Challenges for Australian higher education in the Asian Century

Abstract

Australia is an odd construction: a nation with British/European heritage on the southeastern edge of Asia positioned between its history and its geography. While its demography is becoming more Asian, its flag still carries the imperial ensign. It needs to embrace both, but British antecedents have left it linguistically and culturally singular and it has yet to develop the cultural, political and intellectual resources to manage multiple identities. Thick multisectoral engagement will stimulate the formation of those resources. The former Gillard government’s White Paper Australia in the Asian Century (the ‘Henry Report’) names higher education as one of the principal sectors through which..