Australia is a regional and world leader in education, and a partner of choice for international collaboration. These partnerships span the globe, but the relationships within our own region are of paramount importance, this includes those with Japan and the Republic of Korea.
Australia and Japan share a strong history of high-quality cooperation in education and research. From foreign language studies schools, sister-school arrangements and study tours, through to policy dialogues; our countries share more than a decade of formal collaboration in education, research and training.
Reaffirming this commitment, on 4 December, Australia’s Ambassador to Japan, the Hon. Richard Court AC co-signed an updated Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on education with Japanese Minister for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Mr Masahiko Shibayama.
From left to right: The Hon. Richard Court AC Ambassador to Japan and Minister Masahiko Shibayama, Minister for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
The MoU is the formal mechanism for what is a warm and productive relationship built on respect admiration and mutual understanding.
In support of this, senior officials from our department recently travelled to Tokyo for high-level policy dialogues with Japanese government officials and education and business stakeholders on 11-12 December.
The high level policy dialogue allowed both sides to exchange information on education policy priorities. This included discussion of recent developments and trends in education policy, the development and implementation of language education policy and developments in higher education policy with a focus on internationalisation.
This engaging discussion was co-chaired by Mami Oyama, Director-General for International Affairs, MEXT and our own Karen Sandercock, Group Manager, International.
The department also had representation from Travis Power, Branch Manager, Quality Frameworks and our Education and Science Councillor for Japan and Korea, Peta Arbuckle.
A major highlight of the dialogue was a thought provoking presentation from Professor David Lloyd and Nigel Relph from the University of South Australia on Research Cooperation and Collaboration between University and Industry, delivered on behalf of Universities Australia.
Other topics included discussion on cooperation in multilateral fora, transnational education, qualifications recognition, lifelong learning, language education and vocational education and training.
While in Japan, the delegation also met with key education stakeholders, further reaffirming our collaborative efforts with Japan at all levels.
Japan High Level Policy Dialogue Group
Following the dialogues in Japan, Mr Power and Ms Arbuckle travelled to the Republic of Korea to attend the Korean Association of Foreign Student Administrators conference where Mr Power presented on the Australian international education system, including Australia’s student protection and quality assurance systems.
They also meet with Korean education and training stakeholders to advance outcomes from the Australia-Korea Joint Committee of Education, which was hosted by the department in August this year.
Both the Japanese and Korean meetings highlight the strong relationships we have with our international education partners, which continue to go from strength to strength, and are based on trust, collaboration and mutual benefit the education and training sector.
Mr Travis Power presenting at the Korean KAFSA Conference