Posts tagged The University of Sydney

Women, youth are ‘unseen leaders’ in rural Indonesia

0 Comments read Gender, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.02.2023 (SciDev.Net): Women and young farmers can spur others to implement new sustainability and development initiatives, even though they are less likely to be seen as opinion leaders in their local communities, according to a study.

Women make up 43 per cent of the global agricultural labour force, but face significant discrimination when it comes to land ownership, access to credit and financial services, and participation in decision-making, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

For the study, published this month in the journal Agriculture and Human Values, researchers surveyed about 2,000 farmers on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia and asked them to identify leaders they would consult for advice and information in their smallholder farming communities. These leaders, largely older men, were then asked to convince other farmers to use pruning scissors to improve the health of their cocoa trees.

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Indian PhD students say long Australian visa delays have put their lives on hold

1 Comment read Education

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 12.01.2023 (IPS): When Megha Jacob, who had been applying for a doctoral degree at various overseas universities, received an offer from the Australian National University’s Department of Chemistry to do a fully funded PhD, she was thrilled and immediately accepted the position. It was January 2022. She submitted her visa application and resigned from her job at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. One year later, she is still waiting for her visa to be processed.

Several international Indian students enrolled in doctoral degree courses in Australia’s leading universities have been waiting for their visas to be approved for months, some for up to two years. “The protracted delays have put our lives on hold. We seek clarity and a definitive timeline so we can plan our future,” say students from one of the WhatsApp groups formed by Indian doctoral students facing Australian visa processing delays.

Since the easing of Australia’s stringent COVID-19 restrictions, these students allege, the visa processing time for doctoral degree students has increased. “The median processing time for offshore student visa application was 18 days for the Postgraduate Research Sector in November 2022,” an Australian Department of Home Affairs (DHA) spokesperson tells IPS. However, the most recent processing time on the DHA website for 500 – Student visa (subclass 500) Postgraduate Research Sector shows 90 percent of applications are processed in 10 months.

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