Education partnerships between Australia and Indonesia will take centre stage next month when the Australia Indonesia Business Council brings its 2026 National Conference to Perth.
The three-day conference, running from 7 to 9 October at the Pan Pacific Perth, will bring together government, business and industry leaders from Australia and Indonesia under the theme Pathways to Success: Connecting Business, Creating Value.
Education and skills will be one of the sectors represented in the program, with education partnerships forming part of the broader conversation about how Australia and Indonesia can build deeper commercial, institutional and people to people connections.
Education is often discussed in Australia through the lens of international student recruitment. But the Australia-Indonesia relationship creates a much bigger canvas, encompassing research, transnational education, skills development, workforce partnerships, institutional collaboration and the movement of people between the two countries.
The conference provides an opportunity to put some of those issues into a broader bilateral context.
The program spans sectors including education, energy transition, creative industries, mining and METS, sport, health, and food and agriculture. The organisers say the conference will focus on practical partnerships, market opportunities and the commercial outcomes emerging from closer Australia Indonesia engagement.
The education discussion will be particularly relevant given the scale and proximity of Indonesia to Australia.
For Australian education providers, Indonesia is not simply another recruitment market. It is a major regional neighbour with which Australian institutions have built relationships across schools, universities, vocational education, research and professional training.
The question increasingly is how those relationships evolve beyond traditional student mobility.
The conference will also bring a strong government and diplomatic presence to Perth.
The organisers have confirmed the attendance of Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration Matt Thistlethwaite, along with Dr Anne Ally, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Small Business and International Development. Indonesian ministerial representatives and the Indonesian Ambassador will also be among the speakers and delegates.
Their attendance is important because the future of Australia Indonesia education relationships will not be determined by education providers alone.
Government policy, trade settings, immigration, skills needs, research priorities and the broader diplomatic relationship all have a role to play.
And perhaps that is one of the more interesting aspects of having education represented at a business council conference.
International education has spent plenty of time talking to itself.
There is value in putting the sector into rooms where the conversation is about trade, investment, workforce, infrastructure, diplomacy and long-term bilateral relationships. Students and education providers are ultimately part of that much bigger Australia-Indonesia ecosystem.
The AIBC conference is also deliberately broader than a traditional sector conference. Alongside the education discussion, the program includes sessions on investment and infrastructure, creative economy, sports diplomacy, health, mining and METS and other areas of bilateral cooperation.
Sport, for example, will be explored as a vehicle for people-to-people connections and commercial engagement, with Football West CEO Jamie Harnwell, Indonesian national team and UWA Nedlands NPL player Shalika Aurelia, and Football West Asia adviser Robbie Gaspar taking part in the session.
For Western Australia, the location is also significant.
The state has long positioned itself as Australia’s natural gateway to Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Invest and Trade WA says Indonesia is currently WA’s 11th largest trading partner and is promoting the conference as an opportunity to deepen connections beyond traditional trade sectors.
For those working in international education, the conference therefore offers something slightly different from the usual sector gathering.
It is a chance to consider Indonesia not simply as a source of students, but as a partner in a much broader regional relationship.
That may be where some of the more interesting education opportunities lie.
The AIBC National Conference runs from 7 to 9 October at the Pan Pacific Perth. The organisers are currently offering a stakeholder registration deal of $605 for one full registration, with a second full registration provided at no additional cost. The registration includes the welcome reception and gala dinner.
For more information and to register, see AIBC 2026 National Conference details and registration.
