UNWELCOME COMMITTEE

ASEE Prism, Dec 2004 by Pritchard, Chris

DIVERSITY

AUSTRALIA-Engineering schools are worried that outbursts of racism could hurt their efforts to attract foreign students.Several African students attending the University of Newcastle have been attacked recently,and a few similar incidents have been reported in other parts of the country.

Attracting foreign students is important for universities down under. The government has forced the schools to increase self-funding and rely less on subsidies. Last year, foreign students contributed the equivalent of $1.4 billion U.S.dollars to university coffers.

Australia's image as a good place to study was tarnished in the mid-1990s during the short-lived prominence of a populist right-wing politician with strident anti-immigration views.The country currently has good race relations with its large immigrant population.-CHRIS PRITCHARD