4 September 2015: As many as 120 University of Canberra students will be able to take part in eight projects to live and study across the Indo-Pacific region thanks to new funding under the 2016 New Colombo Plan (NCP) Mobility Program.
The University of Canberra has received $396,000 in funding from the Australian Government’s initiative for students to travel to take part in exchange projects in China, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and Vietnam.
The projects, which will take place in 2016-2017, will cover a wide range of areas including: design, writing, biomedical science, healthcare, nutrition, sport and business, and work-integrated learning.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Parker said these grants provide the opportunity of a lifetime to the students involved.
“The students participating in these projects will gain invaluable experiences in their field of study while learning about other cultures and ways of living in the regions they visit,” Professor Parker said.
The latest round of funding will benefit nearly 28 per cent more University of Canberra students compared to the previous round, when 94 students were funded to study abroad. Nationally, more than 5,450 Australian students will be able to take internships, live and study in 28 different locations throughout the region.
Assistant professor in media arts and graphic design Dr Lisa Scharoun and colleagues were able to take a group of 15 graphic design and five industrial design students to Japan earlier this year, thanks to NCP funding from the previous round.
The students visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and Osaka and experienced cultural sites, design studios, factories and showrooms.
“Some of our students had never left Australia or even flown on an airplane. It was pretty amazing to offer them this opportunity to experience another culture,” Dr Scharoun said.
“The trip gave the students an understanding of the contemporary design culture, retail graphics, signage and visual language of Japan.
“They also worked with design students at Kobe Design University to produce cross-cultural design projects. The products they made, including packaging and labelling were realised through extensive research into retail signage and design collected during the tour.”
Second-year Bachelor of Graphic Design student Alison Barracluff, one of the students who travelled to Japan as part of the two-week study tour, described the trip as a “unique experience”.
“It was amazing to be able to collaborate with Japanese students and learn more about the parallels between Japanese and Australian cultures,” Ms Barracluff, 23, said. “The designs we made, the marketing strategy, the brand, all of these were inspired by our trip and talking to the Kobe Design University students was essential to get their insight.”
“We are still in touch with some of the Japanese students we met, and, in fact, one of them is looking into coming to study in Canberra for a while.”
Dr Scharoun leads one of the projects which has received new funding in the 2016 NCP round to take a group of students to China in a multi-year funded project. Multi-year funding was introduced for the first time in this round to offer universities continuity in some of the longer-term projects.
Other trips will include a Japanese pre-Olympic sports tour, a biomedical science cross-cultural professional placement in China and extending a partnership in healthcare student engagement in Tonga, among others.
Professor Parker, Dr Scharoun and Ms Barracluff are available for interview.
Contact the University of Canberra media team:
Claudia Doman: 0408 826 362
Kristyn Comino: 0418 806 293