IEAA Vista Magazine 2018

vista

magazIne IEAA 2018

be you be scene International students are stepping out of the shadows and sharing their stories with the world.

THE RHETORIC OF REGIONALISM IEAA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2018 IN CONVERSATION WITH ANNA CICCARELLI

8 20 36

Vista is an annual member magazine produced

by IEAA. It features in-depth analysis, insights and commentary on international education in Australia and around the world. Articles may be reproduced with permission. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the position of IEAA. Cover image

Francesco Vincenzi (Organic Photo)

WRITE FOR IEAA We welcome contributions from readers and sector experts. If you would like to write for the IEAA blog or the next edition of Vista, please email Peter Muntz (Communications Manager) at peter.muntz@ieaa.org.au.

Copyright Š 2018 2

4 8 11 16 20 26 30 36 38

Uncharted territory: the (re)politicisation of international education Christopher Ziguras The rhetoric of regionalisation Phil Honeywood Riding the third wave Rahul Choudaha Be you, be scene Abdul Samad Shiraz IEAA Excellence Awards 2018: Celebrating leadership, innovation and best practice Cautious optimism: lessons from the last downturn Jonathan Chew and Ethan Fogarty Artificial intelligence and the new generation of international marketers Marlena Mende In conversation with...

Anna Ciccarelli Let's get quizzical: international education quiz

contents be you, be scene 16 International students are stepping out of the shadows and sharing their stories with the world. It's all part of an innovative creative project designed to explore the issues impacting their lives in Australia, writes Abdul Samad Shiraz.

riding the third wave 11 Successfully riding the third wave of international student mobility rests on attracting the best-fit students and delivering value-for-money, writes Rahul Choudaha.

in conversation with 36 Dr Anna Ciccarelli's career in international education spans almost 30 years. This year we are thrilled to welcome her to the hallowed halls of IEAA life membership.

uncharted territory THE (RE)POLITICISATION OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

4

Education now plays a leading role in shaping Australia’s place in the world, yet our success in embracing global education makes us highly vulnerable to governmental and political intervention, writes Christopher Ziguras.

The return of soft power and weaponising students

Australia has been one of the most successful countries in the world at internationalising our tertiary education system. There are some obvious reasons for this: we had the historical good fortune of being an English-language system on the edge of Asia as it has integrated into the global economy and its students sought an education that would allow them to participate in the resulting growth; we have long had policy settings that promote entrepreneurialism within institutions; and we have an innovative and mobile workforce of international education professionals and academics.

Because we have been at the leading edge of international education for three decades, we now find ourselves in uncharted territory on a number of fronts. Our campus communities are as cosmopolitan as any in the world. We attract academic staff from across the globe and have internationalised our student body more comprehensively than any other system.

Almost half of Australia’s international students are enrolled in higher education, which accounts for nearly 30 per cent of all HE enrolments. There are just as many onshore international students studying outside higher education. Our students learn abroad as part of their university studies at a higher rate than nearly any other country, with around 20 per cent of Australian undergraduates now having a mobility experience. It has come to be taken as a given that tertiary education providers have an international mission as well as serving their local communities.

These are huge achievements that have resulted in education now playing a leading role in shaping Australia’s place in the world.

And yet our success in embracing the global education market makes us highly vulnerable as governments assert their ability to steer international educational flows for political purposes.

Before the 1980s most international student mobility was state-sponsored. During the colonial era and the Cold War, governments sent students to important partner countries to cement alliances in much the same way as European royalty had used intermarriage to forge pacts across the continent. While the soft power dimensions of international education never disappeared, it became much less significant with the rise of a global education market in which privately-funded students came to comprise the large majority of mobile learners.

After the end of the Cold War, governments’ scholarship programs became more explicitly focused on development needs. Following the UK, and in parallel with New Zealand, Australia famously made the shift ‘from aid to trade’ in 1985, moving from a policy centred around Colombo Plan scholarships to attracting selffunded students. One of the reasons this shift worked so well was that the rest of the world was also changing in the same direction.

So how will this global education market – which was built upon the foundations of the liberal international economic order and has provided enormous benefits to Australia – fare in the face of growing statist intervention aimed at remedying perceived market failures?

The success of nationalistic movements in many countries has been accompanied by efforts to constrain foreign engagement in education.

For example, through selective tightening of visas in the USA and UK, instructions to purge foreign influence in Chinese universities, efforts to close the liberal Central European University in Hungary, and so on. So far, we have successfully fended off home-grown efforts to restrict incoming international students of the kind that have derailed the UK, Singapore and the USA. As a consequence, we (along with Canada and New Zealand) are reaping a diversity dividend, as students travel instead to our more welcoming study destinations.

5

Image: zhujia1011 (iStock)

On the Chinese side, the dominant policy concern remains to ensure the ability of Chinese students and scholars to move freely and protect their interests wherever they are in the world.

Engagement with China Instead, international education’s next major political challenge is likely to be posed by our engagement with China. As tensions have flared between the Australian and Chinese governments over a range of issues, education has often been centre stage – both in Australia and in China. On the Australian side, the dominant policy concern is how to continue to welcome and educate a large number of Chinese students, and to pursue a wide range of other educational and research collaborations, without ceding sovereignty. This particularly relates to freedom of expression, academic freedom, protection of intellectual property and so on.

On the Chinese side, the dominant policy concern remains to ensure the ability of Chinese students and scholars to move freely and protect their interests wherever they are in the world. But the Chinese government is not afraid to use its ability to influence where students travel to, and who universities collaborate with, in order to apply pressure. In recent years the number of Chinese students studying in Taiwan and South Korea dropped sharply in response to government displeasure at actions those countries had taken, only to pick up again once the political climate had been resolved.

There doesn’t seem to be any softening of interest in study in Australia among Chinese students, but that is clearly a fear for many institutions if the relationship deteriorates.

6

There is also the risk of China putting pressure on individual institutions to change behaviour, as the world’s airlines discovered recently when they were required to refer to Taiwan as part of China or risk unspecified repercussions. The consequences were largely symbolic in this case, but the message was very clear.

Saudi students in the crossfire While we might describe the educational impact of political tensions with China as simmering, Saudi Arabia’s use of students as a weapon to punish Canada’s government is by contrast nothing short of explosive. After taking offence at a Twitter post by the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs expressing alarm at the arrest of women’s rights activists, the Saudi government ordered all of the 17,000 or so Saudi students in Canada to return home over the Northern summer break. This marks a new high-water mark in the weaponising of students as a tool of international diplomacy.

In Canberra there has been a steadily growing recognition of the significance of education in Australia’s soft power, as evidenced in last year's Foreign Affairs White Paper and the current review of Australia’s soft power. This is very timely, and will help both the government and the international education sector to shift our thinking to reflect a more politically charged global education environment. We need to develop the tools to think beyond transactions with markets, providers and consumers, to instead recognise that we need a deeper and more meaningful engagement with countries, communities and learners.

We need to develop the tools to think beyond transactions with markets, providers and consumers, to instead recognise that we need a deeper and more meaningful engagement with countries, communities and learners.

A globally competent nation Decades ago, many of us lamented that international dimensions of education were treated as ad hoc optional extras, to be sprinkled across an otherwise inwardlooking institution. I think it is safe to say that international engagement is now core business in most facets of most institutions – in student services, recruitment, research strategy, curriculum design and many other functions.

And in some respects, the ‘international’ divisions are victims of their own success, seeing their staff ‘mainstreamed’, and endless rethinking of the proper jurisdiction of the global engagement departments.

Old hands in the international education sector worry that such a diffusion can easily result in a loss of strategic focus and purpose.

The question is clearly no longer whether an institution is international, but how its international engagement aligns with its broader strategy.

Some institutions are very clear about this, for a while, but clear, stable strategies are rare.

Being able to articulate a coherent vision has proved more difficult for Australian governments who struggle to articulate any policy goal beyond ‘let’s increase the dollar value of education export revenue’. We only need look across the ditch to New Zealand’s recently launched International Education Strategy. It sets out three clear goals, along with assignment of responsibilities and success measures: 1. delivering an excellent education and student experience 2. achieving sustainable growth 3. developing global citizens.

As a sector, we need to get better at helping our governments, federal and state, to understand the broader social and economic benefits that derive from such a focus on qualitative outcomes.

A key problem we face is a lack of a shared language for articulating the broader benefits of global engagement. As Wendy Green and Craig Whitsed recently pointed out in University World News, the language of ‘internationalisation of the curriculum’ seems to have almost disappeared from Australian campuses. The term was perhaps always a stretch in Australia, since it presumes that the problem is that a curriculum is too national; whereas so much of our curriculum has always been imported, reconfigured and exported rather than being stuck within the bounds of the nation. (The European term ‘internationalisation at home’ also makes little sense here; just try asking a classroom of students where ‘home’ is.)

The idea of global (or international or intercultural) competencies is, however, taken for granted now, and such notions have for at least a decade been ubiquitous in institutions’ pronouncements about their graduates’ attributes.

More recently these have been subsumed under the rubric of employability. And here we should look closely at the OECD’s work on global competence, which it has this year included as an optional component in the hugely influential Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) for 15 year olds.

The OECD’s rationale aligns nicely with the way we think about such matters here:

Whether in traditional or more entrepreneurial work environments, young people need to collaborate with others from different disciplines and cultures, in a way that solves complex problems and creates economic and social value. They need to bring judgment and action to difficult situations in which people’s beliefs and perspectives are at odds. They need to identify cultural traits and biases and to recognise that their own understanding of the world is inevitably partial (OECD 2016).

Whether the term we use is global competence, global citizenship or something else, we need to get better at articulating an educational vision that resonates with students, educators, governments and the broader community. We know from the rise of xenophobic movements around the world that to successfully counter naïve nativism we need both compelling evidence and an inclusive vision of a globally-engaged future which the whole community can relate to.

It is likely that we are entering a period in which international education will again be politically contested by an increasing number of governments and factions, and often in unpredictable ways – who would have thought a year ago that how we teach about ‘Western Civilization’ would be more contentious than whether to host Confucius Institutes? The difference between the coming era and a half century ago is that international education is now our core business, and global competencies are our new survival skills.

Professor Christopher Ziguras is the outgoing President of IEAA and Deputy Dean, International at the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University.

7

the

rhetoric

of regionalisation

Political machinations to cap the number of international students in Melbourne and Sydney – forcing them to study in regional areas – are fraught with danger, writes Phil Honeywood.

8

Around the globe the international education sector is now being challenged by a rising tide of nationalistic fervour. In the UK this has taken the form of counting temporary full fee paying overseas students in the official migration numbers and discriminating against targeted student source countries. In continental Europe, countries such as Hungary are actively threatening the existence of universities that focus on large numbers of international students. Donald Trump’s rhetoric against Muslim and Latin American students is now beginning to influence the USA’s student visa policy framework.

In Australia the anti international student narrative involves a unique policy twist. An initial focus, by both major political parties, on potential limitations to temporary skilled worker visas has now been conflated with the problems of overcrowded trains, buses and highways. In some cases, overseas students are even being blamed for first home buyers not being able to enter the housing market.

The politics of big-city infrastructure culminated in a prime ministerial “exclusive” on the front page of a Sydney tabloid recently. Readers were informed that a policy to cap international student numbers at major city institutions and force them to study in regional communities was in the offing.

There may well be merit in having young people from overseas getting to know the “real Australia” rather than just congregating in our cosmopolitan city centres. Reality suggests, however, that such a policy may become a serious disincentive for globally mobile students whose expectations centre much more around university rankings, location of same-culture migrant diaspora and employment opportunities.

After her elevation to the Senate in 2016, it did not take Pauline Hanson long to single out fullfee paying international students for particular attention. An urgency motion, sponsored by her party in the Senate, called on the federal government to quantify how many jobs were being lost by young Australians to students from overseas.

Australia remains one of the most urbanised countries. As a nation of coast huggers, we have done little to encourage meaningful decentralisation.

Image: JordeAngjelovik (iStock)

Happily, in the ensuing parliamentary debate, senior politicians from all major parties disagreed with the One Nation motion.

Key points raised included that international students were willing to work in many jobs that young Australians refused to engage in, that Australia gained a $32 billion a year economic benefit from this sector and that many young Australians also gained work experience when they travelled and studied overseas. A recurring theme was that, by providing course-related job opportunities to foreign students, Australia was also enhancing its soft-power status within our Indo-Pacific region.

In more recent times, thanks to the vagaries of our federal system of government, a blame game has begun that is focused on inadequate public infrastructure, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. This debate gained additional momentum when Australia's national population reached 25 million, somewhat ahead of planning experts’ forecasts.

Initially, a historically high annual migration intake was singled out for blame. Unfortunately, no sooner had the Coalition Government announced a reduction to the migration program than the major parties shifted their finger, pointing to our international education sector.

Curiously, record numbers of foreign tourists using our buses, trains, roads and Airbnb apartments were exempt from blame.

There is no doubt our major study destination competitor countries, such as Britain, the US, Canada and New Zealand, have done better than Australia in decentralising many of their universities that are attractive to overseas enrolments.

Whether it be Oxford, Yale, York or Otago universities, their campus locations in regional communities have not acted as a major impediment to demand from international students for their courses.

Accommodation and other living expenses also are relatively cheaper and there is little evidence of a strain on buses and other community infrastructure.

Unfortunately, we are not comparing apples with apples. Australia remains one of the most urbanised countries. As a nation of coast huggers we have done little to encourage meaningful decentralisation.

One also could argue that the location of universities such as Oxford or Cambridge were more historical accident than planned decentralisation.

Rightly or wrongly, certain full-fee paying international students continue to be influenced by an education institution’s overall academic ranking. While some of our regional universities have gained an outstanding reputation for certain niche courses, evidence suggests that a Chinese student hoping to enrol in the most popular courses of business or IT will follow the global rankings.

If told by an Australian government that to gain a student visa they must enrol in a relatively lower academically ranked university in our regional centres, many students, instead, will think of their future CV and enrol in a higherranked institution in a competitor country.

9

While some of our regional universities have gained an outstanding reputation for certain niche courses, evidence suggests that a Chinese student hoping to enrol in the most popular courses of business or IT will follow the global rankings.

According to our new Prime Minister, Melbourne is one of the most successful multicultural cities in the world. He paid tribute to the manner in which large Greek, Italian and more recently Chinese and Indian communities have integrated into Australian culture.

What is less understood is how significant migrant diaspora populations in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane act as a major pull factor for overseas students to enrol in universities in these cities. Whether it be the ability to come and stay with a cousin while studying, or to enjoy the home country cuisine in one of the many inexpensive cafes, the presence of same-culture migrant diasporas within a multicultural metropolis stand in contrast to life in a regional centre.

Notwithstanding this, surveyed international students studying in our regions indicate a high level of satisfaction with their living experience.

Course-related employability opportunities also are perceived to be more available in Australia’s large urban centres. For students from some of our main source countries, the need to work part time while studying is a key motivation in choice of study destination country and institution. If the perception is that by being located in a regional township the employment options will be limited, then this will act as a clear deterrent.

Ironically, most of Australia’s regional-based universities have already factored into their business models the enrolment behaviour of our nation’s burgeoning international student numbers. They have chosen to contract out to third-party private colleges the delivery of entire degree courses in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. In other cases, they have rented office towers in these major cities and undertaken direct course delivery under their own regional university banner. In doing so, they are direct contributors to the public infrastructure demand in the big urban centres.

It is clear that any genuine attempt to turn the rhetoric of regionalisation into policy reality will be fraught. At its best, it may lead to a small increase from the present three per cent of our 650,000 overseas students who choose to study in our officially designated regional communities. At its worst, in playing to the agendas of certain politicians, such an approach could jeopardise an entire sector. To avoid such an outcome, meaningful consultation with the sector will be critical.

Phil Honeywood is Chief Executive Officer of the International Education Association of Australia.

Safety is one of the main concerns for parents and students when selecting a place of study. * Sonder helps students stay safe so they can pursue life with confidence and succeed in their studies. We provide the only safety app backed by a 24/7 in-person rapid response network.

Register to be the first to try new app release features!

Register Today

sonderaustralia.com *"What do parents look for in their child's school", PISA in Focus, May 2015, OECD

Help when you need it. Confidence when you don’t.

10

riding the

third wave Successfully riding the third wave of international student mobility rests on attracting the best-fit students and delivering value-for-money, writes Rahul Choudaha.

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future," said Nobel laureate Niels Bohr. While many were surprised (pleasantly or unpleasantly) by the unpredictable outcomes of the Brexit referendum and the American presidential elections, it is safe to predict that political volatility and anti-immigration rhetoric in these two leading destinations will impact future patterns of mobility.

Over the last several years, Australian institutions have been highly successful in attracting international students and positioning Australia as a quality destination for studying overseas.

Education sectors around the world consistently look to Australian policies and strategies for attracting and retaining international students.

Will Australian institutions continue to maintain their leadership in the future?

To understand the future trends let us look back at the recent history of mobility based on the 'Three Waves of International Student Mobility' published in Studies in Higher Education. In this framework, a 'wave' indicates key events impacting mobility directions and patterns.

While many variables influence student mobility, the framework provides a bigger picture of how mobility has changed over time from the perspective of competing destinations.

11

Wave II was defined by the impact of the GFC, which prompted institutions to become more proactive with recruitment and increasingly reliant on China.

2002–2009 • SEPTEMBER 11 Image: CatLane (iStock)

• RAPID GROWTH • COMMENCEMENTS CHANGE: +28%

WAVE I. 9/11 TERRORIST ATTACKS

Wave I was characterised by the US tightening its policies and becoming less attractive for international students. Conversely, destinations like Australia witnessed rapid growth.

12

Wave I was triggered with the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In the wake of the attacks, the US tightened visa requirements which made it more difficult for international students to study in the US. Around the same time, the Bologna process and European Higher Education Area (EHEA) started taking shape to create more comparable and coherent education systems to foster student mobility within Europe.

Also, some countries in Asia started developing ambitions to attract international students. For example, the number of international students in Japan more than doubled between 1999 and 2003 to reach nearly 110,000. Following 9/11, Malaysia created more opportunities for its domestic students to earn foreign degrees at home through branch campuses and capitalised on attracting international students from the Middle East and the Arab world who were finding it difficult to study in the US.

The number of international students enrolled in tertiary education in the US increased by only 13 per cent between 2002 and 2009, according to UNESCO's Institute of Statistics.

In contrast, Australia, Canada and the UK increased their enrolments by 43, 93 and 62 per cent respectively. While Australia grew at a slower pace than the other two leading Englishspeaking destinations, it was a wave of rapid growth within Australia. Between 2002 and 2009, international student commencements for the higher education sector increased by 63 per cent, surpassing 100,000 commencements in 2009. New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland drove much of this growth.

2009–2016 • GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

WAVE II. GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

• SLOW GROWTH • COMMENCEMENTS CHANGE: +14%

Wave II has its origins in the Global Financial Crisis which started in the US. The cascading effect resulted in severe budget cuts in the education sector in many countries around the world. This compelled institutions to start thinking of alternative sources of revenue, such as full fee-paying international students and increased tuition fees. Australia was already a pioneer in recognising the critical contributions of international student fees in education services exports.

The number of international students enrolled in tertiary education in the US increased by 37 per cent, or 246,670 students between 2009 and 2015 (UNESCO, 2016). By comparison, Canada enrolled a total of 189,573 international students in 2016 and grew by 98 per cent between 2009 and 2016). Meanwhile, Australia and the UK experienced slower growth of 30 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.

The growth of China’s middle-class provided much-needed enrolment momentum for many countries around the world. The number of globally mobile Chinese students grew by 63 per cent to reach 847,046 students in 2016, as compared to 519,751 in 2009 (UNESCO, 2016).

While there are concerns of overdependence on China as a source market, the commencements of Chinese students in Australia’s higher education sector increased by 37 per cent between 2009 and 2016 – a much slower pace than the growth rate of all Chinese students going abroad.

Australian universities experienced one of the toughest times during this wave as international commencements plummeted to 89,126 in 2012 as compared to 101,908 in 2009. Since then Australia has been on a recovery path reaching 131,125 in 2016. Overall, between 2009 and 2016, international student commencements for the higher education sector increased by 29 per cent, much slower than 63 per cent in Wave I. This time, Victoria grew at a much faster pace of 45 per cent as compared to 33 per cent for New South Wales and 6 per cent for Queensland.

A recent IEAA blog post by Jonathan Chew and Bill Stephens frames this as a growth gap between Go8 and other universities and regions. Along with the associated concerns of diversity, this has been characterised as a 'twospeed' international education economy.

TABLE 1 Tertiary education enrolment of international students

WAVE I

WAVE II

2002

2009

2016

% change (2002–2009)

% change (2009–2016)

Australia

179,619

257,637

335,512

43.4

30.2

Canada

49,572

95,590

189,573

92.8

98.3

United Kingdom

227,273

368,968

430,687

62.3

16.7

United States

582,996

660,581

907,251

13.3

37.3

WAVE I

WAVE II

Source: UNESCO Institute of Statistics. Tertiary education includes advanced professional vocational diplomas and associate degrees.

Data for US and UK for 2016 was unavailable and hence figures for 2015 are used as an estimate.

TABLE 2 Higher education commencements of international students 2002

2009

2016

% change (2002–2009)

% change (2009–2016)

All higher ed

62,332

101,908

131,125

63.5

28.7

NSW

21,169

34,791

46,290

64.3

33.1

VIC

19,353

30,842

44,810

59.4

45.3

QLD

10,028

16,727

17,809

66.8

6.5

Source: Department of Education and Training

13

Sustainable enrolment growth will require Australian institutions to recalibrate the value-for-money proposition for diverse segments of international student cohorts.

2016–2023 • NEW POLITICAL ORDER • SLOWER GROWTH • COMMENCEMENTS CHANGE (EST.): +8%

WAVE III. IMPACT OF A NEW POLITICAL ORDER Wave III is shaped by the uncertainties triggered by a new political order with nationalistic overtones in the UK and the US which started with the Brexit and Presidential elections. This is likely to redirect a segment of international students to alternative destinations.

Previous research by Janet Ilieva confirms a strong association between student visa policies, including post-study work opportunities and international enrolments.

In the short term, Australia is still benefiting from the political turmoil in the US and the UK – international student commencements for higher education reached a historical high of almost 150,000 in 2017. However, the sustainability of enrolment growth is under stress due to a range of reasons including diversity, capacity and cost.

English-taught programs launched by universities in Asia and Europe in Wave I are becoming a stronger competitive threat based on their accumulated experiences of working with international students and rise in the global rankings. Some of these universities are competing on the same premise of value-formoney which was a big attraction for Australian universities in Wave I.

14

This is where it becomes important to think of the sustainability of international student strategies, not merely in the form of source countries but from the perspectives of student segments in search of value-for-money (University World News, 2018).

This means that universities must reflect and innovate in expanding the value offered by reducing financial cost and increasing experiential benefits. For example, a recent story published in the Australian noted that universities in Western Australia are offering international students steep tuition fee discounts in the form of scholarships to offset a decline in enrolments – an effective strategy for attracting price-sensitive students.

Likewise, several Australian state strategies are focusing on stepping up support for student experience. For example, Queensland’s International Education and Training Strategy identified 'Enhancing the Student Experience: Improve student satisfaction with the quality of their experience both inside and outside of the classroom' as one of its five strategic imperatives. This type of strategy strongly appeals to experience-seeking students.

RIDING THE WAVE: WHAT IS NEXT? The current trends of Wave III indicate that the competition for attracting international students is intensifying. Australia has all the right ingredients for maintaining its leadership in attracting international students. However, successfully riding the third wave rests not only on effective strategies for attracting the bestfit international students, but delivering on the promise of value-for-money.

Sustainable enrolment growth will require Australian institutions to recalibrate the valuefor-money proposition for diverse segments of international student cohorts and align institutional strategies with rapidly changing student needs and an increasingly competitive environment.

Download the full 'Three waves of international student mobility' framework at ieaa.today/2IlpQuf Dr Rahul Choudaha is Executive Vice President of Global Engagement and Research at StudyPortals. He serves on the IEAA research committee and tweets as DrEducationBlog.

Join our community of over 2000 education providers and agents.

Recruit. Track. Pay.

Discover. cohortgo.com 15

be you be scene

Image: Francesco Vincenzi (Organic Photo)

International students are stepping out of the shadows and sharing their stories with the world.

It's all part of an innovative creative project designed to explore the issues impacting their lives in Australia, writes Abdul Samad Shiraz.

They stand in two lines, separated by the sea of faces that eagerly await their performance.

One by one they step up to bring their troubles out of the shadows. Not a single one of them has performed on stage before. The usual anxiety anyone feels before performing in front of a crowd is overpowered by anticipation, excitement and enthusiasm. After all, it’s hard to feel nervous when the supportive family you have opened up to is right up there with you.

Be You – Be Scene builds upon the success of 2017’s Act of Translation, a fun and creative workshop/performance project that places the experience of international students centre stage and gives them an outlet to explore the issues impacting their lives in Australia.

The project is funded by Study Melbourne’s International Student Welfare Program and run in partnership with ISANA, the Australian Federation of International Students (AFIS), Monash College, RMIT and Meld Magazine.

Act of Translation garnered much praise for its exploration of international student wellbeing and recently received a community innovation award for excellence from the Victorian Multicultural Commission.

Be You – Be Scene extends this opportunity for students to come together and share their stories, which could be about anything from the difficulty of adjusting to life in Australia or even the worry about spending too much on groceries. The project is built around six major themes, which were identified through Act of Translation. They are mental health, accommodation, relationships, LGBT, cultural differences and employment.

Some could argue that any of these issues is more important than another but, in the eyes of an international student, each of these themes bears a lot of weight. The idea behind exploring these themes is to start a conversation. As artistic director Catherine Simmonds says, “It’s not just ‘Hello, how are you? Where do you come from? What do you study?’ It’s really to go deeper into the conversation.”

Simmonds describes her role as a facilitator of people’s stories. Projects like Be You – Be Scene focus on the lived experience of every single student. “They know their own story.

I’m the facilitator that draws it out,” she says.

Simmonds has been working with marginalised communities for 27 years. After the success of Act of Translation, the conversation veered towards creating a safe hub of creativity and expression which gave rise to Be You – Be Scene.

Students find themselves more open to talk to people and share their stories authentically, rather than putting on a mask.

Project manager Feifei Liao (pictured far left) has been involved in a lot of student unions, campaigning for the wellbeing of international students. Once at the national level, she found the representation for international students to be appallingly low. After being involved in Act of Translation as a participant, Liao became directly involved in Be You – Be Scene as project manager. She finds most events aimed at international students focus on entertainment, rather than making a lasting positive impact on their wellbeing – something that Be You – Be Scene is tackling head on. “When we start to share our personal stories, that’s when our friendships grow deeper,” she says.

17

Artistic director Catherine Simmonds describes her role as a facilitator of people’s stories. “It’s not just ‘Hello, how are you? Where do you come from? What do you study?’ It’s really to go deeper into the conversation.”

Of course, a project of this scale cannot be brought to life on goodwill alone. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes. The Victorian/Tasmanian branch of ISANA – a nonprofit organisation committed to the wellbeing of international students – applied for a grant to continue the vision of Act of Translation.

Manorani Guy, President of ISANA (VIC/TAS), explains that the work they do behind the scenes is similar to a stage production. People come and watch the show, but don’t always realise how much work goes into it. From insurance and security, service agreements and catering for the hungry participants, ISANA keeps everything on track.

ISANA’s strong network has also forged opportunities to perform in regional Victorian towns like Ballarat and Geelong. Rather than just a one-off performance, the project is the start of an ongoing discussion on themes and issues that are prevalent through the lives of international students in Australia.

Express yourself Free expression is a concept that many people in Australia have grown up with; the same can be said for many Western countries. However, this isn’t the case for much of the rest of the world.

Cultural differences play a prominent role in different upbringings. Children in Asia are often told to hold back their thoughts and conform to society, even if they feel that doing so is wrong or goes against their natural instincts.

18

Be You – Be Scene provides a space for international students in which they can express themselves without the fear of being judged or ostracised.

Wendy, an international student who performed for the first time at the recent Melbourne Writers Festival, describes how intimidating the thought of expressing herself was. “I don’t usually expose myself to a big audience … and I was performing a piece that feels very close to my heart and displaying a certain level of vulnerability.” To many international students, opening up is an entirely new concept. Many are raised with the idea that vulnerability is a sign of weakness. However, with the introduction of this project, that idea is slowly starting to break down.

Creating a safe space Since the beginning of the project, Simmonds has facilitated a safe space for international students to confront their issues and be open about their thoughts. “This space exists. It’s about mobilising the voice of the international students,” says Simmonds. As each week passes, participants are more confident to step out of the shadows and tell their stories.

Maria, another student participant, expresses the change she noticed in herself. “I am more confident in asking questions, giving comments.

One year ago I was not able to do that. I was even shy to make phone calls in English,” she explains.

Images: Andrew Coulter (L, R), Zhao Tammy Yang (Middle)

Students feel a sense of achievement and confidence after doing something they never thought possible – expressing themselves.

And it’s not just confidence. They find they feel more at peace with who they are, rather than conforming to the standards of their cultures and societies. Students like Wendy and Maria find themselves more open to talk to people and share their stories authentically, rather than putting on a mask.

Reaching out ISANA's Manorani Guy brings to light a very real scenario when she says “If you ask a student to go see a counsellor, are they going to go? That’s the last place they want to go even though they know they need help. They usually go to their friends. This puts an enormous pressure on them when they are not suited, nor do they have the skills, to be counsellors. Supporting projects like Be You – Be Scene provides another avenue for these students to talk about it and share their problems. It opens a door that makes them think ‘maybe I’ll go see a counsellor now.’”

Although Be You – Be Scene is a hub of creativity and self-expression, its effects resonate beyond what happens within the workshop. Meeting with other international students who share the same problems, opening up to them and forming connections has an almost therapeutic effect and makes a big impact on these student's lives.

The workshop creates a familial atmosphere of closely knit individuals, becoming one part of a whole. That atmosphere of closeness and security is essential in providing a safe space for international students and allowing them the opportunity to make friends with those who relate, forming deeper bonds.

“When you challenge yourself and talk to people about the most meaningful things that have happened to you, especially in Australia, that’s a door that opens for you. It’s one of the best therapies and activities you can do to go beyond your fears and just be yourself with what you are, with your reality,” says Maria.

They stand in two lines, separated by the sea of faces that eagerly await their performance.

They stand with their eyes wide – not due to the fear of getting up stage, but the excitement of expressing themselves and who they really are. They stand with their backs straight and full of confidence. The audience can feel the authenticity that comes with their performance.

An authenticity that can only be achieved by exploring who they are. An authenticity that brings to life the words, Be You – Be Scene.

Watch 'Act of Translation – the Documentary' at ieaa.today/2OOxsYB Abdul Samad Shiraz is an international student who is both a participant and volunteer at Be You – Be Scene.

19

excellence

awards 2018

Celebrating leadership, innovation and best practice in international education.

Gary Lee Distinguished Contribution Gary Lee graduated from RMIT with a Masters in Arts in 2005. Since then he has pursued his passion for promoting cultural diversity and enriching the lives of international students.

Having worked in the international education sector for over 18 years, he understands it from multiple perspectives – as an international student, a graduate, an advocate and a professional working in the sector.

Gary has worked at the City of Melbourne for the last 10 years. As the first designated international student officer for any council throughout Australia, he has been instrumental in helping Melbourne become one of leading destinations for international students. This role has enabled Gary to pioneer new ideas and initiatives (many of which have been replicated in other states and territories) to empower international students and promote cultural diversity.

20

In addition to Gary’s professional role, he contributes to numerous organisations in a voluntary capacity, including Welcome to Australia, Bully Zero Australia Foundation, AFL Multicultural Community Program and Melbourne Victory. He also works closely with community partners such as the Council of International Students Australia (CISA), the Australian Federation of International Students (AFIS), Meld Community and other international student associations.

Gary has an unwavering dedication to ensure international students have the best possible experience. His long list of awards and achievements is testament to his contribution to the international education sector in Australia.

David Riordan Distinguished Contribution David Riordan has been involved in international education for over 20 years. Initially his work centred around the VET sector, but over the years his influence has moved to the schools, ELICOS and higher education sectors.

While Director of Sydney TAFE in 2010, the Institute was awarded the International Training Provider of the Year award in recognition for the quality of training and services to international students. David was chair of the NSW Ministerial Taskforce on International Education and has been a board member for various professional associations and national committees.

He is a current member of the National Council for International Education – one of the most important bodies in Australia working directly to advise the Federal Government on the implementation of the National Strategy for International Education 2025.

Since 2017, David has chaired one of the council’s major sub-committees – the Student Services Working Group – which has been developing recommendations on critical issues like workplace exploitation, accommodation, work-based learning, pre-departure information and community engagement. These recommendations will have a major impact on the overall experience of international students in Australia, ensuring that Australia remains a pre-eminent destination for international students.

A cornerstone of his leadership has been as an advocate for the quality of education delivery, enhancing international student safety/services and the importance of international education to the wider community.

This award is proudly sponsored by IDP. 21

Professional Language Development Program in Nursing Best Practice

Dr Amanda Müller, Flinders University Flinders University's Professional Language Development Program is designed for international students undertaking a nursing degree. The program took its current form in 2015 and is comprised of eight half–semester topics that cover: basic aspects of Australian English and pronunciation, clinical explanations, patient role plays, medical terminology and abbreviations, nursing handovers, editing and occupational English test practice.

Measured over a four year period, the international students who attended the program (about a third to half of the cohort) achieved higher grade point averages, and those attending more classes achieved significantly better grades. The improved performance of students, and expert support for at-risk students, reduces the pressure on academic staff and ensures the international students have a better educational experience.

The topics were developed through interviews with failed students about their precise points of difficulty, consultation with the student body and literature reviews of best practices for that area of need. To supplement this approach, topic coordinators can request formal one-on-one learning plans for students identified as being at-risk. Furthermore, extensive online resources are provided to extend upon the work done in class – including instructional videos, PDFs, mp3s, videogames and other documents.

Dr Müller herself has been an integral part of the strategic approach of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences in supporting students who do not have English as a first language. She has had a significant impact on international students and has received numerous awards for her educational materials and educational research at Flinders University.

This award is proudly sponsored

by QS Enrolment Solutions.

22

Victoria University’s First Year Model Innovation

Professor Ian Solomonides, Ms Trish McCluskey Professor Andrew Smallridge, Dr David Day In 2018, Victoria University (VU) made the bold decision to transform its entire approach to one of the most critical phases of the student journey: the first year of the bachelor degree.

This new First Year Model and the establishment of a First Year College is an Australian-first designed to support the transition to university and strengthen student success.

Characterised by a more focused and intensive teaching structure, the First Year Model delivers first-year undergraduate units in sequential four-week blocks, as opposed to the traditional style of bachelor-level teaching where students study multiple subjects at the same time over a 12-week semester.

Since the model was introduced in February 2018, the VU community – and specifically the international student cohort – has reaped immediate and enduring benefits by way of improved student satisfaction, retention and academic achievement.

The model has significant benefits for international students by fostering inclusion and a deeper sense of belonging from the moment they begin their VU journey.

Following the overwhelming success of this ground-breaking initiative, VU will extend this ‘block model’ to all higher education bachelor and postgraduate courses by 2020.

The First Year Model is one of the biggest student-centred, staff-led and community integrated transformation programs ever undertaken in higher education in Australia. Its implementation has required an environment that encourages innovation, leadership and an entrepreneurial mindset.

This award is proudly sponsored by QS. 23

Danny Toohey Outstanding Postgraduate Thesis Transnational Education (TNE) is a significant export for Australian education providers and this thesis addresses a factor critical to its success: academic engagement and how the operationalisation of TNE impacts on the job satisfaction of those involved at the home and transnational institutions.

TNE has many benefits for the major stakeholders, including: •

Students – who have access to educational opportunities that may not otherwise be available

•

Sending universities – as an alternative source of funding

•

Host countries – as a way of encouraging the expansion of higher education without the related drain on the public purse

Anton Crace Professional Commentary Anton Crace is a journalist and commentator covering international education in the AsiaPacific. He is one of only a handful of journalists covering the sector – and the only journalist focused entirely on international education.

Without his understanding of the layers of regulatory and legislative frameworks, the fallout from mainstream media misreporting would have had a significantly more negative impact on the sector.

He has consistently provided in-depth analysis of issues across the sector. His stories on the value of international education or student enrolments provide more than just surface level coverage, breaking down individual statistics to understand what is happening at a deeper level. His analysis and coverage has been a galvanising voice, and one that mediates the rhetoric between government, industry and learners.

In 2018, Anton began a series of articles unpacking the relationship between China and Australia and how it does (and does not) affect international education. His piece, ‘Rumours’, separated media conjecture from fact and was a valuable contribution in better focusing on the areas that need improvement in the relationship.

Some of Anton’s most important work came during the Australian International Education Conference (AIEC) in Hobart in 2017, where an announcement by Minister Simon Birmingham of new ELICOS standards was mistakenly reported by several Australian media outlets to be a new English exam.

24

As the only dedicated voice for international education in Australia, and more broadly the Asia-Pacific, Anton has played a significant role in encouraging the sector to engage and openly discuss concerns.

This award is proudly sponsored

by Pearson PTE Academic.

PhD topic: TNE and academic job satisfaction •

Sending countries – as an important source of export income and a reduction of universities’ reliance on public funding, and

•

Academics – in terms of gaining new experiences and exposure to different cohorts of students.

The continued growth in TNE has not come without challenges. It is an activity that can be complex and risky to all stakeholders.

Recognition of these risks has resulted in it becoming a focus of education regulators in both sending and receiving jurisdictions.

Issues of academic job satisfaction have been the focus of previous research, but not in the context of TNE where the role of the academic is fundamentally different to that which could be considered the normal model of university teaching.

In the context of this thesis, the positive engagement of academics is an issue if the risks inherent in TNE are to be successfully mitigated. The primary objective of the research was to better understand the way in which TNE is operationalised, and how it relates to the satisfaction of the academics involved, to better inform approaches to TNE delivery.

The examiners noted the quality of its contribution to both theory and practice, noting that it made a “very significant original contribution to our understanding of academic engagement in TNE”.

This award is proudly sponsored by i-graduate.

Check out video profiles of this year's award winners at ieaa.org.au/awards

Creative. Dynamic. Alive. www.study.sydney

25

cautious optimism LESSONS FROM THE LAST DOWNTURN

26

Australia’s international education sector has proven itself to be remarkably resilient, but is it as sustainable as we think?

Jonathan Chew and Ethan Fogarty crunch the numbers.

International enrolments have continued to grow steadily in Australia, although recent history provides the reminder that such growth is not guaranteed. Eight years ago, the international education and training sector experienced a significant downturn in enrolments. Following more than 10 years of continuous growth, international student numbers dropped – an almost 5 per cent decrease in annual enrolments in 2012.

As Figure 1 shows, since 1988 Australia has had only one downturn in international education. Australia has proven itself to be a remarkably resilient economy, and within that, we’ve had a remarkably resilient international education and training sector.

There are several explanations for the 2010 downturn, which are well summarised in the 2011 Knight Review. The review identified six factors that created the 'perfect storm', resulting in a severe downturn in international student numbers in Australia. These included: •

The strength of the Australian dollar

•

The rapidity and magnitude of changes to Australia’s migration and student visa policy settings

•

Damage to Australia’s reputation flowing from international students’ safety concerns

•

Bad publicity from provider closures

•

The effects of the Global Financial Crisis

•

Increased competition from international education providers in other countries.

Importantly, while Australia’s numbers declined, the total outbound students from key markets (such as China) did not. Put simply, other countries took Australia’s slice of the international pie. As the UK's Higher Education Commission recently concluded from its perspective: “Unfortunately, government policy has failed to exploit the opportunity offered by the quality of our universities. Our place in the global market place is currently very fragile, with intense competition providing globally mobile students with an abundance of choice. Changes in the UK visa regime have been particularly harmful in turning growth into stagnation.”

The financial impact of the downturn in 2010 was significant for the international education and training sector and the Australian economy more broadly. The decline resulted in a net fall of $2 billion in export value from 2010 to 2012 and three years of declining export value.

In 2018, concerns around the sustainability of Australia’s international education exports are starting to emerge, in part due to the apparent two-speed economy, and continued concentration and polarisation trends which we discuss in our paper 'Sustainable growth in international higher education'. Other economic, socio-demographic and geopolitical factors are also at play.

The last downturn provides important lessons that could inform future expectations, especially since the 2010 downturn did not impact all sectors in the same way.

FIGURE 1 | Australian international enrolments (1988–2017) 20%

300,000

15%

GROWTH RATE (RIGHT AXIS)

200,000

10%

100,000

5%

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS (LEFT AXIS)

0

0%

-5%

-100,000 1985

ANNUAL GROWTH RATE

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

400,000

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020 27

Growth leading up to peak commencements and decline following peak commencements (top 20 markets in 2017)

SIGNIFICANT DECLINE IN DOWNTURN

MODERATE DECLINE IN DOWNTURN

FIGURE 2 | Higher ed NO GROWTH IN PEAK

POSITIVE GROWTH IN PEAK

n/a

Pakistan China Bangladesh Philippines Saudi Arabia Nepal Vietnam

Hong Kong USA Taiwan Thailand

Singapore Malaysia Indonesia Sri Lanka Kenya South Korea Canada India

FIGURE 3 | VET

SIGNIFICANT DECLINE IN DOWNTURN

MODERATE DECLINE IN DOWNTURN

NO GROWTH IN PEAK

n/a

POSITIVE GROWTH IN PEAK South Korea Vietnam Spain Indonesia Nepal Colombia Pakistan

Hong Kong Japan

India Thailand China USA Malaysia Brazil Taiwan

Sri Lanka

FIGURE 4 | ELICOS

28

MODERATE DECLINE IN DOWNTURN

n/a

SIGNIFICANT DECLINE IN DOWNTURN

NO GROWTH IN PEAK

Japan Taiwan South Korea

POSITIVE GROWTH IN PEAK

Spain Nepal Mongolia Chile Colombia Vietnam

Malaysia Saudi Arabia Brazil China Turkey

Hong Kong Indonesia Thailand India

1. The higher education sector saw significant declines in a number of markets In the higher education sector, many markets were significantly impacted by the last downturn. The majority of key Australian markets experienced downturns to below 2006 levels at the bottom of the downturn trough – as shown in Figure 2.

Indian enrolments were most significantly affected by the downturn, with enrolments declining to almost half of 2006 levels at its lowest point in 2011. Other South Asian markets were less significantly affected by the 2010 downturn – with Sri Lanka experiencing stronger growth and a more modest decline, Pakistan maintaining growth through the period and Bangladesh experiencing an earlier decline from 2004 (which was actually arrested in the midst of the broader market downturn).

Key Asian markets such as Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia experienced growth in the lead up to the peak and declines that followed. Notably, the growth and subsequent decline was moderate when compared to student numbers in the early 2000s.

Four other key markets also experienced declines prior to the broader sector downturn in 2010. Higher education commencements from Hong Kong, the USA, Taiwan and Thailand began to decline from 2003 onwards, with the downturn causing further decline for these markets.

While several emerging markets experienced ongoing growth through the period (such as Nepal, Vietnam and Taiwan) the strong performance of the Chinese market is most notable. Despite being impacted by the 2010 fall, the two years of downturn was less severe when compared to many other markets. This resilience and subsequent strong performance of Chinese student flows has emerged as one of the dominant features of the Australian international higher education sector – driven by strong net growth in the ‘Group of 4’ universities – the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney, Monash University and UNSW. While the Chinese market was resilient last time around, increased concentration means that negative impacts of a downturn will likely be more acutely felt by the sector.

2. The VET sector saw a reversal of significant growth, but not all growth was lost

3. The India ELICOS market saw dramatic growth and reversals

While the VET sector was significantly impacted by the downturn (declining 30 per cent from peak to trough, compared to only 13 per cent for HE), it may come as a surprise to some that this was not sufficient to wipe out the growth experienced in the years prior. With only 40,800 enrolments in 2006, international VET commencements grew threefold to the 118,000 peak in 2011, before declining to 83,000 in 2013.

The largest ELICOS markets experienced significant growth in the lead up to the peak, but also large subsequent declines. Chinese enrolments doubled in the three years leading up to the peak, before commencements declined by one-third in the next three years.

The next three largest ELICOS markets – Brazil, Colombia and Thailand – also experienced growth in the lead up followed by subsequent decline. The scale of growth, however, varied significantly across these markets with Colombia experiencing significant growth, compared to more moderate growth for Thailand.

Sri Lanka is the only country for which there was a complete reversal of growth – with commencements declining to pre-2006 levels.

Other key markets, while experiencing significant declines, maintained commencements above levels from only a few years prior to the peak.

In the case of India – which is correctly identified as experiencing significant VET declines following the peak as a result of violence against students and a range of other factors – commencements at the trough were still double 2006 levels.

Chinese growth was more moderate, with similar relative decline. The other two markets that round out the top four – Brazil and South Korea – both experienced a relatively modest decline post-2010.

Three key markets – Japan, South Korea and Taiwan – did not grow in the lead up to the peak. Enrolments for these markets peaked in 2006, with only Taiwan returning to previous levels in recent years. India and to a lesser extent Turkey also saw a particularly large increase, followed by a dramatic decline.

History shows that international education is a dynamic, resilient and at times unpredictable sector. Market responses to conditions are country and sector dependent. Institutions would do well to consider their past performance and how this might either exacerbate or mitigate broader market trends. While past performance is no guarantee of future outcomes, the starting assumption should nonetheless be that those markets which have exhibited the greatest volatility in the past will be similarly volatile in the midst of a future possible downturn.

Download Nous' full report on 'Sustainable growth in international HE' at ieaa.today/2LF9tsj Jonathan Chew is a Principal and Ethan Fogarty is a Senior Consultant at Nous Group.

atmc.edu.au

Providing Managed Campus Solutions for Leading Australian Universities

Leading university partner offering 20+ Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Melbourne & Sydney CBD in:

BUSINESS, ACCOUNTING AND IT 10,000+

3500+

Connected network of university alumni

International university students currently studying at ATMC Group

1000+

200+

Students studying a Masters in IT, our flagship program In association with

CRICOS Provider No. 015950

University-qualified lecturers

In association with

CRICOS Provider No. 00103D

CRICOS Provider No. 02233M

Australian Technical and Management College Pty Ltd as trustee for Australian Technical Management College Trust trading as Australian Technical and Management College RTO No: 22158 CRICOS Provider No. 03013D ABN: 73 130 044 745

artificial intelligence

& THE NEW GENERATION OF INTERNATIONAL ED MARKETERS

Image: Vertigo3d (iStock)

Will new technologies empower or replace the next generation of education marketers? Marlena Mende delves into the world of artificial intelligence.

New technologies are having a major impact on marketing across all industries, including education. Data-driven marketing and artificial intelligence (AI) are enhancing our understanding of the student journey like never before, allowing us to tailor campaigns more effectively to drive stronger engagement and enhance their experience.

Augmented reality (AR) is also changing the way we perceive and interact with the digital world.

For education providers to be able to differentiate themselves – and for marketers to remain effective in this era of digital disruption – we need to embrace new technologies. There is enormous scope for marketers to deliver immersive, real-time and personalised experiences for our prospective and current students.

What does this mean for education marketers? How do we ensure we are future ready? Is a marketing skills framework the answer? Will AI-driven marketing solutions empower our current and future generation of marketers? Or will they replace our jobs, as is so often feared?

31

We all use and interact with AI on a daily basis, sometimes without even realising.

When it comes to applying these in the context of education marketing, the possibilities are endless.

Data is crucial. For us to be able to successfully embed AI in our martech stack depends on how mature our institutions are with regards to data and analytics.

THE POWER OF AI CHAT BOTS

PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING

VOICE RECOGNITION (e.g. Google Home)

AUTOMATIC PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS

Artificial intelligence We all use and interact with AI on a daily basis – sometimes without even realising. This might include product recommendations from Amazon; maps and route suggestions based on current traffic conditions; and mobile/home assistants like Alexa or Google Home.

As these technologies are exposed to more data, they learn over time, allowing marketers to gain a better understanding of their customers. The insights can then be leveraged for marketing decision-making (e.g. to optimise campaigns, personalise the customer journey and improve the customer experience). AI is a truly powerful tool for marketers, that will eventually put an end to so-called ‘spray and pray’ approaches.

All indicators show that AI investment is growing fast and is dominated by digital giants such as Google and Baidu. eMarketer predicts that worldwide spending on AI will increase dramatically over the next four years, from $6 billion in 2018 to nearly $29 billion by 2021.

Looking at marketers’ technology priorities, those who had plans to use AI had more than doubled between 2016 and 2017 – from 13 per cent to 30 per cent – with an even higher percentage in the following years.

An Adobe survey shows that those with visibility into their organisation’s strategic plans are 50 per cent more likely to be using (or planning to use) AI, and to push for their company’s investment in it. It is therefore essential for marketers in the education sector to remain aware of new technologies and opportunities to drive change from the bottom up.

32

MARKETING EMAIL AUTOMATION

FACIAL RECOGNITION

How to include AI in your martech stack Marketers are now shifting their focus from simply managing campaigns to supporting interactions across the entire customer journey.

More than ever before, we are able to provide personalised and time-optimised marketing messages that create higher quality leads and conversions.

Data is crucial. For us to be able to successfully embed AI in our martech stack depends on how mature our institutions are with regards to data and analytics. The education sector is often considered to be lagging behind in this space, but the focus is clearly shifting this way.

We are all familiar with existing AI applications – even if we don’t tend to think of them specifically as AI. These can include: • speech and chat interfaces such as chatbots and smart search interfaces • marketing intelligence such as social listening, campaign analytics • content creation such as auto-personalised content • marketing optimisation such as programmatic advertising, search and keyword optimisation • marketing automation such as lead nurturing and conversion.

Another up-and-coming area is the use of AI in customised brand campaigns, using insights related to brand positioning to amplify brand messages.

AI is set to further automate marketing areas such as content generation, content personalisation as well as image recognition.

So why are almost half of us yet to explore AI? According to Forrester, one of the key roadblocks is that it’s still not well enough understood. Could marketers’ concerns about their own role also play a part in their reluctance to adopt AI?

AUTONOMOUS CARS

Will AI revolutionise or replace the marketer’s role?

Many marketers fear that AI will result in job losses given that it automates certain tasks.

Thankfully, a Capgemini study in 2017 has shown that technology usually creates more jobs than it destroys. In fact, 83 per cent of AI implementers stated that it had actually created new job roles.

MARKETING OPTIMISATION (e.g. Google search)

In the education sector, Deakin’s chatbot for current students ‘Genie’ is an excellent example of an AI-driven speech and chat interface. The Australian Financial Review described Genie as a digital companion for current students that helps them get through their studies and manage their time. It has answers to most questions a student might have and provides personalised and proactive assistance, being connected to students’ personal profiles as well as all the university systems.

Most of us are starting to trial programmatic advertising, have integrated our CRM and marketing automation systems (such as Salesforce and Marketo or Marketing Cloud) and are starting to provide tailored content depending on where our prospects are in the customer journey. Coupled with thorough lead qualifying, this should lead to greater conversion rates and enrolments. This is all based on data and AI-driven marketing.

However, there is still much to learn for the education sector. Private companies in Australia – such as RedBalloon and San Churros – have seen their new AI-driven marketing solutions have a massive impact on their marketing function. Naomi Simson from RedBallon explains that by using Albert, they have seen Facebook conversions increase by 751 per cent, reduced cross channel costs by 40 per cent and decreased customer acquisition costs by 25 per cent. In San Churros’ case, IBM’s supercomputer Watson helped shift brand perception by 4.5 per cent and drove 22,000 new members to social platforms leading to $500,000 in additional in-store spend, as Nadia Cameron reported in CMO.com.au.

So don't think of AI as an evil robot trying to take your job – it can empower your work and make your job so much easier, giving you time to focus on the creative, value-generating (rather than the manual and repetitive) tasks. It will become your new best friend.

Marketing Magazine’s recent AI publication describes the modern marketer as a “hybrid model of a marketer being augmented with artificial intelligence.” Enabled by tools and solutions, we have the power to be more sophisticated, strategic and creative than ever before. How might a digital transformation roadmap for the education sector actually look?

According to EY, despite the education sector’s “lack of digital urgency, institutions’ digital ambition will shape how they respond so as to leverage the trends and technologies rather than succumb to these pressures”.

Education providers should look at digital disruption as an opportunity, rather than a challenge. AI certainly has the potential to revolutionise the sector, our marketing approaches and the student experience. In order to be successful, embracing AI requires buy-in from senior leadership. It’s also about organisational acceptance and readiness – we must invest in people’s skillsets, enabling them to use new tools and to not feel threatened.

The next generation of cognitive marketing teams are likely to need a new a mix of complementary skillsets including data scientists, data-driven marketers, business analysts and marketing technologists, as Nadia Cameron writes in CMO.com.au.

Is a new marketing skills framework outlining which skillsets marketers need at various stages in their career the answer? This is an interesting idea put forward by Andrew Stephen in Forbes magazine that has merit. Visionary marketing and education leaders need to understand AI and think creatively about its use in the future of marketing. Rather than fear losing our jobs, we should be excited about being able to do our jobs better than ever before.

Marlena Mende is the Marketing Manager at the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University. She is also a Deputy Convener for IEAA’s Marketing and Recruitment Network.

33

reality

augmented A MONASH CASE STUDY

Augmented reality offers new storytelling opportunities that allow us to attract, engage and delight student audiences who now expect experience and interactivity, writes Marlena Mende.

34

While the objectives of international education marketing (such as student recruitment and brand awareness) have remained largely the same, the marketing strategies and tactics to achieve these have changed enormously with new technologies now at our fingertips.

Augmented reality (AR) has caught the attention of marketers across all sectors – including education – and according to Forbes is predicted to grow to $117.4 billion by 2022. With ARKit and ARCore on Apple and Samsung smartphones, the technology is easily accessible, so there is enormous scope for marketers in the education sector to engage with this new and exciting wave of technology.

AR enhances reality by adding digital elements to one’s physical world, rather than completely replacing it (as is the case with virtual reality).

It also doesn’t require users to have a headset or Google Cardboard – all they need is their smartphone. As marketers and recruiters, this channel offers great storytelling opportunities to engage and delight young audiences who expect a unique and interactive experience when being communicated with.

A recent pilot project that my team implemented at Monash University showed that AR can be used effectively in the education sector.

We wanted to develop an innovative way of showcasing alumni outcomes to Open Day attendees, to inspire prospective students about their career choices. There was no doubt that the project had to involve new technologies to appeal to the audience. It also had to be short and sharp to keep students’ attention.

We collaborated with Melbourne-based Guerilla Creative to trial the use of AR and bring our young graduates’ stories to life. We shot a series of 15-second videos (with some scenes on green screen) and printed posters and postcards with a ‘trigger image’ embedded in them. When scanned with a smartphone or an iPad, the posters would unexpectedly come to life.

Postcards with the trigger image made it possible for students to take the unique experience home to show friends and family. They also contained a link to a purpose-built career hub on the Monash website. This contained more information about the seven graduates that we showcased, with an additional one minute video of each talking about how they are making change with their Monash degree.

Introducing computer-delivered IELTS • Test results within 5-7 days • Take IELTS Academic or General Training • Listening, Reading and Writing tests completed on a computer • Speaking test remains face-to-face Free computer-delivered IELTS practice material and videos available at ielts.org/oncomputer

Computerdelivered IELTS is here, with faster results and more test dates

Find out more Computer-delivered IELTS is being introduced globally. To find out where it is available, visit ielts.org/oncomputer.

‘Wow, this is the future…’

After several months of planning and production, it was rewarding to see the delighted reactions of students’ and parents’ faces. Comments like ‘Wow, this is the future’ made us smile. The pilot project showed us that AR can be used successfully to engage audiences, create a great customer experience and tell a story – in this case, the story of Monash graduates and their careers.

There are countless ways that AR can be used in the education context. Being so portable, the technology lends itself to national and international recruitment and can add to the recruiters’ toolkit. The Harvard Business Review dedicated an entire issue to showcasing AR and detailing why every organisation needs an augmented reality strategy. Readers can scan images and diagrams that would then come to life and explain processes in an engaging way.

International marketers now have access to so many exciting tools and technologies, there’s no excuse not to explore new and innovative ways to engage young audiences.

Check out more of Monash's augmented reality on You Tube at ieaa.today/2NsoDqx

Images: Gerard Hynes (Hynesite Photography)

35

Anna Ciccarelli

IN CONVERSATION WITH

36

Image: Mariona Guiu

Dr Anna Ciccarelli's career in international education spans almost 30 years and she has been a significant mentor to many in the sector.

This year we are thrilled to welcome her to the hallowed halls of IEAA life membership.

1. How did you first get involved with IEAA? In the early 2000s I was an active participant in the various meetings and discussions where Dennis Murray took the lead and made the case for establishing a member-driven Australian international education association. He was tireless in building support from the various state and national leadership groups at the time.

Finally, after much activism and lobbying, with Tony Adams, Stephen Connelly and others, Dennis was able to register IEAA in Victoria. He became the Secretary, part-time and voluntary would you believe, but that is what it took to get started. Professor Tony Adams – a truly global leader in Australian international education – became President. I became Vice President with David Back as Treasurer. We formed the interim Executive group which, together with the interim Board, steered the new association through its establishment year.

They were heady days. All those involved and supporting the embryonic endeavour knew that it was a coming of age for international education in Australia; a milestone in recognition and in professionalism.

2. What did you want to be when you were growing up?

As a high school student growing up in the Adelaide hills, all I wanted to do was to be able to go to university and study philosophy – what was I thinking? About philosophy that is! Thankfully with the help and mentoring of a wonderful history teacher that dream was realised and I went from there. That’s why I’ve always been an advocate for the transformative role of education in all its forms.

3. Who has had the biggest influence on your career?

There is no doubt that Professor Denise Bradley AC, my vice chancellor at UniSA, has had the biggest influence on my career. She was such a courageous leader in taking tough decisions; a strategist who was proactive in dealing with emerging issues and an incredible communicator in building organisational culture.

She has left an enduring legacy in ensuring the survival of a fragile, new university that is now thriving and, of course, she gave us the seminal Bradley Review of Higher Education.

Denise was very exacting and a great role model for me at a time when I was moving into senior leadership. One trait that I’ve always tried to follow is being extremely organised, being on top of paperwork and communications to create time and space in the workplace for the strategic aspects of a role as well as developing staff and building culture. It stood me in good stead.

4. What inspires you?

I have to say that seeing former staff and mentees develop their careers and achieve success, knowing I made a small contribution to their professional development is very rewarding and inspiring. Institutional programs and initiatives come and go, and can be very ephemeral, but people committed to working in international education have great resilience as our 25 plus year history shows.

In this regard, I would have to point to the survival, evolution and success of the IEAA as something that is tremendously satisfying to me and many others involved in its inception.

Successive leaders have made it a force to be reckoned with in terms of national issues and policy development as well as giving Australia a voice in international dialogues.

Above all, seeing the next generation of energetic and committed international education professionals taking charge in IEAA's Networks is very heartening. More than that, the Association is wonderfully inter-generational – as it should be. These are important values that seem to be enduring and serve our collective commitment to Australian international education.

5. If you could relive (or re-write) any moment in your career, what would it be?

Time and circumstances aren’t always on one’s side and I was a late starter anyway, but I would have loved to have had the experience of being a VP International for one of the London universities as the capstone of my career. It would have been a great comparative experience. But it wasn’t to be. It is wonderful to see Australians take up positions abroad and I think we are well respected for our work ethic and our smarts.

6. What does retirement actually look like?

Well I’ve been known to describe my retirement as the portfolio phase of my career – I’ve finally achieved work/life balance! There is no doubt that I was ill prepared to retire when I did. And it takes longer than one anticipates to really relax physically. But I have to say, it is wonderful to have a more balanced life in terms of travel and culture as well as physical fitness and still have time to make small professional contributions when asked. What I really enjoy is having the time and space to really think about those projects I do take on. I don’t have the minute busy-ness or the people and communications management to deal with – I can just think, read, consider, write. What a luxury.

Watch Anna's video profile online at ieaa.org.au/awards 37

let's get quizzical 1. What is the third largest source country for onshore international students in Australia?

2. What country is Australia predicted to overtake as the second most popular study destination for international students?

3. In what year was IEAA established?

4. Who was IEAA’s founding President?

5. In what year were the first full-fee paying international students admitted into Australia?

6. What percentage of Australian undergraduate students undertake study in an overseas country?

7. In what year did Australia experience a significant decline in international student enrolments, following more than 10 years of continuous growth?

8. The ELICOS sector accounts for what percentage of international student enrolments in Australia?

9. Which country recently ordered 17,000 of its students to return home following an 'offensive’ Tweet by a Minister for Foreign Affairs?

10. Which international education juggernaut was established in the same year the first person stepped foot on the moon?

11. Which two Australian cities did Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently raise the idea of imposing a cap on international students?

12. What percentage of international students study in an officially designated regional location in Australia?

13. In what year was the New Colombo Plan launched?

14. Who was IEAA’s inaugural Vice President?

38

15. According to the OECD's Education at a Glance 2018, how many international students are there worldwide?

20. How many Australian universities have offshore campuses? a) 8 b) 20 c) 34

16. Which state body recently adopted a new positioning statement with the tagline, 'Start here. Go anywhere'?

21. Which country recently announced its plans to recognise micro-credentials in its qualifications framework?

17. What is the name of Australia's Minister for Education?

22. What does AQSA stand for?

18. Australia is estimated to have educated how many million students over the last 50 years? a) 2.5 million b) 10 million c) 50 million 19. In which city was the Australian International Education Conference (AIEC) held in 2017?

23. Which Australian state hosts the largest number of international students?

24. Who replaced Julie Bishop as the Minister for Foreign Affairs in August 2018?

25. Australia's population recently reached 25 million people. According to journalist George Megalogenis, our newest resident is most likely to be _________?

Which international education juggernaut was established in the same year the first person stepped foot on the moon?

Answers: Let's get quizzical 1. Brazil 2. United Kingdom 3. 2004 4. Tony Adams 5.1986 6. Around 1 in 5 (or 20%) 7. 2010 8. 19 % 9. Saudi Arabia 10. IDP Education in 1969 (which was originally known as Australian Asian Universities Cooperation Scheme (AAUCS) 11. Melbourne and Sydney 12. 3% 13. 2014 14. Anna Ciccarelli 15. 5 million 16. Study Queensland 17. Dan Tehan 18. a) 2.5 million 19. Hobart 20. a) 8 (Curtin, James Cook, Monash, Murdoch, Newcastle, RMIT, Swinburne, Wollongong) 21. New Zealand 22. Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) 23. New South Wales 24. Marise Payne 25. A female international student from China.

Who’s taking care of your

career?

IEAA engages, empowers and educates all who work in international education.

Become a member today and save 10% on the cost of professional membership.

Follow the steps online and enter the promo code Vista. Offer expires 31 December 2018.

ieaa.org.au/join 40