Police in the state of New South Wales (NSW) have launched two social media sites to help international students, after a number of high-profile cases in which young foreigners were bashed.

Higher and tertiary education is one of Australia's largest export industries, but the sector's reputation has been damaged by incidents of overseas students being attacked, robbed or abused, the Australian Associated Press ( AAP ) reports.

Last April, a gang of six teenagers assaulted, robbed and racially abused two Chinese students on a train in Sydney's south.

The victims then wrote a graphic description of the attack on the Chinese social media site, Weibo .

One of the victims' accounts was shared 10,000 times - prompting thousands of students to express their disgust, and the Chinese embassy to issue a warning for citizens travelling in Australia.

There have been other cases, including a number of Indians being bashed in Melbourne during 2011.

Mindful of the damages that such incidents can cause, NSW police today launched Facebook and Weibo sites, aimed at reassuring overseas students and helping them to avoid falling victims to crime.

'Unfortunate events occur in any community'

Weibo is China's largest social media site, while there are an estimated 500,000 users in Australia.

Police forces across Australia are being urged to set up similar websites to help boost the nation's reputation.

"That's what we're trying to encourage, because if there's an incident in Western Australia, it affects us here in NSW - in how we're perceived internationally," University of Wollongong Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Joe Chicharo told AAP in Melbourne.

He said the vast majority of international students had safe and happy experiences in Australia.

"But there is a small number that have unfortunate incidents - it happens in any community," Chicharo added.

"What we're trying to do here, is employ a proactive approach to reduce those rare events to a smaller number."

More than 190,000 foreigners studied in NSW during 2012, including many whose origins are from Asia.

- Bernama