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Thank you.
My name is Luke Sheehy, and I am the Chief Executive Officer of Universities Australia.
I am delighted to be here.
Thank you to the Australia China Alumni Association for bringing us all together this evening.
Let me acknowledge the Gadigal people on whose land we gather and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I’d also like to acknowledge Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Australia’s Foreign Minister, who’s with us tonight.
What a fantastic and momentous occasion this is.
One-hundred-years of the Australia-China education partnership.
It’s not often that I have the pleasure of celebrating one-hundred-year anniversaries.
Not least an anniversary with such significance to Australia’s history.
You see, the Australia-China education partnership is older than our countries’ formal relationship.
It wasn’t until 1972 that Australia and China established diplomatic relations.
Yet, Australia welcomed the first Chinese students to our shores half a century earlier.
Those first students, and the ones that followed, undoubtedly helped bring our nations closer.
They no doubt played a key role in forming the Australia-China relationship.
A relationship built on education.
And a relationship with education at its very core today.
Over the last century, our education partnership has gone from strength to strength.
From a single Chinese student studying in Australia in the 1920s to hundreds of thousands today.
Shanghai to Sydney.
Beijing to Brisbane.
Meishan to Melbourne.
These are all well-worn paths.
Australia has opened its classrooms to Chinese students.
Today, there are almost 160,000 Chinese students studying in Australia.
Commencements are at their highest level since 2005.
This is testament to the strength of Australia’s universities.
It’s proof of our high-quality teaching and research.
It’s evidence of China’s strong appetite for world-class education.
And it’s reflective of Australia’s embrace of international students.
Our universities educate students from more than 140 countries.
They come from every corner of the globe – China more so than anywhere else.
It benefits them, the students.
They receive the life-changing opportunity to attend university.
They learn and they grow.
And they set themselves up for a fulfilling career, here or back home.
Those who do return home take with them a strong affinity for Australia.
It also benefits our country.
Our economy and our workforce thrive.
Our communities flourish.
And our links to the outside world grow.
International education delivers for our nation.
I know this is not lost on Minister Wong.
Minister, you have acknowledged the importance of this soft superpower for Australia.
Thank you.
Education will be even more important as we navigate a changing strategic environment.
And so, we need to continue educating international students at our universities.
Students from China and elsewhere.
To grow and strengthen Australia’s bridge to the region and the world.
To drive our economy.
And to ensure education continues to support our global relationships.
Like it did for Australia and China, starting in the 1920s.
As my good friend Sally Capp, a former Lord Mayor of Melbourne, once said…
International students are part of Australia’s family.
Let’s keep working together to ensure our family continues to grow.
Thank you.
ENDS
