International students who say they're getting a raw deal have won the most seats of any party in the University of Sydney council elections.

'Panda Warriors' won about a quarter of the vote and had eight candidates elected to the 33-member Student Representative Council at elections held in late September.

It's the largest ever share of votes for international students at the university and a sign of their increasing political engagement.

International students contribute $22 billion to the economy a year and education is Australia's third-largest export, ahead of tourism and behind coal and iron ore.

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More than half a million international students studied in Australia in 2016, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year. The students pay much higher course fees than domestic counterparts and do not receive student concessions.

They also sometimes face problems with fair pay at work as well as general lack of support with housing and academic issues, according to Panda Warriors.

Kevin Zhou, 21, told Hack international students were not getting value for money.

"What the Government should do is to provide education which is proportionate to the expense we're paying," he said.

"We're paying five times the amount of a domestic student."

Yuxuan Yang, another 21-year-old Panda Warrior, said international students were being treated differently to their domestic counterparts.

"International students pay very expensive fees and sometimes no one cares about them."

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What they want

Panda Warriors are pushing for:

Multi-lingual support services for housing, academic, and tenancy disputes

Concession fares on public transport

Fair pay at work

"We want services to help fix the problems Chinese students here are facing like housing disputes and other academic disputes," Kevin said.

"Some international students are also underpaid and threatened by their employers.

"There shouldn't be different treatment between the domestic and international students... we're all students and financially independent and need a concession card."

A third of international students come from China, which is the largest contingent, followed by India, Nepal, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

The Fair Work Ombudsman - the independent watchdog for workplace rights and rules - says international students are at risk of being exploited.

It has written to more than half a million international students who it believes may have been short-changed on their pay or intimidated by employers for speaking up.

'International students can't keep giving the Govt money'

The elected students also pushed back against new mandatory English tests for international students, announced by the Federal Government in October.

Kevin Zhou said Chinese students already have to do an English test - the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

"It's definitely conducted in China," he said.

"Having good English proficiency is essential to study in Australia, otherwise [students] can't communicate to anyone... their tutors, landlords or anyone."

Universities are steadily increasing their fees to fill the gaps made by Federal Government cuts to universities, and another cut is still on the table.

The students said any fee increases would discourage foreign students from coming here.

"Governments sometimes need more money, but if they need more money there are a lot of ways to make more money," Yuxuan said.

"International students can't keep giving the Government money."

Kevin agreed:

"I think the Government should be cautious about commercialising the education in Australia by slowly increasing the tuition of international students."