Western Australia and the evolving regional order: challenges and opportunities

Executive Summary: 21st century Asia is a powerhouse in the contemporary global economy. In a short period of time it has closed the development gap between the Region and the rest of the world. All indications suggest that this growth performance will continue into the foreseeable future.Australia’s high levels of economic growth over the last decade are directly related to Asia’s ‘economic miracle,’ with Western Australia playing a lead role in Australia’s regional economic engagement. Indeed, the State has accounted for nearly 50 per cent of Australia’s commodity export trade in recent years, concentrated overwhelmingly in Asia. In this sense Australia, and Western Australia in particular, are becoming increasingly ‘hard wired’ into the Region. This presents many opportunities but also challenges.The First Murdoch Commission was established to identify how these opportunities may be pursued and how the challenges may be addressed. The initial impetus was that future prosperity required well-informed strategies and policy settings to optimise potential benefits and sustainable gains.The broad context of the inquiry was the contemporary rise of Asia. This rise is a story of success, yet it is success accompanied by significant challenges. Deepening regional integration is an essential part of the story, with the effect of distributing risks as well as benefits. The ongoing performance of the Region is thus also a question about addressing major problems including rapid urbanisation, resources security, demographic burdens and environmental pressures.This insight underpinned the deliberations of the Commission and its investigation of how economic engagement and the growing interdependency of Western Australia, Australia and the Region can be pursued to enhance mutual benefit and long-term resilience.A distinct feature of the Commission’s investigations was its regional approach. This included the composition of the Commission’s membership, and a series of meetings and consultations with various stakeholder groups and individuals in major regional centres. This approach was taken precisely because Australia’s core interests are now closely intertwined with Asia’s continuing prosperity and stability.The Commission found that there is a strategic choice to be taken by Australia: whether to remain a mere exporter to the Region or to become a more active participant engaging in the Region. The former choice leaves Australia susceptible to the volatilities of a game that it has little capacity to influence. By contrast, the latter offers Australia far greater potential influence, opportunity and long-term benefit for its economic prosperity and wider future. Efforts in this space should not underestimate the major challenges confronting both the Region and the Australian economy, and how regional cooperation can provide ways to address these challenges.Western Australia provided a fertile case for the Commission to examine regional opportunities and challenges from the standpoint of a sub-national unit. There is potential for Western Australia to develop a more prominent role in the Region, and the Commission identified various possibilities at hand.The Commission concluded that greater regional engagement offered many benefits. This includes opportunities for Australia to contribute to addressing some of the major challenges in the Region, especially in areas such as food security and capacity building. Western Australia in particular has a lot to offer and a lot to gain in this respect

International student recruitment to universities in England: discourse, rationales and globalisation

2E4 (dounclaintieo)n The recruitment of international students to universities in England has become a central issue in an era of globalisation for university administrators, senior managers, international offices and heads of schools and faculties. We examine the policy rationales for the recruitment of international students to England. Through the use of in-depth interviews with key role players at four English universities, we compare the rhetoric, rationales and reasons for the recruitment of international students. A range of discourses can be identified in the recruitment of international students and an economic competition rationale is dominant. This is expressed within the discourse of globalisation

A Comparison of Information Security Curricula in China and the USA

Information Security (InfoSec) education varies in its content, focus and level of technicality across the world. In this paper we investigate the differences between graduate InfoSec programs in top universities in China and in the United States of America (USA). In China, curriculum emphasises Telecommunication, Computer Science and InfoSec Technology, whilst in the USA in addition to Computer Science and InfoSec Technology the curriculum also emphasises Enterprise‐level Security Strategy and Policy, InfoSec Management, and Cyber Law. The differences are significant and will have a profound impact on both the perceptions and capabilities of future generations of information security professionals on the one hand, and the management of information security in public and private organizations in the respective countries on the other

International Students in Their Own Country: Motivation of Vietnamese Graduate Students to Attend a Collaborative Transnational University

Higher education institutions in Vietnam have embraced opportunities to collaborate internationally to address specific educational needs that have emerged as a result of an accelerated economic and political society. The shift to a global market-driven economy has resulted in the need to produce better prepared graduates, advance in technology, and a shift in teaching and learning practices. In this study, we examine the motivations of 22 Vietnamese graduate students to attend Vietnamese-German University (VGU). The site is of particular importance because VGU is a true collaboration between two different governments, resulting in a collaborative transnational university. The findings from this study indicate three connected pull factors for graduate students: instruction conducted in English, benefits of a German degree, and the low cost for an international degree. Implications from findings illuminate why Vietnamese graduate students make educational choices and provide insights on their academic experiences as they relate to societal priorities

Scholarship in international technical communication, 1950-1989: a historical study

This thesis is a study of the published scholarship in international technical communication from 1950 to 1989. It provides insight into the four decades\u27 worth of scholarship as well as a resource for the development of present and future scholarship in international technical communication. It attempts to answer the following research questions: What did scholars of international technical communication study in each decade? What are the similarities and differences among the four decades in terms of scholarship in international technical communication? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the relevant scholarship in the four decades? What can we learn from the scholarship in these four decades? To answer these questions, I reviewed articles collected from the main journals and conference proceedings in technical communication published in the United States. I summarized and coded these articles according to their major subjects. Based on my review of this literature, I drew conclusions about the character and value of the published scholarship in international technical communication from 1950 to 1989 --Abstract, page iii

Non-Native Foreign Language Instructors’ Teaching Expectations Concerning Intercultural Communication Competence: Communicative Practices in the Classroom.

Universities within China recruit thousands of foreign experts to teach Chinese college Students. Generally, institutions require foreigners to be native speakers of languages taught and possess a bachelor’s degree. In the 1980s and 1990s, international teachers were hired so students could master native like pronunciation in foreign languages such as English. Institutions within China are now discussing the current status and future of foreign language teaching in university classrooms. Essentially, department heads are debating if students should learn foreign languages for the purposes of communication with foreigners. In the case of Chinese college students, communicative language teaching may need to be supplemented by intercultural language teaching approach. Foreign experts have the opportunity to play a unique role in such discussions, and indeed are stakeholders themselves. In order to find out instructors’ opinions concerning Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC) as a learning aim, and the placement of ICC in instruction, this study was designed. Overall, international instructors were favorable towards the inclusion of ICC in their syllabus and weekly lesson plans. However, most pedagogical choices revealed a situational approach to foreign language teaching. In order to make sense of findings, Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles, 2008) was used to analyze and interpret findings

Revisión tecnológica del aprendizaje de idiomas asistido por ordenador: una perspectiva cronológica

El presente artículo aborda la evolución y el avance de las tecnologías del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador (CALL por sus siglas en inglés, que corresponden a Computer- Assisted Language Learning) desde una perspectiva histórica. Esta revisión de la literatura sobre tecnologías del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador comienza con la definición del concepto de CALL y otros términos relacionados, entre los que podemos destacar CAI, CAL, CALI, CALICO, CALT, CAT, CBT, CMC o CMI, para posteriormente analizar las primeras iniciativas de implementación del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador en las décadas de 1950 y 1960, avanzando posteriormente a las décadas de las computadoras centrales y las microcomputadoras. En última instancia, se revisan las tecnologías emergentes en el siglo XXI, especialmente tras la irrupción de Internet, donde se presentan el impacto del e-learning, b-learning, las tecnologías de la Web 2.0, las redes sociales e incluso el aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por robots.The main focus of this paper is on the advancement of technologies in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) from a historical perspective. The review starts by defining CALL and its related terminology, highlighting the first CALL attempts in 1950s and 1960s, and then moving to other decades of mainframes and microcomputers. At the final step, emerging technologies in 21st century will be reviewed