All aboard with the Asian century

Study overseas helps the next generation of knowledge workers understand the world.

Illustration: Eric Lobbecke

In contrast to our results in other Anglophone league tables such as cricket and rugby, new data shows Australia is leading the English-speaking world in an important education metric — sending our university students to study ­overseas. This sleeper statistic is not accidental and it matters vitally to preparing us for the globally engaged knowledge economy.

The headline figure is just under 50,000 students enrolled in an Australian university in 2017 studied overseas as part of their degree.

The message that inbound international education is Australia’s third largest export (behind iron ore and coal but ahead of tourism and agriculture) is getting out there to the wider community. This aspect of international education — that is, bringing students from overseas to enhance our local classrooms — is vitally important to our education system.

Australian students also recognise the benefits of experiencing a different culture and education environment, and increasingly they are taking advantage of the opportunities offered by their universities. It is important to take ­notice of the recent results of an outbound ­student mobility study, commissioned by the Australian Universities International Directors Forum from iGraduate.

The key metric is that 23 per cent of Australian undergraduates had an international experience while they studied. In other words fewer than one in four Australian students is getting their boots muddy overseas as part of their degree. To put this in context the comparable figure in New Zealand and Britain is about 7 per cent, Canada sits at 11 per cent, and the US, which pioneered this area, is at 16 per cent.

This success hasn’t just happened by itself. It is a case in which good government policy initiated by both parties has delivered smart results that will serve the nation into the future.

The highest profile initiative is the New Colombo Plan. Launched in 2013, it injected funding to make it easier for Australian students to study in the Indo-Pacific.

It also mobilised the business community to see the value in giving future employees some ­experience overseas.

The contribution made by former foreign minister Julie Bishop should not be underestimated. She was an effective and consistent champion who recognised not only the educational benefits for students of the New Colombo Plan but also the soft power ­impact for Australia.

Bishop, as foreign minister, raised the profile of what had been a niche education program to something discussed in diplomatic circles and at backyard family barbecues.

Most good policy, like successful leaders, stands on the shoulders of its predecessors. In this regard, Labor under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard was a strong advocate of study abroad in Asia, developing the Prime Minister’s Asian Fellowships and AsiaBound short-term support for overseas study.

During the past 10 years, outbound study abroad has grown to its present level from about 10,000 (or 9 per cent of Australian undergraduates).

The model also has shifted in response to student demand and policy incentives from one dominated by semester exchange — predominantly to the US and Britain — to more diversity in length and style of study, destination and disciplines covered. Indeed, health is the top area for learning abroad, with other science, technology, engineering and maths fields strongly represented.

Government funding has made a difference in student behaviour with 22 per cent of the growth across the New Colombo Plan period directly attributable to the new financial support.

Government policy also has been successful in shifting student preferences towards engagement with our region. This is smart policy. The 21st century is the Asian century, and the better we can prepare our future workforce to be connected, comfortable and culturally and linguistically fluent the more prosperous and vibrant Australia will be.

For young Australians, study in Asia is becoming part of their higher education experience, or what Bishop called “a rite of passage”. China is now the top destination for Australian students, with Japan, India and Indonesia coming in at fifth, sixth and eighth.

The shift to a more balanced global portfolio across countries and regions has created new trends. Asia destination study is dominated by shorter study experiences where one course is done intensively across a summer or winter break.

Spending less time abroad generally reduces financial and opportunity costs (such as carer responsibilities, relationship duties, housing costs and so forth). The significant benefit of making learning abroad more accessible has been addressing student ­diversity concerns. Our study does a deep dive into the student data at several universities, which show that New Colombo Plan recipients more closely match university demographics, whereas self-funded participants, unsurpris­ingly, are over-represented by financially better-off students.

Similarly, the new policies have had success in increasing indigenous student participation. Put simply, the New Colombo Plan and similar policies have made the playing field more level for accessing the social and cultural capital that comes from international ­exposure.

Even with successful policies there are opportunities to improve. A simple tweak would be to allow all higher education students, including those in vocational and postgraduate studies, to benefit from the programs. This would spread the breadth of benefit even further.

Finally, recent research suggests that the New Colombo Plan has not delivered on the institutional capacity building anticipated at its conception. That is, most of the benefits have flown ­directly to individual students, rather than more broadly in the sending or receiving institutions.

The original promise of developing the higher education capacity in the ­region and at home could be ­enhanced by greater support and recognition for the academic champions.

Incentives that encourage ­reciprocal academic and research collaboration will deliver benefits to these players currently missing from the policy mix, enhancing Australian universities’ external reputation for innovation in education. By bringing academics more intentionally into the New Colombo Plan ecosystem, collaboration can be deepened and made more sustainable, beyond the parameters of current policy planning.

In serving Australia’s future by preparing our next generation of knowledge workers with a greater international understanding through overseas study, policymakers on both sides of politics have got it right.

Like the All Blacks, or the ­Indian cricket team, we can improve our league leading position with a few tweaks around the edges that address breadth, depth and institutional settings, but we also should stand proud at being the top of the table.

Kent Anderson was formerly deputy vice-chancellor (community and engagement) at the University of Western Australia. Davina Potts is associate director (global leadership and employability) at the University of Melbourne.