Monash international students seek help from university health services
Tiffany Forbes

BY TIFFANY FORBES 

Monash University international students are facing financial and emotional hardship after enduring almost six months under Victoria’s intense lockdown measures.

Disconnected from family and friends and now facing uncertainties regarding when they will be able to return home, many students are looking to the university’s health services for guidance.

Master of Teaching first year student Monroe Zhang arrived in Melbourne in January and has found the loneliness of online learning tough during lockdown.

“I think the biggest challenge is I can’t really make friends as we only study (on) Zoom,” Ms Zhang said.

“It is a bit awkward and not realistic [and] most of my housemates are stuck in China because of the travel ban, so I don’t have much company around at the moment,” she said.

Ms Zhang has been doing workouts and using the Smiling Mind app to control her anxiety during this time.

She said she has also been contacted by the university to check on her wellbeing.

“I recently talked to the University Health Services (UHS) to ask about my anxiety,” Ms Zhang said.

“The doctor recommended I should speak to a counsellor to seek more help and gave me some further resources.”

Master of Teaching student Monroe Zhang has been unable to fly back to her home country China since the pandemic began. PHOTO: Supplied

Youth unemployment currently stands at 13 per cent as a result of the casual job cuts in the retail and hospitality sectors, which were hardest hit by the pandemic.

The job cuts have left Ms Zhang unemployed, with limited access to government relief.

“I had two casual jobs before, but because of COVID-19 I lost my jobs and I couldn’t apply for government relief payments because we need to apply via Monash which [was] super confusing,” she said.

“I did [get] the emergency relief fund from Monash though, but the money was not much [and] I’m still relying on my family now.”

A Monash University spokesperson said they will “continue to do all [they] can to uphold the health, safety and wellbeing of [their] valued international students during this period, and ensure they receive the support they need”.

Since the beginning of April, the university has made a number of free online mental health programs and telehealth appointments available to both international and domestic students, with their usage predicted to rise as semester two progresses.

“Our numbers for the month of August are currently being finalised, however we expect to see an increase in international student usage of UHS compared to July given the commencement of semester two,” the spokesperson said.

Media and communications student Camilla Wang is struggling with a similar problem. She has been studying online in China for the majority of the year, after returning from Australia last November.

“I had plans to return to Melbourne in February, but because COVID-19 broke out in China in January, my February ticket was cancelled and now I can’t fly back to Australia directly from my Chinese home,” she said.

Camilla Wang has not been able to return to Australia due to travel bans, and is finding online learning a challenge. PHOTO: Supplied
Ms Wang misses the ease of on-campus learning and has found online classes challenging and, at times, anxiety-inducing,
“I think the biggest challenge for me is the difficulty of online classes...I need to connect to VPN to join my sessions but most of the time VPN is not very effective,” she said.
“Contact with classmates and teachers is more difficult than before and causes a lot of problems...I often feel anxious and worried.”
Ms Wang has been contacted by the university on several occasions and found some of her concerns were alleviated by its support services.
“My mood was greatly affected by my courses and [the] uncertainty around graduation,” she said.
“The Monash help phone made me feel less concerned.”