Keynote address

International Student Mobility:

Where to from here?

Professor Vera Mackie

University of Wollongong

This lecture places the current situation in the context of the history of student mobility in the Asia-Pacific region, from the mid-twentieth-century Colombo Plan to the current era of ‘user-pays’ education. This historical perspective will set the scene for our workshop's discussion of higher education and student mobility in the post-COVID world. By understanding the different models for international student mobility in the past, we will be better placed to consider alternatives for the future.

VERA MACKIE is Emeritus Professor of Asian and International Studies at the University of Wollongong and has also held positions at the University of Adelaide, Swinburne University, Curtin University and the University of Melbourne.

In addition to her other research publications and edited collections, she co-edited The Social Sciences in the Asian Century (ANU Press, 2015, with Carol Johnson and Tessa Morris-Suzuki) and special issues of journals such as The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Asian Studies Review, Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, Japanese Studies and PORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. She has held visiting professorships and fellowships at universities in Japan, Germany, Singapore, the Philippines, the US and Australia.