The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1 - 88

Danielle Twigg

Over the past few decades, there have been
signiﬁcant changes in the way that universities operate in Australia, including how they
manage fast-paced expansion and dramatic
shifts in funding through government agencies
(Macintyre, 2003). Rapid growth in the number
of students has placed additional demands on
all university services, but in particular on the
availability of off-campus student accommodations. This demand for student housing has
led to a range of implications for the surrounding communities in the southeast corridor of
Queensland, such as Macgregor, Robertson,
and Sunnybank Hills.
Australian universities that attract a large
proportion of international students from the
Asia-Paciﬁc region are no longer able to act
in loco parentis (in place of the parent) as previously expected (Altschuler & Kramnick, 1999;
Macintyre, 2003), and availability of on-campus housing is often limited, forcing students
to seek off-campus housing arrangements.
Local communities are growing concerned
about the duty of care for students living in
this housing. As yet, few studies of off-campus
housing have explored community perceptions of its impact on local neighborhoods.
This study seeks to address this gap by exploring the impact of off-campus student housing
on local communities and to provide evidencebased insight into community perceptions and
beliefs on the key issues.
This study was conducted at a large multicampus Australian university located in the
state of Queensland. The university offers
more than 300 degrees and caters to more
than 43,000 students, including international
students from more than 100 different countries. After community groups raised concerns

about student housing, in 2011 the university conducted its ﬁrst study on the impact of
overcrowded student housing in suburbs surrounding two of its ﬁve campuses. A mixed
methods approach, using a survey and focus
groups, was used to explore community perceptions and beliefs about the impact of offcampus student housing. This study explored
a number of issues that were also present in
the literature base: sense of community, the
registration of student housing, and safety for
community residents and students.

THE INTERNATIONAL STUDENT
MARKET IN AUSTRALIA
Australia is the third largest provider of international education services behind the United
States (18%) and the United Kingdom (10%).
Between 2000 and 2009, Australia's international student market increased from 5.1% to
7.0%. The international student sector makes a
signiﬁcant contribution to Australia's social and
economic sectors, with $16.3 billion added to
the export income in 2010-11 (Australian Education International, 2011). As a result, the government has prioritized the industry to ensure
future success (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2011). In 2010,
there were more than 470,000 international
students studying in Australia, including 54%
male and 46% female students. This particular university had 10,947 onshore international
students studying alongside 30,841 domestic
students. These international students represent 26.2% of the entire student body (Australian Education International, 2011).
Accommodation is an important factor in
students' choice of university (Agron, 1996;
Macintyre, 2003), and student accommodations

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1