Dr Anna Kent has released “Mandates and Missteps: Australian Government Scholarships to the Pacific 1948 to 2018”. The book looks at different scholarship programs in the Pacific over that time – their goals, design, and the politics behind them.
It is a historical perspective using documents from Australia, PNG, Fiji and US archives and incorporates student stories for each period. It highlights the types of students that came to Australia, these are short vignettes, providing an introduction to each chapter.
While the Colombo Plan has been covered, this is the first time that this history like this has been written. Because the Colombo Plan was not available in the Pacific, it has allowed a deeper dive into other, lesser-known, scholarship schemes. The book will help change the narrative of the history of international education in Australia – which generally starts with the Colombo Plan. The Colombo Plan was important, however it wasn’t the first scholarship scheme, and the majority of students in Australia didn’t study under the Colombo Plan.
Because of the time and geographic period, Australia’s colonial and then post-colonial relationship with Papua New Guinea has been looked at in detail. Australia’s intertwined history with PNG is not very well understood by the Australian public, this is a really important element to the book.
Abstract:
Mandates and Missteps is the first comprehensive history of Australian government scholarships to the Pacific, from the first scheme in 1948 to the Australia Awards of 2018. The study of scholarships provides a window into foreign and education policy making, across decades, and the impact such policies have had on individuals and communities. This work demonstrates the broad role these scholarships have played in bilateral relationships between Australia and Pacific Island territories and countries. The famed Colombo Plan is here put in its proper context within international aid and international education history. Australian scholarship programs, it is argued, ultimately reflect Australia, and its perception of itself as a nation in the Pacific, more than the needs of Pacific Island nations. Mandates and Missteps traces Australia’s role as both a coloniser in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and a participant in the process of decolonisation across the Pacific. This study will be of interest to students and scholars of international development, international education and foreign policy.
The book is open access via ANU Press. You can download a free digital copy here. Print versions are AUD $39.95 from the same link.
The Koala congratulates Anna on her work!
