E. Coleman, a voluntary worker with the External Affairs Department; Mrs P. Douglas, a teacher of overseas students at Cashmere High School; and

Mrs M. M. Burns, of Lincoln College. The present acute difficulty in finding ideal accommodation for overseas students was a result of the increasing number of private students coming to Christchurch. Mrs Jacobs said 71 of the flrst-year intake of students at the university this year were private students. Far from being rejects from their own universities they were very able students. Shortage of places in the universities of their homelands forced them to seek education abroad. “The universities in Malaya and Singapore have places for only 800 flrst-year students. These universities cater for a population of more than 15} million,” Mrs Jacobs said. The recently formed Overseas Students Affairs Committee was doing a great deal to help newcomers. The committee comprised mainly senior overseas students and aimed to “make things easier for the students of the future.” In the last few weeks students had been arriving in droves. “A Malaysian boy has been meeting every plane. He goes out to the airport, at his own expense, in an old bomb of a car which seems to fall

to pieces every few miles. He’s doing this because he wants to help these newcomers,” said Mrs Jacobs. National students’ associations were now very well organised and provided an excellent meeting ground for students, Miss Coleman said. But this development had meant a weakening of the international association, and Mrs Jacobs considered that overseas students were not mixing as well with New Zealanders as before.

Miss Coleman deals mainly with sponsored students, but finds accommodation the “number one problem.” Only 35 places in halls of residence are available to overseas students.

Although Vietnamese, Thais and Malaysians were readily accepted Miss Coleman found prejudice against Africans, Indians and often Polynesians.

Students who arrived in Christchurch at "odd times”— other than the beginning of the academic year—and those studying or working in places other than the university needed special attention. "We have a boy from Nepal here working at a butter factory. He is doing practical work for his course at Massey University and has been very lonely,” she said.

Students passing through the city or staying for short holidays also needed hospitality. Miss Coleman has compiled a list of homes which can be telephoned with a request for hospitality at any time.

“They say quite freely whether it is convenient for them or not,” said Miss Coleman. “But we need this help even for students with private accommodation in the city—the odd week-end or holiday away is a good break for everyone. Family outings are very much appreciated too.

“But the students are very sensitive to superficial interest and patronage.” Repeating Mrs Jacobs’s plea for board in Cashmere, Mrs Douglas emphasised the need for a mother figure in the lives of the sixth-form pupils she taught. "Christchurch has the greatest number of overseas students in schools,” she said. "People outside the school must help them, and they don’t, they really don’t.” Cashmere High School’s English language laboratory greatly assisted the pupils. Fluenq* and inability to communicate in English were their greatest difficulties.