Student mobility and research collaboration across the Asia Pacific were issues dominating dialogue this month at a symposium in Hong Kong jointly organised by the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) and the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE).
The event reflects growing efforts from Australia to expand its regional influence in what it has dubbed the “Asian century” as well as Asian institutions’ push to engage and compete internationally.
“Australia has been trying for many years to have a more multi-layered partnership with our Asian neighbours and this event is a great example of really putting the flesh on the bones of a lot of rhetoric we’ve had in the past about engagement with Asia, but the reality has been lacking somewhat,” said Phil Honeywood, Executive Director of IEAA.
“Australia has been trying for many years to have a more multi-layered partnership with our Asian neighbours”
One hundred delegates from 65 institutions in the region attended the symposium to focus how to come together to overcome barriers to cross border collaboration.
“The key takeaways when you come to an international education forum are always how much we share,” commented Susan Elliott, Vice-President at APAIE. “We speak different languages, we look different, we have different governments, jurisdictions and economies and yet there so many issues we have in common.”
Among the recommendations put forth from the discussions was advocating for the establishment of an APEC Student/Researcher Visitor Card to facilitate ease of student/researcher mobility within the region as well as collaborating to establish an Asia–Pacific quality assurance framework that will support mutual recognition and credit portability for students across regional institutions.
A virtual Asia-Pacific campus allowing access to courses from universities across the region was also mooted.
Plans are also in place to provide a commissioned research opportunity for researchers in the region to collaborate on a short digest in an area of specific interest to the international education community.
Strides are being made elsewhere on the part of Australia to fortify ties in the region through the New Colombo Plan which aims to send 700 domestic students for short-term stays in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan before being fully rolled out in China and Korea.
