Deakin University
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

Public Diplomacy and Social Impact of Australian Student Mobility to the Indo-Pacific: Host Countries’ Perspectives on Hosting New Colombo Plan Students

journal contribution
posted on 2021-09-01, 00:00 authored by Ly TranLy Tran, Huyen BuiHuyen Bui
Learning abroad is a primary dimension of internationalization of higher education, but little is known about the social impact of learning abroad. While a significant body of the literature in international education has examined learning abroad from the student and academic perspectives, how host communities, especially in the Indo-Pacific, perceive the social impact of hosting students from an Anglophone country like Australia is underresearched. This study addresses this critical gap in the literature by exploring the social impact of Australian students’ learning in the Indo-Pacific from the host perspective. This article emerges from an ongoing study on Australian students’ learning in the Indo-Pacific via the New Colombo Plan (NCP), the Australian government’s signature initiative of student mobility and public diplomacy. It focuses on data from 32 interviews with host organizations, including industry firms, small businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and education institutions, in China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The study shows that not only does the Australian government position the NCP as a strategic public diplomacy tool to build lasting relationships with Indo-Pacific countries, but receiving countries also view the NCP as a catalyst that facilitates the execution of their international agenda. The study identifies four main forms of social impact associated with Australian students’ learning abroad in the Indo-Pacific, perceived by the host communities: (a) strengthening bilateral and international ties; (b) fostering student-to-student, university-to-industry, and university-to-university partnerships; (c) strengthening community engagement through service-learning; and (d) enriching host organization’s training capacity, human resources, and awareness of their own values.

History

Journal

Journal of Studies in International Education

Volume

25

Issue

4

Article number

ARTN 1028315320984833

Pagination

425 - 442

Publisher

SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC

ISSN

1028-3153

eISSN

1552-7808

Language

English

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal