Gaby Ramia

Australia’s higher education sector was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Student and staff numbers declined, and the government assistance afforded to other sectors was all but missing for universities. In a callous example of abandonment in an hour of need, Australia’s international students were similarly ignored by the federal government. International Student Policy in Australia: The welfare dimension tells the story of how successive governments have chosen a conscious form of what is effectively policy inaction on international student welfare since well before COVID-19. The politics of policy during the pandemic is a significant part of the narrative, but it only tells part of the story. International Student Policy in Australia examines the policies and laws that regulate the lives of international students in Australia. Professor Gaby Ramia examines the political, policy, governance and regulatory contexts within which international student rights and welfare are determined in Australia and interrogates specific thematic areas – including racism, discrimination and violence, health and wellbeing – and the means by which students have dealt with crisis situations over the past 20 years. International Student Policy in Australia: The welfare dimension provides an analysis of international student welfare amid questions of policy action and inaction in the management of multiple crises, within an era of massified international education, drawing implications for policy and legal reform and providing a revised policy agenda for a post-pandemic future.

Australia’s higher education sector was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Student and staff numbers declined, and the government assistance afforded to other sectors was all but missing for universities. In a callous example of abandonment in an hour of need, Australia’s international students were similarly ignored by the federal government. International Student Policy in Australia: The welfare dimension tells the story of how successive governments have chosen a conscious form of what is effectively policy inaction on international student welfare since well before COVID-19. The politics of policy during the pandemic is a significant part of the narrative, but it only tells part of the story. International Student Policy in Australia examines the policies and laws that regulate the lives of international students in Australia. Professor Gaby Ramia examines the political, policy, governance and regulatory contexts within which international student rights and welfare are determined in Australia and interrogates specific thematic areas – including racism, discrimination and violence, health and wellbeing – and the means by which students have dealt with crisis situations over the past 20 years. International Student Policy in Australia: The welfare dimension provides an analysis of international student welfare amid questions of policy action and inaction in the management of multiple crises, within an era of massified international education, drawing implications for policy and legal reform and providing a revised policy agenda for a post-pandemic future.

This open access book examines the comparative evolution of social protection in Australia and New Zealand from 1890 to the present day, focusing on the relationship between employment relations and social policy. Utilising longstanding and more recent developments in historical institutionalist methodology, Ramia investigates the relationship between these two policy domains in the context of social protection theory. He argues that treating employment relations as dynamic, and as inextricably intertwined with changes in the welfare state over time, allows for more accurate portrayal of similarity and difference in social protection. The book will be of most interest to researchers, advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in social policy, employment relations, public policy, social and political history, and comparative politics.

This open access book examines the comparative evolution of social protection in Australia and New Zealand from 1890 to the present day, focusing on the relationship between employment relations and social policy. Utilising longstanding and more recent developments in historical institutionalist methodology, Ramia investigates the relationship between these two policy domains in the context of social protection theory. He argues that treating employment relations as dynamic, and as inextricably intertwined with changes in the welfare state over time, allows for more accurate portrayal of similarity and difference in social protection. The book will be of most interest to researchers, advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in social policy, employment relations, public policy, social and political history, and comparative politics.

Cross-border education is a fast growing and diverse global market, but little is known about how international students actually live. Using international and cross-country comparative analysis, this book explores how governments influence international student welfare, and how students shape their own opportunities. As well as formal regulation by government, ‘informal regulation’ through students’ family, friendship and co-student networks proves vital to the overseas experience. Two case study countries - Australia and New Zealand - are presented and compared in detail. These are placed in the global regulatory and market contexts, with lessons for similar exporter countries drawn. Regulating international students’ wellbeing will be of interest to international students, student representative bodies, education policy makers and administrators, as well as civil servants and policy makers in international organisations. Students and researchers of international and comparative social policy will be drawn into its focus on a little understood but vulnerable global population.

This study addresses the transformation of the concept of work between the years 1970 and 2000. The authors remind us of what we now might easily forget: that, not so long ago, the right of an unemployed person to social security benefits and services was not questioned.