Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T09:27:11.267Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Housing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

Simon Marginson ,
Chris Nyland ,
Erlenawati Sawir  and
Helen Forbes-Mewett
Simon Marginson
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Chris Nyland
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
Erlenawati Sawir
Affiliation:
Central Queensland University
Helen Forbes-Mewett
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Victoria
Get access

Summary

It [was] a one bedroom unit. They lived in the living room, I lived in the bedroom. So inconvenient. He was always there. I cannot get out. I just stayed in my room. That's why I moved. I moved to the other place to the house of my classmate's brother, from Beijing. There were so many people, mum and dad, his wife, him and the baby, and other students. One toilet. So I have to line up, not convenient … cooking was always a problem, so many people wanted to cook. I have to line up and wait.

~ female, 33, education, China

INTRODUCTION: ‘FALLING WELL SHORT OF OUR DUTY OF CARE’

On 3 January 2008, fire swept through a small house located in busy Ballarat Road in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, walking distance from the core campus of Victoria University where more than 5500 international students were enrolled. Sleeping in a front bedroom of the house were three students from India: Deepak Kumar Prajapati aged 24, Jigneshkumar Ghanshyandas Sadhu, 32 and Sunil Ramanlal Patel, 24. All three perished. ‘We had already heard from callers to 000 [the emergency phone line] that there were people inside and the first crews tried to get in but there was no way they could get to anyone. It was a wall of flame’, said Trevor Woodward, a spokesperson for the fire brigade. ‘We got the front door open and there was a bloke in the middle of the passage way rolling around, but we couldn't help him’, said a neighbour. ‘The flames were on both sides of the wall.’ Three other people escaped unharmed.

Type
Chapter
Information
International Student Security , pp. 145 - 173
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×