- Minister for Education and Training
The New Colombo Plan (NCP) will continue to expand in 2017 with 105 scholarships for Australia’s best and brightest undergraduate students to live, study and intern in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Our New Colombo Plan scholars will study in 17 Indo-Pacific locations next year, including Pakistan and Papua New Guinea for the first time. This reflects the continued strong demand for diverse study opportunities in our region,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.
The NCP scholars will join more than 7,400 New Colombo Plan mobility grant recipients in 2017, taking the total number of students supported by the NCP in its first four years to more than 17,500.
“This is a remarkable achievement that reflects the commitment of the Government, our universities and business champions to invest in our young people and demonstrate our genuine commitment to long-term engagement with our region,” Minister Bishop said.
Interest from undergraduate students to engage their peers in the Indo-Pacific region by applying for opportunities under the New Colombo Plan remains strong.
“New Colombo Plan 2017 scholars represent 30 Australian universities across every State and Territory, and will pursue a broad range of studies including law, business and engineering,” Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham said.
“Under the Turnbull Government we’ve been repairing the damage Labor did to international education in Australia and our National Strategy for International Education 2025 and programs like the New Colombo Plan are part of our whole-of-government approach to encouraging people to study here and also for Australian students to engage with the region.
“As Minister Bishop and I reiterated last week at the first meeting of the Council for International Education, the international mobility of students is a vital part of building our longer term people-to-people links which will be a fundamental aspect of Australia’s economic and cultural prosperity into the future.”