Although these are not very applicable to me, but I have seen it happen to friends. If you're an international student, you're going to struggle if you don't have money because the course does expect a lot of expenses out of pocket, on top of expensive tuition fee that is 4 times more than domestic students. Lecturer and tutors expect that you will purchase materials (e.g.: sheet metal) and somehow have the necessary tools (e.g.: hammer, nails, drill, etc.) to complete your assessments. International students do not live in sheds... Additionally, if you're not good at communication (especially for non-native speakers of the English language), tutors and lecturer seem to find it difficult to communicate with you, and do not appear to try to make an effort with it, so I wouldn't call them teachers who go above and beyond. So many international students end up struggling and quitting because of the lack of help. Many domestic students do as well as successful international students, but seem to be more favoured by tutors or lecturers if they are sociable.