A new life for international students.

Australian students starting life at ANU this week will know how hard it is to find your way around the campus and Canberra. But imagine struggling with that when you come from a different country and English isn’t your first language.

That’s the challenge faced by many of the university’s international students. For some, the difference between their home countries and the ACT can be huge.

Amanda Manuel is one of those adapting to life on a new campus, in a new city and a new country. She comes to ANU from northern Mexico and arrived with her 12 year old son to do a Masters of Applied Linguistics. A daunting prospect to most, but she said the key to success lies in good planning.

“I was looking for the best university for what I wanted to do and I spent a few months researching the options,” she said.

“I had to take into account my needs and the needs of my son. We arrived two months ago to have time to settle down and get used to the city. The people have been so lovely and friendly and we fell in love with the university.”

But while Amanda’s ANU university life is just beginning, the time of others is drawing to a close. Gita Gayatri has just one week left before she leaves to return home to Indonesia after four years at ANU.
“I’ve stayed in the one hall the whole time I’ve been here,” she said.
“It’s lovely and I never want to move. I have to leave all my friends – going home might be a reverse culture shock.”

One international student who knows all about the culture shock that can be experienced when starting life on a new campus in a foreign country is Samitha Ramanayake. Samitha, who is undertaking a Bachelor of Biotechnology, made the transition to Canberra from his home in Sri Lanka two years ago and said the first challenge new international students face is making friends.

“It was an easy transition for me because I’d been coming to Australia regularly since I was three. Finding friends was the biggest challenge,” he said.

To help out other students facing the similar challenges, Samitha started volunteering at the University’s International Office. Now, to many newly-arriving students, he is the public face of student life as part of the Meet and Greet program.

“The program helps out international students by telling them about university life, showing them around, talking about enrolment, healthcare – all sorts of things.

“I pick them up from the airport and bring them to the campus. The exchange students usually ask a lot of questions, but for many they’re coming away from their homes for the first time – all they really want to do is get back and have a shower!”

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