• Justin Norrie
• The Conversation

Asian people performing tai chi

23 February 2012Is Australia no longer the first choice for our Asian neighbours when it comes to receiving an international education? Discusses Justin Norrie of the Conversation.

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The “comprehensive failure” of Australian universities to engage with Asia is rapidly unravelling their appeal to the biggest market of international students, an expert in Asian education, Professor Greg McCarthy, told a conference on higher education today.

Professor McCarthy, Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Adelaide, told the Future of Higher Education Conference that Australian schools and universities had neglected Asian studies – and exploited international students – for so long that “they would really struggle to find a way back from here”.

“The problem with our universities is that we have marginalised Asia for decades: very few history departments have Asian studies sections,” he said. “We’ve got a fundamental decline in the teaching of Asian languages across the country as well. We’re worse now than we were in the 1960s in terms of Asian languages.”

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Photo:Flickr / College of William and Mary