09.07.2020Melbourne – a prosperous future: World-leading international student city
Our 2015 report on international student revisited.
In 2015, the Committee, with support from students and staff Swinburne, RMIT, Monash, Melbourne, Victoria, La Trobe, Deakin and general membership, participated in a series of international student forums, along with key stakeholders and then published a report, Melbourne – a prosperous future: World-leading international student city.
In that report we recognised that Melbourne had much to be proud of as an international student city with a strong brand and reputation and major contributor to Melbourne’s economy. Metropolitan Melbourne had the largest population of international students in Australia, and one of the highest concentrations of international students in the world.
This was also at a time that Melbourne was rated the world’s most liveable city by the Economist Intelligence Unit and was ranked the world’s second-best student city in the world in the QS Best Student Cities index.
In July 2020, as we respond to the challenges on our Covid-19 Road to Recovery it is worth reflecting on the principles in this 2015 report, in many ways more relevant than ever, but also showing how far we have come as a community. This Committee for Melbourne short policy paper provides some initial reflections.