Huyen Bui

This book focuses on Australian students’ engagement and learning in the Indo-Pacific through the New Colombo Plan (NCP), the Australian Government’s flagship initiative for student mobility and public diplomacy. By analysing the experiences, tensions, and both individual and societal impacts of Australian student mobility to the Indo-Pacific, the book responds to the pressing need for more nuanced understandings of the short- and long-term effects of such study-abroad programs. It discusses critical issues including geopolitics, inequities in access, structural imbalances in Global North–South partnerships, and tensions shaped by neoliberal, postcolonial, and consumerist forces in study-abroad contexts. Drawing on a robust theoretical framework and a large-scale, multi-dimensional, and longitudinal research project, the book offers practical recommendations to strengthen student engagement and learning in the Indo-Pacific. It foregrounds diverse perspectives from students, alumni, host communities, academics, and mobility professionals. By examining mobility from the Global North to the Global South, this book makes a distinctive contribution to the field of international education, highlighting the intersection of education and public diplomacy through the lens of student mobility. It will be of interest to administrators, policy-makers, and researchers in international education, public diplomacy, and intercultural development.