Introduce yourself in three words or phrases?
Friendly, committed and always focussed on success.
What do you like most about your job?
I think I was one of the really lucky ones who got involved in international education in the very, very early days. It’s such a wonderful industry and you meet such wonderful people. What you’re able to achieve – transforming lives for students – gives me a real buzz.
I’ve been very lucky to have found this industry. I’ve been involved in it for 38 years and if I was asked what I’d like to do if i could go back and start it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Best work trip/Worst work trip?
When I was in the Philippines I got caught up in riots when there was a coup and I was trying to get out of the country. I remember initially just sitting on the balcony watching people firing at each other and I finally managed to get myself out and eventually got myself to the office of the guy I was working with out there. When we were working out how I was going to get out of the country, I was trying to get down from his office to the toilet and as I got out of the lift at the lobby, I had these machine guns pointed at me.
What was happening was the cabinet were meeting upstairs, so all their security was on the ground floor. I backed into the lift and went back up and didn’t move until I knew they’d gone. I finally got to the airport and was waiting to get on a plane. There were rumours going around that the army were going to be firing missiles at planes as they left.
Anyway, I got out, survived and moved on… It was an interesting experience!
If you could learn a language instantly, which would you pick and why?
Definitely Chinese. I guess it’s one of the biggest markets, but it’s not just about international education. Spanish might be the number two language behind English but Chinese is spoken all around the world.
Champion/cheerleader which we should all follow and why?
I’ve always loved what some of the big groups that have done well in the technology era – Microsoft, people like Bill Gates and Paul Allen and what they were able to do. Not so much Facebook and other social media [platforms], I have no real time for it. And people like Elon Musk. He’s probably a brilliant man but he’s a nutter in my opinion. But [I respect] Bill Gates and Paul Allen and what they’ve done, not only in building a wonderful company but also what they’ve done from a philanthropical point of view as well.
Best international ed conference and why?
I think the Navitas conferences are outstanding for two reasons. One is because they are designed to give people a good time and, two, because we don’t bring people into a conference to flog them Navitas. We bring them to enjoy a conference and to provide topics that are of general interest to anyone in international education and I think we’ve done that exceptionally well over the last 18 years of conferences.
Book or podcast recommendation for others in the sector?
I don’t listen to podcasts especially. I read a lot of books but I’m not one of those people who’s caught up in other people’s lives and their way of thinking – I’m a very independent person. So most of what I am reading is stuff I enjoy. Travel, that sort of thing. I rarely read books about international education or about education in general because I like doing my own thing.
Describe a project or initiative you’re currently working on that excites you?
We’ve been involved with it for a long time, but transnational education is really going to take off. There’s no question. There are restrictions or quotas for students coming into the destination countries, so the other way you provide opportunities is through exporting what you do out into their country.
We’ve been in Sri Lanka since 1998 – a small college, we operated out there throughout wars and financial crises and all ford of things. But even lately, we came out of Covid and looked at what we were doing there in partnership with Edith Cowan University. We went in and we committed and built a really nice campus and we’ve just seen that move from about 1,000 students to well over 3,000 students in about two-and-a-half years.
It’s now a full university campus branded under the university, but underneath it we run the whole thing. The university provides the curriculum. They provide the quality assurance and the brand of the university. So it is a full university campus in Sri Lanka and it’s fully operational now. The university’s bought into it big time and we’re obviously really enjoying it. But I think the most important thing is how it’s been accepted within the Sri Lankan community.
The college has been there for a long time. We had strong government support and the reason is that when we were going through all these ups and down of wars and crises and the assassination of presidents and all that sort of stuff, we hung in there and that has been so appreciated by the government that when we were looking to do all this, we had strong government support.
