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The New Colombo Plan


The Australian Government launched The New Colombo Plan on 10 December 2013. The New Colombo Plan is a signature initiative of the Australian Government which aims to lift knowledge of the Indo Pacific in Australia and strengthen people-to-people and institutional relationships, through study and internships undertaken by Australian undergraduate students in the region.

The New Colombo Plan encourages a genuine two-way flow of students with the region, accompanied by an expected increase in number of Australian undergraduates heading to the region each year.The Australian Government has announced funding of AUD100 million over five years (from 2013-14 to 2017-18) for the New Colombo Plan. A close partnership between governments, universities and business will support the realisation of this initiative. A pilot scheme was launched in 2014 for students to study in four pilot locations - Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. For 2015, the Plan has been expanded to 32 locations across the Indo-Pacific region.

In 2015, Hong Kong continues to be one of the most popular destinations for New Colombo Plan scholars. Among the 69 Australian undergraduates who received the prestigious scholarship to study in the Indo-Pacific region, 10 have chosen Hong Kong as their study destination. Congratulating the scholars, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Sydney, Mr Arthur Au, said, "Hong Kong is an ideal destination for students to broaden their academic and life experience. It is a vibrant and cultural city, with three universities ranked in the world's top 50."

The New Colombo Plan has two key program funding elements: a scholarship program and a mobility grants scheme. In the pilot year approximately 40 scholarships will be awarded across the pilot locations for periods of study between one semester and a year. The mobility grants scheme for short term and semester study, up to a maximum of one year, will see some 700 further undergraduate students from Australian universities supported to study in the region.

The Secretary for Education of the HKSAR Government, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, welcomed the initiative and emphasised the importance of education links to strengthening the broader Hong Kong-Australia relationship.

Mr Ng welcomed the Australian side's invitation for Hong Kong to participate in the pilot phase of the New Colombo Plan, which he said “provided an excellent opportunity to boost the number of Australians studying in Hong Kong and raise Hong Kong's profile in Australia”.

In highlighting the value of the plan in facilitating Hong Kong and Australian student exchange, Australian Foreign Minister, Ms Julie Bishop, noted that Hong Kong enjoys a growing profile as an international education hub. She said, “Australian students will benefit from the opportunity to study at Hong Kong's world-class institutions and the ‘East Meets West' culture. With thousands of Hong Kong students enrolled in Australian institutions each year, the New Colombo Plan will further enhance two-way student mobility through educational exchange”.

“We share the common vision of widening students' horizons and nurturing leaders with global perspectives and abilities to thrive in a multi-cultural environment. To this end, Hong Kong has been actively promoting student exchange. With about 4 600 incoming and outgoing students on exchange in our public institutions in the 2012/13 academic year, about one out of four of our undergraduate students already have the opportunity to spend a semester or so to broaden exposure outside Hong Kong,” said Mr Ng.

Mr Ng and Ms Bishop agreed that Hong Kong and Australia would work closely to ensure the early and successful implementation of the initiative, and actively explore other opportunities for enhancing education cooperation between the two places.

As part of the endeavours to promote Hong Kong as a regional education hub, the HKSAR Government actively promote student exchange activities, which, on the one hand broaden the horizons of outgoing students for them to become future global citizens, and help internationalise our campuses by bringing in more non-local students. The HKSAR Government also introduced the Reaching Out Awards in 2012 for meritorious post-secondary students to participate in learning programmes, as well as events and competitions outside Hong Kong. The Award Scheme will benefit up to 5 000 students every year.

The Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government has also stepped up its publicity in attracting Australian exchange students by organising a series of roving exhibitions in top-notched universities in Australia in 2013 and 2014, including the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, Monash University, the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, La Trobe University, the University of Western Australia, RMIT University and Griffith University.

Details of the New Colombo Plan are contained on the Australian Government's website.