New Colombo Plan: A review of research and implications for practice

Since its launch in 2014, the New Colombo Plan (NCP) has significantly changed Australia’s student mobility and internationalisation landscape, impacting not only students’ education and experiences but also institutional partnerships, structures and operations, national and regional mobility trends, models and practices, and public diplomacy. This research digest provides a review of government policies and existing research on the NCP. It begins with an overview of the NCP and a discussion of the context for the Colombo Plan and New Colombo Plan. It provides comparisons with some international policy settings and trends on student mobility. It then discusses existing research on Australian students’ learning abroad via the NCP. This will be followed by a summary of the surveys on the NCP commissioned by DFAT. The digest concludes with implications for practice and further research.