This year, over 1,700 delegates attended the Australian International Education Conference (AIEC) and contributed their thoughts on visionary and transformative ideas and ideals that enhance the experiences of our international students and the communities in which they live, work and study.
As a key feature of AIEC, delegates are invited to contribute to the “theme wall” by expressing on post-it notes what the theme means to them.
This is what they came up with (see above).
The mural in my view captures all of the challenges and successes (and buzzwords) of the international student journey:
- Accommodation
- Admissions and pre-arrival
- Communities & partnerships: association, institution and student-led
- Digital learning & AI
- Diversity and equity principles: accessible, affordable, equitable and inclusive
- Graduate outcomes
- Student support: end-to-end
- Student voice: ask them
- Student wellbeing and wellness
- Sustainability as a value and key destination influence
The strong intent to provide a quality student experience is clear through the sentiments expressed in the mural. It reminds me of a quote from Professor Ly Tran earlier this year:
“It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to educate students from across the world but it comes with a professional and ethical responsibility to ensure a high-quality experience for them” (Campus Review, June 15 2022)
The mural forgot something though.
It forgot its enabler: regulation.
The notes from the sessions I attended at the conference focus strongly on the government announcements of the last two weeks and the policy roadmap and settings to follow. And, my favourite enabler quote was from Ms Christina Bolger – Deputy Chief Executive Officer, ASQA – who stated:
“Governance of risks are there to enable good outcomes for students”
I have long held a values-based view that exceeding legislated minimum standards is overwhelmingly beneficial for our international students and maximises their study experiences in Australia.
Insightful (and quotable) compliance and risk management language and sentiment across conference presentations also included:
- Blitz on unlawful behaviour
- Culture of quality assurance and continuous improvement, not a minimum compliance mindset
- Enforce higher ethical standards to ensure high-quality education
- Greater access to data to mitigate risks to integrity
- Greater risk-based, data-driven approach to regulation
- Risk indicators, risk indicators, risk indicators
- Strengthening standards to restore integrity
- Targeted compliance by education regulators
- Technology and data matching capability to identify and respond proactively to unethical and potentially illegal activity
If I was building a business model to capture the ideas and ideals of the AIEC2023 mural, there would be an “enabling” outer layer that ring-fences the mural. If we exceed our compliance obligations for the illustrated end-to-end support – admissions to orientation to enrolment to course completion – and ask our students to co-design this support with us, international education is set up to succeed!
The IDP Connect Emerging Futures 4.0 Report, released at the conference, examines the attitudes and intentions of more than 10,000 prospective, applied, current, and completed international students from 98 countries, surveyed between July 19 – August 21, 2023. Australia lifted in all categories since the last research data set in March this year and is now tied with Canada as a first-choice destination. All aspects of the mural are reflected in our students’ decision-making, so we’re on point!
Mural: Collated by Jessamy Gee – Think in Colour
