Federal member for Page Kevin Hogan today congratulated Southern Cross University for securing Government funding for 90 students to participate in the Government’s New Colombo Plan.
The New Colombo Plan is a signature initiative of the Federal Government to lift knowledge of the Indo-Pacific by supporting Australian undergraduate students to study and undertake internships in our region.
“The 90 students will come from a range of courses, including Environmental Science and Engineering, Education, Law, Arts and Social Science as well as Business and Tourism, and will travel to Indo-Pacific nations such as Indonesia, Vietnam, China, India, Singapore and Cambodia,” Mr Hogan said.
“These students will return home with new insights and understandings about our region that will help them contribute to the economic and cultural life of the Northern Rivers and Australia.”
Under the Federal Government’s New Colombo Plan, 38 universities and 11 university consortia will receive Government funding to send more than 5450 students to 28 locations throughout the Indo-Pacific next year and more than 10,000 students over three years.
SCU students have previously taken part in the New Colombo Plan, describing their experiences as “life-changing”.
Some helped a Sumatran elephant conservation centre design a tourism strategy, others did orang-utan surveys in Kalimantan, while another group focused on sustainable tourism and produced sales and marketing material, including a website and brochure, for a small Balinese island that is home to a critically endangered bird.