Welcome to The University of Western Australia's Internationalisation web site.

The University is committed to the further development of its international focus. Australia increasingly lives in an interdependent world that takes no account of its "island-continent" status. The globalisation of markets and finance, the new modes of knowledge production and innovation, and the general revolution in communications and cultural permutations, all suggest a new era in modern history.

Australia can only retain its standing in such a world through a highly successful international engagement. The road to that internationalised future runs directly through the campuses of our best research and teaching universities. The range of research done in our Australian universities forms a critical link to global discovery and innovation. The broad educational and graduate training provided by leading universities has become critical in developing the professional groups who alone can ensure that Australia successfully absorbs the challenge of "internationalisation".

In order to take its place among the world's international universities, the University conducted during 1999 a comprehensive review of its existing international focus in order to determine future directions. This review had three distinct stages:

1. A Review of Marketing and Recruitment of International Students (leading to the Fell Report) (February 1999)
2. A Reference Group meeting attended by external experts/advisers designed to develop the issues to be considered (February 1999)
3. A visit by an International Strategy Panel comprising North American, Asian and European representatives (leading to the discussion paper "Shaping Our International Future") (April 1999)

Through discussion and implementation of the ideas contained in the panel's paper, the University aims to chart its own international future in the new millennium.

In order to assist the University to chart its international future, I have recently appointed Professor Paige Porter as Executive Dean (International Relations).