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how do we foster a sense of community for international students in the short time they are here? And in turn, how do we bridge the often unintentional divide that underpins their experiences?

High-density housing is deliberately geared towards the international student market, at the expense of a broader mix. Orientation programs for international students and local students often run at different times. International students pay the full cost for transport, while domestic students get half-price concessions. And at some institutions, separate queues and counters even exist.

With their proximity to Melbourne and RMIT, they give students few opportunities to venture out of their comfort zone, explore the rest of the city, and perhaps build new connections. Some have few communal spaces - not exactly conducive to interacting with life beyond the campus zone.

The move follows reports that training colleges have profited from recruiting hundreds of students into substandard courses as a fast track to gaining permanent residency here.

Students to dump textbooks for e-books Carmel EganAugust 16, 2009 HEAVY book-filled school bags could soon be a thing of the past, with the e-book industry claiming most of students' textbooks will be contained in light hand-held portable devices within three years. The internet-linked reading devices will store hundreds of e-textbooks bought online or borrowed from school libraries. ''E-textbooks will be mainstream within three years,'' the executive director of DA Direct, Australia's largest distributor of portable reading devices and e-books, Richard Siegersma, predicted. Mr Siegersma said digital technology would lead to the costs of e-textbooks falling in a year to 18 months. ''There will be just-in-time and customised delivery to flexible, full-colour screens; textbooks with audio and video components; touch screens for handwriting and margin note-taking and text highlighting,'' he said.

HEAVY book-filled school bags could soon be a thing of the past, with the e-book industry claiming most of students' textbooks will be contained in light hand-held portable devices within three years.

''E-textbooks will be mainstream within three years,''

a decline in student visa applications from India compared with last year.

The department was unable to provide the figures last night because they are still being compiled.

Education is Australia's third-largest export, after coal and iron ore. Universities have come to depend on international student fees to cover the shortfall created by chronic underfunding from government.

AUSTRALIA’S elite universities are set to pay a high price for the foreign student crisis, as middle-class Indian parents concerned for the safety of their children opt for universities in Britain, New Zealand and North America instead of Australia.

The agents have experienced falls of up to 50 per cent in inquiries by students wanting to study at Australia’s top tertiary institutions since the controversy began.

It is not the first time the Egyptian security service claimed to have rounded up a cell of jihadist European students.

After just over a week of questioning, they were deported. There was no evidence. Back in Europe authorities saw no reason to hold the students.

the Egyptian security service often keeps surveillance on specific foreign students at the request of European secret services.

WHAT do most Australians know about Indonesian art? What role do the arts play in the picture they present of contemporary Indonesia? Not much, perhaps.

We heard from a young Indonesian filmmaker about thriving, youthful film communities across Indonesia and among Indonesian students in Melbourne; we shared some of the songs, stories and images collected by an Australian artist from northern Australian and eastern Indonesian communities once linked by ocean trade; we saw gigantic puppets created by young earthquake survivors near Yogyakarta, performing a zany new version of the Ramayana legend under the inspired leadership of Ian Pidd and the Snuff Puppet group.

A TRIP to India next week to promote Melbourne as a safe city has turned into a monumental challenge for John Brumby after another racist attack that has attracted fresh headlines and anti-Australian fury across India.

Two Indian men and another two of Indian origin say they were racially taunted and told to ''go back to your country'' before being kicked and punched by attackers who were part of a large birthday celebration at Legends Entertainment Centre. The Indian Government increased pressure on Australia last night over the ''recurring attacks'' on its citizens. It called on authorities to ''take all necessary steps towards the safety and security of Indians''. Indian consular officials in Melbourne were also ordered to investigate.

One of the victims, Sukhdip Singh, 26, had been in Australia just one month. A relative said he had suffered head and facial injuries and wanted to return to India immediately. His uncle, Mukhtiar Singh, 45, also a victim, said Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recent assurance to India's Foreign Minister that Australia was safe for Indian students rang hollow. ''I used to say the same thing … now I would say Melbourne is worse than a Third-World country, violence-wise,'' Mr Singh told The Age. Recalling Saturday's incident, he said his nephew was taunted with verbal abuse and racial slurs in the bar before they were later set upon in the car park by about 20 people. ''I have lived here for 22 years,'' Mr Singh said. ''I've got my own business here, my own house, my kids have grown up here. Why should I go back? We all come from somewhere.''

Crazy Noonga' website sparks racism outrage FRAN RIMROD September 24, 2009 A website set up by a Perth student about a fictional Aboriginal character has been shut down and is being investigated by police amid racism claims. The website, which Radio 6PR reports was created by a 19-year-old Curtin University student, features audio excerpts  of a character called "Nigel the crazy Noonga", who prank calls businesses and fast-food outlets with a fake Aboriginal accent. The portrayal of negative Aboriginal stereotypes has sparked outrage from the Aboriginal community. Craig Somerville, lecturer at the Curtin University Centre for Aboriginal Studies, told 6PR he believed the material on the website had crossed the line between humour and racism.

The Facebook "Just for fun" group set up for "Nigel the crazy Noonga" has 317 members and describes "Nigel" as "your friendly neighbourhood Noonga". It also pokes fun at the character's fictional solvent abuse, describing it as his own personal "dreamtime". Sergeant Greg Lambert said police were aware of the website and were investigating.

Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?

Young men with downy beards, caps, kneelength a traditional Arab galabeyas and sandals sat chatting in a McDonalds' restaurant in Nasr City, a large middle class district in the eastern part of Cairo.

In the neighborhood Egyptians, the European Salafists - Sunni religious fundamentalists - are outsiders.

Cairo

Mr Berry: When you walk in the gate it's nice. It gives you the impression that maybe you have a place in Australia maybe, maybe it feels like you in Australia, maybe somebody else, OK, maybe in Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else in the world, maybe in Italy, maybe somebody has the same feeling like Oh, this looks somewhere in Rome, somewhere in Greece

Mr Berry: Golf, it's a very prestigious thing.

For South Koreans, efforts to replace credit cards and cash hit their stride in 2004, when banks began issuing integrated circuit chips that slot into the mobile phones and allow them to work like credit cards at A.T.M.’s.

Mobile payment has been adopted in many parts of Europe and Asia, especially in Japan. Still, phones have a long way to go before replacing plastic.

For Kim Hee-young, her mobile is the Swiss Army knife of the digital era. When she wants ice cream, she just asks her phone, and it shows a list of ice cream shops — complete with their menus and customer reviews — and the shortest way to get there.

This year more than a thousand Web sites have been shut down for “vulgar” content, although some critics complain that academic or public service sites that deal with sexually transmitted diseases have also been swept up in the juggernaut.

Industry experts say that at least 90 percent of all online games in China have some form of violence, whether they involve homicidal kung-fu masters, sword-wielding hobbits or monsters with a taste for human flesh

There are summer camps for teenagers who spend too much online,

Australia and India agreed to an extradition treaty in June last year, but the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, it is not yet in force.

"Once the extradition treaty enters into force, Indian authorities would be bound to uphold and process the extradition request, and to seek to lodge an arrest warrant within India to seek out and detain this individual."

"In 2008 in addition to the extradition treaty, Australia also concluded a mutual assistance treaty dealing with matters of criminal interest between the two countries, and since then of course we've had the terrorist events in Bombay and no doubt the Australian Federal Police have got interests in matters that are occurring in India,"

Classes are expected to be cancelled at the University of Melbourne on Wednesday as staff walk off the job in protest of continued job cuts. Staff will hold a rally at 1pm (AEST) during a "24 hour strike" action planned by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). Union members at 16 universities across Australia will join them by launching similar actions at their schools.

The University of Melbourne is in the midst of a massive restructuring as part of its Melbourne Model campaign to align the school with the teaching practices of other institutions. Unions and some students have criticised the plan as it brings with it continued job cuts.

showcasing Malaysia's cultural and ethnic heritage.

Malaysia's cultural and ethnic heritage.

biggest Malaysian student cultural show