Internationalisation

The rationale for internationalisation lies in a university's fundamental responsibility to prepare its graduates to be active and critical participants in society. In addition, higher education and research training is now one of the great global industries, worth billions of dollars. There is huge opportunity for our University.

By ensuring that our University is integrally part of a global network of learning, our society develops stronger links with other nations and cultures. Internationalisation will also fundamentally shape the nature of our graduate and their careers. A capacity to draw from an educative experience suffused with international dimensions will be a significant vocational ability for our graduates in the workplace of the next century.

Internationalisation includes international student programs, student exchanges, offshore delivery of programs, internationalisation of research, international links, benchmarking and the development of an international culture throughout our curricula.

Our University is already one of the most 'internationalised' of Australia's universities. It has a large international student population, a range of study abroad programs, student and staff exchanges, international academic links and global collaborative research projects. Most notably:

• overseas students comprise 12 per cent of our total student population (among the highest of Australia's research-intensive universities);
• 42 per cent of our staff have obtained their highest qualification overseas, (compared to a national average of 30.6 per cent); and
• staff from our University produce more publications with an international collaborator than at any other Australian university (equal to the ANU).

We have been attracting international students since the 1950s when Australia's Colombo Plan provided study opportunities in Australia for students from the Asia Pacific region. Our students now come from 60 countries and help to create a dynamic multi-cultural campus.

The aim of the internationalisation strategies that we have initiated to take our University into the next century is to enhance an already commendable level of performance and achievement internationally, and to improve overseas awareness of the excellence of our institution.

A commitment to high quality is inseparable from a world-class university's international focus. In the longer term, quality will be recognised and judged in terms of international standards. This is especially so in the global marketplace for knowledge in which universities and other providers operate within a climate of rapid technological advances and increased competition across national boundaries.

Our University continues to develop and strengthen its international focus, recognising that globalisation is an ongoing phenomenon providing challenges and opportunities hitherto unrivalled in history. The range of teaching and research carried out in universities forms a critical link to international discovery and innovation. Our nation's leading teaching and research universities have become vital in developing the graduates who will ensure Australia's successful response to the challenges of internationalisation. In the global age, a highly educated population is the nation's ultimate wealth -- the key to economic growth and a stable society.

Central to our mission as a research-intensive university is the phrase "at the highest international standards". This is the fundamental standard against which we wish to be measured and against which we measure our own activities. We believe that the quality of all our operations and processes must be internationally benchmarked. Currently, we have strategic alliances and benchmarking agreements with a number of leading universities around the world to assess our performance in areas such as:

• staff (selection, promotion and development);
• students (selection, teaching and support);
• courses (curriculum development, content and delivery);
• research (funding, infrastructure, outcomes);
• facilities (building, equipment, learning resources);
• service provision (to staff, students and community);
• management and administration (systems, processes, structures); and,
• funding and resources (both in terms of the scale and spread of the resource base).

During 1999, we invited to our University an international expert panel which brought us expertise from Asia, Europe and North America, to undertake a comprehensive examination of our existing international focus. This was to ensure we are on the right path to take our place among the world's international universities in the 21st century.

We began the process through an initial review of marketing and recruitment of international students which recommended certain structural changes. These we will implement in 2000. They include: a new senior appointment to oversee internationalisation initiatives; the establishment of a high-level internationalisation committee; and the restructuring of our International Centre, with corresponding new developments in our faculties.

The wider review by the International panel clearly emphasised the need for internationalisation to permeate all our activities -- teaching, research, service and management.

A number of factors were identified as being critical to a full internationalisation of our University, including:

• inclusivity in teaching and learning;
• foreign language policy;
• study abroad;
• academic leave and exchanges;
• international student intake;
• the development of a postgraduate research school;
• international research linkages and funding;
• the newly created Institute of Advanced Studies;
• performance and best practice; and,
• equity, multi-culturalism and development.

During 2000, we will ensure that specific strategies are developed in each of these areas. The emphasis will be on building internationalisation principles into the mainstream of university thinking and activity.

We are at a critical point in the development of our University. Fortunately, we are well placed to take on the challenges presented by internationalisation and to enter the new century confident in our University's ability to chart our own destiny as a truly international university.

As one member of the international panel succinctly put it: a good education means the ability to achieve an excellent level of 'cultural arithmetic'; an international education leads to 'cultural calculus'.