Clinical International Student Representative 

I was elected to become the Clinical Year International Student Representative 2020 as a part of the Deakin Medical Students’ Association (MeDUSA). The role involves advocating and supporting medical international students.

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There has been a significant lack of support and advocacy for medical international students for many years. During my preclinical years (first two years of medical school), there weren’t many supports in place, my international peers and I have faced many obstacles that we had to navigate through ourselves with minimal guidance and support. This motivated me to take up this role to initiate change. I am glad I took up this leadership role, as the unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic that took place earlier in 2020 meant that better communication, advocacy and support were greatly needed.

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In my role, I decided early on to work closely with the pre-clinical year representative rather than just for the clinical year international students as I believe the collaboration between our roles will foster a greater bond between the medical international student community as a whole. Together we have advocated strongly for all medical international students’ wellbeing during the COVID pandemic. Regardless of the eventual results, we have strongly advocated for fee reduction during 2020. Even though we were unable to achieve the goal of advocating for a fee reduction, we have successfully advocated and achieved additional financial, physical and emotional supports for our isolated international community in this tough time, which I believe demonstrate my leadership has a positive influence over the international medical student community. 

 

Apart from the COVID pandemic, 2020 was also a year of political instability. I have engaged, supported and assisted our international students from Hong Kong through the period of political uncertainty back home and through the process of applying for the special extension for their temporary visa. I have also improved communication through creating a cross-level international student Facebook group, regular updates with any new information and set up regular QnA sessions between students and the International School of Medicine Staff. Previously, this level of communication is largely absent, and I made it a mission for us to establish an ongoing communication channel for current and future international medical students.

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For many years, there has been a significantly higher rate of international students failing one of our most important clinical exams known as the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Hence, I believe there is a need for additional supports in place for our community to initiate change.  Base on this, I have spearheaded a cross-level academic mentorship for international students. The aim of this initiative is three-fold:  

• To address the long-standing issue of high fail-rate among international students.

• To promote the concept of student-helping students among our international junior medical students to provide tools for them in improving their learning moving forward.

• To foster a greater bond among international medical students across levels to provide supports for each other outside of academic settings.

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I believe all the above example demonstrates my contribution to the improvement of support and communication between School of Medicine and the International student community. 

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