file details - macquarie university€¦ · web viewfacilitator: but it does play a very vital...

PO Box 745 Indooroopilly QLD 4068 AUSTRALIA

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FILE DETAILS

Audio Length: 41minutes

Audio Quality: High Average Low

Number of Facilitators: One

Number of Interviewees: Two (One interviewee for transcript Mayur & One interviewee

for transcript Richa_jasiwal)

Difficult Interviewee Accents: Yes No

Other Comments: Two transcripts in this document: Mayur & Richa_jasiwal.

Richa Jasiwal's transcript starts on page 13.

START OF TRANSCRIPT

[PART ONE - Mayur.avi]

Facilitator: Welcome and thank you for coming today. As you know this is a one

on one interview to explore your education and academic experience.

There's no right or wrong answer.

Interviewee: Alright.

Facilitator: Our aim is to explore the topic as thoroughly as possible. I will be

discussing your thoughts, observations, expectations regarding your

life experience in Australia and your life as a student in Australia.

Interviewee: Okay, right.

Facilitator: So welcome to this interview.

Interviewee: Thank you.

[Unclear] words are denoted in square brackets and time stamps may be used to indicate their location within the audio.

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document.doc of 21

Facilitator: Let's begin with information about your background.

Interviewee: I'm a bachelor's of - I'm an international student obviously. I've come

to Australia about a couple of years back. I've done my bachelor's in

technology then I've worked as a manager in a bank.

It is after a couple of years in the bank that I observed that I'm getting

stagnant in the role and I want to pursue further studies. So I had a

couple of options. Since I'm interested in finance and this field - so I

chose - a couple of options. First is to go to the States and do a

degree in applied finance which was my main thing. So I've already

decided going there.

It was a last minute decision that I had to come to Australia. I spoke

to one of my sisters who is staying here for the past 15 years. She

was of the opinion that Australia is a beautiful place, family life is great

in Australia and it's a beautiful country. I share the same feelings after

two years in Australia.

So yeah she said why don't you come over here? Prospects for

accounting students are really good. Studies are really nice and

peaceful. Interestingly she's a student from the same university that I

graduated from - that's a good decade back. She had a beautiful

experience. So I was of the impression that I would have the same

experience and I chose coming over to Australia.

Also a couple of other things that had a major impact on me moving to

Australia. Before I was due to come here I spoke to a few mates in

the States. Most of them are kind of struggling to find work and

they're - they didn't share great thoughts and opinions about their stay

in the States. So I chose - people who were staying in Australia had

better experience, so I happened to come over.

Facilitator: Okay would you be able to give more background about your life in

India and where exactly you are coming from?

Interviewee: Where exactly I'm coming from? I'm coming from the southern part of

India. My family background - my mum's side is very academic. My

grandfather's a principal in a school. My mum's a master's in Hindi.

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document.doc of 21

She's been sponsored by the country since childhood so she's

wonderful in her education.

My dad's side is completely business oriented. My dad's a distributor

of surgical equipment back in our town. It's not a major town. It's a

city [unclear] it's a beautiful place. We have beautiful beaches. So we

have a decent life there.

But my dad's side's more - they're more business oriented. So

coming from a family like that, even I share the same thought. I mean

I want to be in my own business someday. So that's my family

background and - is anything else?

Facilitator: So tell me why you chose Australia as the destination to pursue your

education and career.

Interviewee: I believe I spoke a bit about that. I don't like repeating.

Facilitator: I understand you talk about your sister - your sister is here. How she

had a really good experience.

Interviewee: Two reasons - first was experience was good, country is beautiful.

Second was country is doing really well and students who came here

were finding jobs. They were settling properly. It had very good

prospects.

When I was due coming here, 2009, I spoke to many people. Many

shared the same view that Australia is much better to come over for

an international student experience than the States. Because I had

10 to 15 of my very close mates in the States. I still speak to them.

Some of them have good experience - most of them have…

Look student life is tough whatever country you go in, unless your

dad's paying for all your expenses. My dad's paid for a chunk of my

expenses here. That made my life easy. But unless somebody is

completely sponsoring your stay and your finances have been

completely taken care of by a third party, student life is definitely not

100 per cent beautiful. It has its fair share of happy and sad

moments.



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Facilitator: So since pursuing your studies in Australia, what have you found most

useful in your academic experience?

Interviewee: Since pursuing - I think - not just saying it - but you kind of get used to

the corporate experience. I mean where would you use - I mean my

first job in Australia was I worked with Mobil in a fuel station like many

other international students. Luckily I was working with the company

and they paid me a decent amount. They used to pay me about 27

dollars an hour and I used to get 20 hours of work a week.

I used to work on weekends so I missed out on life a bit. But still I had

my fair share of money. At the end of the week I could spend for

movies. I did pay the bulk of my fees too. I couldn't have done that

without my sister. That's because I was staying my sister and most of

my expenses are shared. They helped me a bit. I have a beautiful

family here. They supported me quite a bit.

Yeah what did I learn - professionally what kind of support I got yeah -

I built good networks. The networks haven't been of much use

professionally so far. They helped me find a job in my office. I work

as a manager with one of the concessions now. Yeah.

Facilitator: So what have you enjoyed most in your studies?

Interviewee: Enjoyed most in my studies? Freedom - I had a lot of time. I studied

in University of Western Sydney - am I allowed to share that on this

interview? I studies in University of Western Sydney. It had an open

environment. I know many friends from Macquarie. Universities are

very open places here.

I mean there's pressure, but there's not so much pressure that you

can't handle many things. There's definitely pressure. You find

people who come from many other countries. We used to go and

socialise with them in their dance and stuff. So many experiences,

even if it was different experiences - enjoyable, not so enjoyable

experiences - a fair share of experiences.

I mean change is always interesting. I'd be surprised if you said that

you lead the same lifestyle you find very happy. Probably yes for a



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year or two. For me the most interesting thing was change. I was

used to a set lifestyle back home. I love change. I've got that so I

was happy - [unclear] so far.

I mean looking forward I'm not exactly sure. I think it's going to be

nice.

Facilitator: Anything in terms of offerings, resources and activities that you

enjoyed most in Australia?

Interviewee: What kind of activities are you wanting me to mention?

Facilitator: Activities which were relevant to your studies like granting extensions,

sessions or assignments or…

Or in terms of resources, how the library was…

Interviewee: If I had to be really honest for an international student, I don't think

that most of the money that international students spend on their

studies is being used back on them because facilities are really good -

they're beautiful - I mean facilitators are always available.

I was one of those lucky people who got a chance to work with the

university on most locations. I worked for the university's call centre. I

worked for new student recruitment. I was literally there as a

counsellor for many of the undergrad students, local students,

orientation sessions. So I got to do a fair bit with the university and

I'm very happy - I'm very lucky to have found work with the university.

That's because working with the university helped me understand how

local students think, how Australia works, how international students

think, where we exactly fall. I enjoyed every minute of my work with

the university.

I can't say I enjoyed all my assignments with the university. But most

of them were very monotonous and boring. I wouldn't say challenging

because I had more challenging assignments in my undergrad. I

believe it's the same case here. I'm not the right guy to make a

comment on that because I haven't done my undergraduate courses

from here.



document.doc of 21

I found work back home more challenging. I found work here - I don't

think it's - I wouldn't say it's up to the standards of a master's degree.

I mean I wouldn't particularly narrow it down to one university. But it's

study in general - but for a few patches of good coursework here and

there, most of the study course-wise, content-wise, it's really bleak.

Facilitator: What was the most challenging aspect of your studies? What were

the challenging things in your studies?

Interviewee: Most challenging aspect in the study - I would have to say - it would

have to be the assignments again. I mean as an international student

I was used to certain format, style and execution which really didn't

work up here.

As in if you say Research and Communication is one of the subjects I

did. I did my Masters in Financial Accountancy here - just in case I

didn't mention it before. Research and Communication is one of the

subjects that I had to do on my course. That requires me to do

assignments.

I am very comfortable doing assignments. I've always been very

comfortable doing assignments. I've written - I've done a few

assignments and none of them could get me a distinction. I used to

just get about - I would say out of 10, about six, 6.5. Then I was told

that this is not the Australian way to present. This is more the

American way to present or more the Indian way to present, which

was a bit of a shock to me.

But I slowly adjusted myself to the Australian way of doing -

Australians are - contrary to what many people think - you've been

here for a while - you must have figured it by now. Australians are

very conservative in their approach to life. As an international person

you wouldn't expect that. But the Australian way of life is very

conservative. Australian terminology, Australian usage, Australian

way of speaking is very conservative.

You wouldn't see many adjectives being used in professional writings.

You wouldn't see [unclear] style of Australian style speech. It's a very



document.doc of 21

laid back, settled - I mean a simple example could be given. I mean

how are you? You say, not bad. Not bad - if you're coming from an

Indian style of answer or American style of answer or many of the

European styles of answer that would be constituted a really bad day.

Not bad. I mean you're expected to be very happy and cheerful. But

Australian style - that's a pretty good day. Not bad mate is a decent

day. So that's a major shift.

I mean the style of presentation coursework I found it very hard. I

never ended up getting a distinction in an assignment. I finished my

course. I've shared this thought with many other colleagues of mine -

international students especially - and all of them are from the same

school of thought. They think it's really, really difficult trying to

understand how they expect you to present your assignments.

Facilitator: So what difficulties have you experienced as a student during your

educational experience in Australia?

Interviewee: As a student, yes, like many other students I have experienced many

difficulties. Nothing to an extent or that actually made me feel bad

why I'm here. I had difficulties in my home country as an undergrad

student, many of the incidents similar to the incidents here.

But if I have to narrow it down and say a few incidents - way of life,

lingo and I did find it very difficult to culturally settle in an Australian

way of life. I am very open. I can still say to this point in time I have

not settled into an Australian way of life. I would say I'm one of those

Indians, one of those international students who's in the shift of finding

the balance between and Australian way of life and international way

of life.

I mean I like to retain my flavour to myself. But I still do enjoy

activities that, give one - rugby league, getting sloshed - a few things

here and there - something that gives me fun. Yes I find a beautiful

bridge there.

But otherwise it's really difficult coming from the kind of cultural

background I come from to settle into an Australian way of life. I



document.doc of 21

wouldn't do it purely for the fact that I'm myself. For me to completely

adapt somebody's style of living, I mean that's not myself. Maybe it

takes a while. But I wouldn't mind giving it a shot, trying to find the

right balance that makes my life enjoyable here.

Facilitator: Two interesting points about what you have reflected. First thing I

want to understand - how exactly - what is your perspective of

Australian life? Like how exactly do you see what Australian life is?

Second question is why you're thinking it's difficult for you to mould in

the Australian life after being here for such a long time?

Interviewee: Look, second point - I would like to address the second point first.

Why it is difficult for me to get into the Australian mode of life. First

thing I would say is that I wouldn't completely want to get in the

Australian mode of life because I enjoy my style of life. That's the first

thing.

Second thing is that we come from a culturally strong society. Trying

to leave my skin and get into somebody else's skin is not what I would

enjoy doing. I love the Australian way of life. Australians love sport.

I'm Indian. I love sport. I would do anything for sport. I am a sport - if

somebody watches the sport, many of the Australian mates we sit and

watch rugby league games in the hostel. We sit and watch - many of

the Europeans - not many Australians like watching actual soccer - we

enjoy watching soccer.

So I do things that give me fun with people. As in you - you love food,

you love conversation. I love food. I love conversation so I meet up

with you. If somebody loves cricket, if they share my interest, I don't

mind going and playing cricket with them because it's mutual - it's

mutual interest.

Something else if you'd asked me - cycling like many Australians do -

it's not my favourite thing to do - they go [unclear] - yeah Australian

way of life.

Facilitator: But as - Australia you represented as [unclear].

Interviewee: Oh yes it is, trust me.



document.doc of 21

Facilitator: Do you think if you don't transition yourself or if you don't model

yourself into an Australian way of life you won't be able to survive

here? Do you think it's very vital for you to be more in that particular

lifestyle? Can you just live your own lifestyle and still be in the happy

mode or still - I mean don't think that you're actually surviving in this

country?

Interviewee: I think there's so many Australians who love the way we live. Trust

me, there's so many Australians whom I'm very good friends with.

There's so many Australians who I actually go out with - especially at

university. I won't say go to houses and be the way you are. But

because they - even an Australian family limits themselves to their

friends. They don't go to everybody's houses and they don’t spend

weekends in everybody's houses. They're kind of closed in their

communities which not many people know. Alright, they go out with

their mates from the university. But those are outings. That's a

different thing altogether.

For me I think many Australians do enjoy the kind of lifestyles others

bring. I mean 40 per cent of the Australian population is immigrants.

That's what I heard on the radio. So 40 - half the Australian

population has got some other flavour to it. What is truly Australian

from my experience? Being proud of your country, respecting your

country and respecting your friends and people. Yes I share all of

those values and I don't see why I could not live in a community like

that.

Really the best part of the Australian way of life - you haven't asked

me for it - but the communities are so strong and look they support

each other beautifully. Your car breaks down somewhere. Any

person who doesn't know you stops on the way. They try to help you

out. They go out of their way trying to help you out. They're so nice.

Any random person you meet gives a smile. I mean there are so

many things that make you feel beautiful.

Facilitator: That was very interesting. Coming back to your educational

experience, what skills or attributes do you think you have gained



document.doc of 21

through your education in Australia that has helped you - added to

your attributes?

Interviewee: Come again. Any of my attributes?

Facilitator: Yeah so like what skills or attributes do you think you have gained

through your educational experience in Australia? Like looking at

where you go back in India and where you are right now. What skills

do you think you have…

Interviewee: I'm more mature. I'm more responsible. My family would laugh at

them but I believe I am because putting education perspective aside

as an international student I have a way of life. I have to exist - many

other things - I have to control my finances, I have to control my work,

I have to control my studies. So I've learned to balance my life a lot

better.

I mean living in a different community is a challenge for anyone. I

mean it's a beautiful challenge. It's an interesting challenge. It's a

challenge that makes you go for a challenge like that. So I would say

I've become more sociable. I would say I'm more open to ideas, I'm

more open to change. I would say I've kind of become - I've gained a

broader perspective of everything in life. I mean I can accept many

things now. That's - I give most of the credit to the way of life here.

Facilitator: So this is something that you have not been gaining if you hadn't been

doing an Australian degree?

Interviewee: I wouldn't be able to answer that question for sure. But a multicultural

experience like this and sociability like this - definitely not.

Facilitator: But it does play a very vital role…

Interviewee: It plays a massive role. I'm very open. I'm kind of a person - I'm very

confident. I can go anywhere on planet earth and I can settle there

and I can find a job there. I know it would take me a while but look I'm

moderately confident about myself and I know where I'm heading.

So I mean I think part of the confidence actually came from here, a bit

of carelessness.



document.doc of 21

Facilitator: If there was one thing that you could change in your university

experience, what would be that?

Interviewee: I would say I would change - it’s a very multicultural thing - there's

groupism (sic) in Australia. You see people moving in groups, which

is very bad. You see - I'm not just saying it on some particular group -

even Indians or even Chinese or Lebanese or Australians or anyone.

They're more to their community - some of them.

I mean I've seen groupism a lot in Australia. Even when you go -

people try to move in groups. It could be because of - I don't know -

there's look - evolution's a process. Darwin's theory can never go

wrong. I mean evolution is a primeval process. Even - I think even

you are evolving, I am evolving every day. Everybody's evolving. I

think even communities and multicultural team in Australia's also

evolving. As you see the States - the States is a multicultural place.

It's got its share of disadvantages. Put them aside. Let's been neutral,

let's be rational for a while. It's got its own beauty too.

I mean Australia's a wonderful country. It's only getting better. It's

very good now. It's getting better. But what - if there's one aspect I

would say I haven't enjoyed so much in my university, it's groupism,

and I've seen groupism a lot. I've seen people from communities and

stay to themselves which is really embarrassing and depressing and it

shows that this concept of multicultural - this multicultural thing

concept is still evolving. I mean it's not completely there but it's still

evolving.

I don't know if somebody else shares a different opinion but I'm saying

it in a very rational way. I have seen that a bit.

Facilitator: So have you ever given a thought that if people could change this

thing, what would be - what you would do?

Interviewee: Look for me I would say I would stress more on education in an open

manner. I would stress more on education. Religion's a good thing,

but we should not take religion to such an extreme that it blocks our

minds and thoughts and we go completely lame and we act lame. We



document.doc of 21

have to be open to ideas. Religion's a beautiful thing. I think religion's

a major barricade in what is happening here. Most of the groupism is

related to religion. I think if we get over religion - I'm not saying I don't

want particular religion, it's there in every religion - every particular…

I mean most of the groupism in Australia is through religion. So I

would say if you stress - I think education's the answer for it and

Australia's found the answer. I mean literally everybody here they

give a fair share of importance to their studies. So once you get into

studies you know what's right, what's not. You meet many people.

You know that caste creed, coming from a place like I am - I've seen

many barriers from caste and creed which is ridiculous. So I can't

comment on the Australian way of life here.

If I say humanity in general, caste creed, religion - they play a major

role in the divide. I would say one good thing about Australia is it

doesn’t have - it can only divide. It doesn't - communities are not

divided based on what their per capita incomes are. That's one good

thing. In my country you even see economic divide.

Facilitator: But do you think that - like I can say that you're saying that there's a

groupism in university which you really wanted to change…

Interviewee: I wouldn't say that it's a complete disaster or something. But if I had

to find something in a perfect society then, yes.

Facilitator: So coming to that point, is it groupism happens because it's an

individual choice, it's a freedom of choice that you are belonging to a

particular society or a particular religion - it's my choice to…

[END OF PART ONE Mayur.avi]

[PART TWO - Richa_jasiwal]



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Facilitator: Welcome and thank you for coming today. As you know it's one on

one interview on your education and academic experience. There are

no right or wrong answers.

Our aim is to explore the topic as thoroughly as possible. So welcome

Richa.

Richa Jasiwal: Thank you.

Facilitator: I would like you to start giving a brief introduction of yourself.

Richa Jasiwal: I moved to Australia almost around four years now and it would be 10

years since I'm actually away from my house, living away from my

family.

So I do come from a - not like a very big metro city. I belong from a

place called Varanasi. So it was a big decision for me to actually

move out of the country, though I'd been living in different cities for a

while now.

So because I did my bachelor's in biotech I wanted to do my higher

education in biotech as well and I thought Australia would be a great

place to do one.

The reason why I chose this degree - this country - is because of the

degree which they were offering at that point of time which was back

in 2007 - didn't want to go into back-end research. So Macquarie had

a very good option of doing business together with commerce which is

exactly what I wanted to do. That's the field I am working in now.

Facilitator: Can you give more knowledge about your family background?

Richa Jasiwal: Yeah, no worries.

So basically I'm the only daughter in my family and I have a younger

brother who's in Germany at the moment. My daddy he belongs into a

business class so we have our own plastic factory back in India. My

mum is obviously - she used to look after us. She is still a housewife.

So my dad was very ambitious. He wanted us to go out, explore,

learn more from different cultures and be self-independent. So he did



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support us in our career, with our career, with our goals. Both my

parents were always supporting us throughout our studies.

Facilitator: Awesome. So you did state that your reason for choosing Australia

but I want to elaborate that full point. So can you tell me why you

chose Australia as the destination to pursue your education I guess?

Richa Jasiwal: I was - at one point in time I was considering moving to the US as well

- specialty in University of Texas. That was because of the PhD which

they were offering which was an integrated PhD.

But what I liked, as I said before, I always wanted to move into

business area. I did enjoy work - learning biotechnology. But I didn’t

want it to be doing back-end research, sitting behind a desk working in

the laboratory environment, as much as I appreciate people who do

that. But I wanted someone who could actually commercialise their

expertise and their research and work on that area.

So Macquarie had a very good combination where you could actually

learn about a little bit research in biotechnology and what biotech is all

about.

Besides they had a very good combination of other business subjects

like marketing and research and development which were basically -

which gives you more insight on project management areas and

things like that where you can actually get to commercialise the

research which other people working in the lab would be actually

doing, which is very beneficial for companies.

So that's how - I mean there has to be some sort of - I believe there

has to be some sort of recognition for people who have actually

worked hard in their research area. I think that's exactly what I

wanted to do and this degree has been helping me to do what I

wanted to do.

Facilitator: Great, awesome. So since doing your studies in Australia, what have

you found most useful to your academic experience?



document.doc of 21

Richa Jasiwal: It was more about the exposure which I got along - which I got with my

stay over here. I'm still learning almost every day when I'm going to

work. I work for a big pharmaceutical company.

So obviously I get to learn - it’s a big - it's a multicultural company - I'm

sorry - country over here. So we meet people from all ethnicity

backgrounds and you get to learn a lot about what they think. I mean

you just get to learn a different perspective of the same point.

So I think that's a very good - because you need - you might have

your own opinion, but you also need to know what other people - what

other people think about the same thing. There is obviously no right

or wrong answers again there. But it's just about opinion.

Facilitator: In terms of resources have you found some things useful about

staying in Australia?

Richa Jasiwal: Yes definitely. As I said, while studying in Australia I thought

Macquarie was a great place to study with - they had a good team of

teachers - lecturers - who were looking after us.

Their teaching style was very different from what we actually used to

do back in India. Obviously it's no longer a blackboard kind of

teaching environment here. So we use all the new technologies and

we engage into groups and work together. We collaborate together.

We have to do time management. We have to manage our time

together, our learning's together to actually reach your final goal.

So I thought that was quite important because obviously being

international student everybody was busy at this point when we were

still back in uni because we all had some part time job to look after.

Facilitator: So what did you enjoy most in your studies?

Richa Jasiwal: You mean like in terms of subject what I enjoyed?

Facilitator: The whole experience masters - as a whole experience of your

masters what did you enjoy most?

Richa Jasiwal: I wouldn't go in detail about what I studied in masters which was

probably 'cause I didn't do my masters from somewhere else so I



document.doc of 21

probably won't be able to judge it. Like there is nothing to compare it

against.

But what I did enjoy doing my masters in this country was I did add a

lot into my skill set. Time management was one of the most important

things because I learned how to juggle my time. Every day it was not

same for me.

We did have a lot of flexibility while we were at university because

unlike India you don't have to be sitting in the class all day. We had

access to web - e-lectures which you could get back home, listen, go

through it again and even if you did manage to - even if your schedule

did not allow you to - did allow you to miss a couple of classes - you

would actually not be missing much because you did have that kind of

provision to go back and listen to the lecture again word to word.

Facilitator: So while looking at what you said right now I think the three important

ones that you said was the time management that you enjoyed most.

The second thing was the flexibility that was run by university. The

other thing was the resources.

Can you give me any more explanation why you think those things

were important or you enjoyed those things? Why do you enjoy time

management? What related those things or compelled them to you?

Richa Jasiwal: Well time management is - I would say it helps anyone and everyone

who is actually skilled into it because in today's competitive world you

would require that kind of skill set.

So you need to be flexible. You need to be agile. You need to be

ready to learn new things. Because once you're actually out in the

corporate world you have to have these qualities. You need to be

flexible enough because not everything's going to work according to

your plans. So you need to have that kind of judgement - what would

be right, what could be wrong? If things do go wrong you have to start

again from the scratch. So you have to have that willingness as well.

Facilitator: You had the same sort of exposure while being a student as well?



document.doc of 21

Richa Jasiwal: That's right, exactly. So when we were doing - because we were

broken into chunks of - like a few people working on a group

assignment - obviously we would have conflicts there as well because

we all come from different backgrounds.

But you have to agree to what other people are saying. You have to

juggle your time. You have to get things done and basically agreeing

to a point that yeah we would meet at this particular time to get things

done. That was a big challenge as well because we were all students

and working part time. So we had to still go out of our ways just to let

the entire thing work.

Facilitator: So having thought about challenges, will you give me more indication

that was has been the most challenging aspects in your studies while

being in Australia?

Richa Jasiwal: Just during my studies?

Facilitator: Yeah during your studies what was the most challenging things you

have faced in terms of your being a student? What has been the most

challenging things for you?

Richa Jasiwal: I wouldn't say nothing was very challenging. It's just that you have to

get things done at the right time. We had to - we strictly had to abide

by the deadlines given by our professors and so the challenging part

what I would suppose is to just get the work done. So regardless -

you do have a part time job. You would be working late in the night.

But once you get home you have to get your assignment out of the

way and get it delivered.

So I think that was just a little bit of a challenge which was important.

But I mean I did learn from it I guess. It has made me strong. But I

wouldn't say it's like extraordinarily challenging which is unachievable.

So nothing was unachievable at that stage. It's just about how you

look at things.

Facilitator: Great, that's good.



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So what do you think others have you experienced as a student

during their university experience in Australia?

Richa Jasiwal: Personally - I can't speak for others - but personally I wouldn't say that

I had much difficulty apart from being homesick a couple of times. So

I think that was normal - moving abroad.

But I think I managed to deal with people and new styles. People over

here they have been really friendly and helpful. University had

provision - had counsellors and a team of specialists who could

actually deal with you if you are suffering from any kind of challenges.

So I thought everything was pretty smooth. But it's different that I

didn't have to go and visit any counsellor.

But all in all I think university did think about these kind of things -

these kind of issues which could occur more between international

students. So they did have all these provisions already in place.

Facilitator: Makes sense. So you talked about being homesick. What steps did

you take?

Richa Jasiwal: It's just about - I think what I did was made new friends, went out and

as uni progressed - the more uni progressed I was getting busy. I was

beginning to get busy, get my assignments done, still learn from my

lectures. You just had so many things to deal with. Once you get

back home you still have to cook for your own selves, look after the

house, obviously. I would say everybody was working as well. So I

think - and just having some nice, good company around. That

helped me - like going out on weekends with friends.

From day one to today I still speak to my family almost every day.

Facilitator: So what skills or attributes do you think you have gained through

migration? So if you look at your skills before and after, what changes

have you seen in yourself in terms of skill set and attributes?

Richa Jasiwal: So I just think that I'm more confident now and more accepting to

things because initially I used to think it's just about my ideas what it



document.doc of 21

matters. But now I am into corporate world I do understand that there

are other people as well and I need to be more flexible.

I'm more confident working with people. Initially I would say. I mean

having said that I did think that I was quite confident even when I was

back in India. But it has only added to my confidence level.

Facilitator: So confidence is one of the things that has advanced after studying?

Richa Jasiwal: That's right because you just deal with so many random things, so

many random issues which you were back in India obviously

defended by your family circle. I don't think so we would even worry

about those things. But when you're all by yourself like in the - so you

just have to deal with it.

Facilitator: So your whole protective shell wasn't available here and you have to

deal with everything on your own.

Richa Jasiwal: That's right, thank you.

Facilitator: So you feel more confident.

Richa Jasiwal: More than confident what I would say is I feel more - it's nothing which

I am scared about now. Obviously when I first moved I was thinking

it's probably going to be very hard for me to live by myself, not having

my family around. But I know that things do - people do adapt to new

environments. So no matter what happens I do know that I will be

able to deal with new challenges in life.

Facilitator: That's great. That's really good.

What other attributes that you have - in terms of like say -

communication skills or presentation skills. What sort of attributes do

you think you have learned?

Richa Jasiwal: I don't think I should be commenting about my own skills here. That

would be a little bit biased because I do think quite high of myself.

Facilitator: That's nothing bad. But I want to know do you think that there was

some attributes…



document.doc of 21

Richa Jasiwal: Yes I would definitely agree with like you said the presentation skills. I

probably wouldn't be sitting in front of this video and probably willing

enough to let this thing be broadcasted or whatever the plan is. But

yeah, I'm more open, as I said more confident. I'm more than happy if

I can help someone or if I can give - if my view and opinions does

matter I think I'd be more than happy. So I'm more open, more

accepting now.

Facilitator: That's really good.

So if there is one thing that you could change in your university

experience, what would be that?

Richa Jasiwal: I'll be honest with this particular degree which I did - I think when you

were back home the whole - like when you're actually applying for the

degree you had a little bit different mindset as to what it was.

But after doing that degree we did realise - especially in this country -

it doesn't really have much weightage (sic). So I think that was one

aspect which our university should have taken care of initially when

they were doing - when they were hiring the number of students

especially for this particular course, because it was quite a popular

course at that point of time. I don't know if they have changed the

curriculum as of now or not.

But at that point of time in Australian market they required a little bit of

research experience as well. So I think the university should have

incorporated that little bit much then.

Facilitator: So you're trying to say when you saw this particular course back in

Asia you had your own picture and those expectations were not met

when you did this course?

Richa Jasiwal: I wouldn't say that my expectations were not met. Only because

initially when I applied for the course I was not sure if I'm going to be

living here for this long, 'cause I was not sure. I was just ready to do

the course because it sounded interesting. But when I did graduate

from Macquarie and I was in the job market trying to look for the job, I

did realise that this course had some weaknesses in it.



document.doc of 21

So university should have - because obviously it's an Australian

university - they would be quite aware about what Australian market

requires. So they should have little bit - like they should have

changed the degree - maybe more refined the degree in that way.

Facilitator: What changes would you expect? What sort of changes?

Richa Jasiwal: So as I said now as I'm in a totally different field - but it still works fine

for me. But I do know that a couple of my friends who did want to

move into research - so like they wanted to move into PhD or work as

an [unclear] if was not quite helpful for them because they always had

this challenge of not having enough research competent in their

degree. So that was a problem for them.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

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