Learning Outcomes

This report emphasizes on the analysis of the expenditure patterns of international students in Australia. For this purpose, there is a need to collect the relevant information from the international students visited or residing in Australia to pursue their studies. The target population consists of the international students residing in Australia in order to gather information regarding their expenditure patterns. The main objectives of this report are as follows:

• To gain information regarding the studies being carried out by the international students in Australia
• To attain the information related to the expenditures made by them in different activities
• To analyze the average income earned by them in a month on an average

There is a need to collect the information related to the expenditures made by the international students in Australia as it facilitates in gaining information related to the existence of the expenditure pattern of international students in Australia. The commonly used methods to collect the information include primary and secondary method of data collection. In context of this research study, the facts related to the topic of study is being obtained by the use of survey through questionnaire method which consists of questions related to expenditures, income and categorical questions (Bryman and Bell, 2015).

The data has been collected from the international students. The sample size for the research study is 20 respondents which are being identified by the use of simple random sampling method. This sampling approach provides equal chance to the entities to be selected to become a participant in the research and helps in attaining the objectivity of the study as there is no intervention of the investigator in the selection of the sample. It is also identified that there is a presence of the variables that can be measured in the form of quantitative terms such as expenditure made by the students and income earned by them (Hair, Wolfinbarger, Money, Samouel and Page, 2015).

1. Gender
2. a) Male
3. b) Female
4. Which country do you belong to?
5. New Zealand
6. China
7. India
8. UK
9. Others
10. Level of Educational Qualification
11. School level
12. Post Graduate
13. Graduate
14. At present, which type of studies you are pursuing?
15. Full Time
16. Part Time  
17. Correspondence
18. How much you spent on rent on a monthly basis on an average?
19. $250 – $500
20. $501- $750
21. $750-$1000
22. more than $1000
23. How much you spent on internet on a monthly basis on an average?
24. $25-$35
25. $36-$45
26. $46-$60
27. more than $60
28. How much you spent on entertainment on a monthly basis on an average?
29. $40-$60
30. $61-$80
31. $81-$100
32. $100-$140
33. more than $140
34. How much you spent on shopping in a month?
35. $30-$50
36. $51-$70
37. $71-$100
38. more than $100
39. On an average, how much you spent on travelling in a month?
40. $25-$35
41. $36-$45
42. $46-$60
43. More than $60
44. What is your monthly average income?
45. $250-$500
46. $501-$750
47. $751-$1000
48. more than $1000

Gender

It is found out that there is an existence of high number of male international students in comparison to females in Australia.

Country

It is also found out that 40% of the respondents belong to India which indicates that majority of the international students population belong to India.

Education

It is also analyzed from the above table and pie-chart that majority of the international students visit Australia to pursue their post graduation in different disciplines.

Type of Study

It is also identified that majority of the international students opt for part time courses as they carry out their profession in order to gain practical experience in their field.  

Rent

It is also identified that 60% of the respondents believe that they spent approximately $250-$500 in the form of rent of the accommodation on a monthly basis in Australia.

Assessment Task

Internet

It is also analyzed that 65% of the international students spent $36-$45 on internet in a month.   

Entertainment

It is also found out that 40% of the international students believe that they spent $61-$80 on entertainment in a month.

Shopping

It is also found out that 50% of the respondents believe that they spent $51-$70 on shopping in a month.

Travelling

It is estimated that 40% of the respondents believe that they spent $36-$45 in a month on travelling or on transport.

Monthly Income

It is also found out that 40% of the respondents earn an income of $751-$1000 in a month on an average.

It is identified that the three variables which are being selected to carry out the descriptive analysis include expenditure on internet, entertainment and shopping by the way of mean, variance and standard deviation. It is found out that the mean for the selected three variables i.e. internet, entertainment and shopping expenditure is 2.15, 2.1 and 1.85 respectively which indicates that the international students spent between $36-$45 on internet in a month. Apart from this, majority of the students spent money in a range of $61-$80 on entertainment and $30-$50 on shopping in a month (Edjabou, Martín-Fernández, Scheutz and Astrup, 2017).

In a similar manner, the standard deviation of the variables such as expenditure on internet, entertainment and shopping is 0.81, 1.165 and 0.81 respectively. This shows that the standard deviation of expenditure on entertainment is highest due to which it involves high risk and there is an occurrence of the manipulation in an increased manner. Along with this, the variance of the three variables i.e. expenditure on internet, entertainment and shopping is 0.66, 1.35 and 0.66 respectively. This also indicates that the international students are making huge expenditure on entertainment in comparison to other variables (Wan, Wang, Liu and Tong, 2014).

The linear relationship between expenditure on entertainment and monthly income is expressed by the following equation:

y =0.45 + 0.67X

Where y denotes expenditure on entertainment and X denotes monthly income.

The linear relationship between expenditure on shopping and monthly income is denoted by the following equation

y = 0.17 + 0.68X

Where y denotes expenditure on shopping and X denotes monthly income

The linear relationship between expenditure on travelling and monthly income is denoted by the following equation:

y = 0.58 + 0.59X

Where y denotes expenditure on travelling and X denotes monthly income

Method of Data Collection

Scatter Diagram for expenditure on entertainment and monthly income

It is found out that with an increase in the income of the student, there is an increase in the expenditure made by them on entertainment. This indicates that there is a presence of positive relationship between expenditure on entertainment and monthly income (Chatterjee and Hadi, 2015).

Scatter Diagram for expenditure on shopping and monthly income

In a similar manner, there is an existence of the positive relationship between monthly income and expenditure on shopping which means that increase in the monthly income of the student triggers increase in the monthly expenditure made on shopping by the students (Chatterjee and Hadi, 2015).

Scatter Diagram for expenditure on travelling and monthly income

It is also found out that there is a presence of positive causal relationship between the expenditure on travelling and monthly income which means that increase in monthly income cause an increase in the expenditure on travelling (Chatterjee and Hadi, 2015).

Functional relationship between expenditure on entertainment and monthly income

It is found out that the value of R² is 0.36 which indicates that there is an existence of very little variability between expenditure on entertainment and monthly income (Chatterjee and Hadi, 2015).

Functional relationship between expenditure on shopping and monthly income

It is found out that the value of R² is 0.78 which indicates that there is a presence of significant variability between the expenditure on shopping and monthly income (Chatterjee and Hadi, 2015).

Functional relationship between expenditure on travelling and monthly income

It is found out that the value of R² is 0.35 which also indicates that there is a presence of low variability between expenditure on travelling and monthly income.

The expenditure for a given level of income in case of entertainment is as follows:

When X = 21 then y = 0.45 + 0.67 *21 = 14.52

The expenditure for a given level of income in case of shopping is as follows:

When X = 21 then y = 0.17 + 0.68X = 0.17 + 0.68 * 21 = 14.45

The expenditure for a given level of income in case of travelling is as follows:

When X = 21 then y = 0.58 + 0.59 * 21 = 12.97

Conclusion and Recommendations

It can be concluded that majority of the international students that prefer to study in Australia belongs to India. Besides this, majority of the students go Australia to pursue their post graduation in different disciplines. Along with this, students choose to carry out part time courses as they indulge themselves in gaining practical experience by working in an organization. It is also found out that majority of the students are earning income between the range of $750 – $1000 on a monthly basis to meet out their expenditures in a month. It can also be concluded that the relationship between the different variables related to expenditure pattern is carried out by the use of simple regression analysis.

It can be recommended that the students should use the wi-fi facility provided by the educational institutions which helps in reducing the expenditure made by the students on internet. Apart from this, it is also suggested that the students should avail the accommodation facilities provided by the universities which not only results in reducing the expenditure on accommodation but also on travelling. In this manner, students can save the funds to meet out any risk caused by uncertainties occurred in future.

References

Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2015) Business research methods. USA: Oxford University Press.

Chatterjee, S. and Hadi, A.S. (2015) Regression analysis by example. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Edjabou, M.E., Martín-Fernández, J.A., Scheutz, C. and Astrup, T.F. (2017) Statistical analysis of solid waste composition data: Arithmetic mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficients. Waste Management, 69, pp.13-23.

Hair Jr, J.F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A.H., Samouel, P. and Page, M.J. (2015) Essentials of business research methods. UK: Routledge.

Wan, X., Wang, W., Liu, J. and Tong, T. (2014) Estimating the sample mean and standard deviation from the sample size, median, range and/or interquartile range. BMC medical research methodology, 14(1), p.135.