2016 The Council of International Students Australia

Transcription

1 2016 The Council of International Students Australia CISA ANNUAL REPORT 2016 CISA President 2015/2016 [The report contains a summary of the activities executed by the various executives during the period of July 2015 to June 2016]

2 CISA National President 2015/2016 Mustika Indah (Nina) Khairina I am pleased to announce the President s 2015/2016 Report. The year 2015/2016 presents significant opportunities and challenges for international education and for CISA. Despite that, CISA has maintained its recognition and independence; and all the achievements of the organisation would not have been possible without the team work and contribution of fellow CISA executive team. A significant factor of the success and recognition of CISA is the ability of the President to maintain strong allies, supporters and advisors. These people include members, peak bodies, institutions, industries and local, state and national governments. Whilst the President is primarily responsible for the day-to-day administration of the initiating and maintaining liaison with its stakeholders, it is equally crucial for the President to have an overall strategic and overall implementation plan for the organisation in order to create a truly holistic and sustainability for the organisation. Overall, CISA has definitely grown in strength and capacity. Yes, there are always room for opportunities, but I strongly believe that a team, we have done our absolute best to represent the views of 600,000 international students within our capacity. Overview of Major Accomplishments: 1. Increased representation in conferences, state and national committees 2. Increased media presence 3. Increased external stakeholder engagement 4. Increased number of projects and initiatives 5. Significant improvement in the financials 6. Revisiting the CISA Business and Strategic Plan 7. Alumni Association 8. AUG Grant National Conference in Darwin

3 Increased representation in conferences, state and national committees Firstly, CISA is pleased to have been invited by the Minister for International Education, the Hon. Richard Colbeck in May to be part of the inagural Council for International Education. We believe this is the testament and formal acknowledgement of CISA s advocacy and capacity to be able to positively contribute to the implementation of the National Strategy. CISA has so far maintained its representation in the following committees: Education Visa Consultative Committee (EVCC) Chaired by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection alongside other industry peak groups. CISA was represented this year through our National Secretary and most of the discussions during the term was around Post-Study Work Visa New South Wales International Education Board Victorian Ministerial Advisory Meeting CISA National President has been involved in high level strageic discussions including AIE 2025 Roundtable in Sydney Market Development Plan developed by Austrade Minister of Education Roundtable Roundtable in Canberra National Strategy for International Education 2025 Conferences are a major networking opportunity for CISA to build relationships and create opportunitis for collaboration. They are also a means through which CISA can raise international student issues, often with those who have the power to implement changes for the benefit of international students. Some of them include: APIEF-ACPET Conference (Australian Council for Private Education and Training) in Melbourne Campus Review Conference in Sydney Future Proofing Australia s International Education OSHC Allianz Summit in Brisbane TAG (Tertiary Access Group) Conference in Gold Coast AIEC (Australia International Education Conference) in Adelaide APAIE (Asia-Pacific Association for International Education) Conference in Melbourne Increased media presence CISA has both been active on traditional and social media. CISA s media releases, statements and comments on newspaper are crucial as a call for action for institution and government on certain issues. A new twitter has also been created to amplify the student voice.

4 Increased external stakeholder engagement Through increased representation in roundtables, committees and conferences, CISA is able to expand its network, thereby increasing and and maintaining relationships with its supporters. Increased number of projects and initiatives There has been an increase in the number of activities conducted by CISA this year, including: Submission in the ESOS Reform Bill Passed through Senate 01 Dec 2015 Contribution on the ESOS Student Fact Sheets NSW & VIC Airport Student Welcome Desk ONGOING MEDIA coverage on Workplace Exploitation and Student Safety Alumni Association We realise that past executives of CISA plays an important role in providing mentorship and guidance to the new team. As such, CISA has recently approved of a creation of a CISA Alumni Association as a formal channel for past executives to contribute to CISA s advocacy, with a working committee chaired by the Immediate Past President. Implement however, has been a challenge and halted for a certain period of time due to availabilities of the current working committee Significant improvement in the financials Due to careful planning and the recruitment of new sub-committees, including Sponsorship, Partnership and Marketing Officers, our financials are in a much better position compared to the previous year. Revisiting the CISA Business and Strategic Plan One major challenge that we face as an organization is to ensure that the internal governance of CISA is strong and in order to do this, we need an organizational restructuring. The restructuring of CISA is in response to the pace of the fast changing environment and workload for the CISA Executive team and to assist in CISA s with its mission to independently advocate for the needs and interests of international students in Australia. The objective of this plan is to assist CISA in achieving organisational goal in a more effective and efficient way. We have revisited and improved upon the Business and Strategic Plan created by Past President Aleem Nizari and Thomson Ch ng with the intention of conducting regular consultations with members and trial of different models of engagement in mind.

5 We understand that in order to be a stronger organization, grass-roots engagement needs to be strengthened. Apart from regular state visits, as both CISA National President and the representative of the State of Victoria, we have piloted the CISA State Advisory Board to test a model of formalized state level engagement. PILOT - CISA Advisory Board: CISA included both members and non-members. The advisory board has thus far been a good model of collecting feedback, disseminating information and creating collaboration opportunities between CISA and different student organisations. CISA U GRANT Following the commitment to strengthen grassroots network, we have done a year-long negotiation to finalise independent monetary support from companies. Due to multiple reasons, we have seen a decline in membership and consequently, student engagement since its inception in It is our hope that through this initiative, we can to add value to our membership thus attracting more international student organisations to be a part of CISA. Additionally, there is a staggering disparity in terms of financial support given to our members from their institutions. The grant can be one way to aid our members who are motivated to be active but suffer from lack of resources and funding to do so. The initiative as such, will involve offering grants in the form of financial assistance and support to international student organisations across all states of Australia. Call to Actions Recommendation The most important investment for the next team is training capacity of the executive and build a strong team and sub teams. The ideas and passion are there, but as an organization we need to work more on building our own capacity in order to deliver and implement plans and strategies.