Engagement  with  Asia  

Kevin  Hewison  

New  direc6ons,  Developing  strengths  

•  For  the  University:  o 2011:  New  leadership  group  o New  Strategic  Plan  o Sir  Walter  Murdoch  School  of  Public  Policy  and  Interna6onal  Affairs  

•  University  aspires  to  be  an  interna6onal  research  university  pursuing  excellence  in  select  fields  of  knowledge.    

•  Strategic  Plan  emphasizes  interna6onaliza6on  and  its  intellectual  gaze  has  become  more  firmly  focused  on  the  Asia  region.  

•  Asia  Research  Centre  /  WA  State  Agricultural  Biotechnology  Centre  and  associated  work  on  drylands  agriculture  /  Ins6tute  for  Immunology  and  Infec6ous  Diseases  /Veterinary  School  /  centres  on  sustainability,  biosecurity  

•  WA’s  strategic  loca6on:  3  hours  from  Indonesia,  about  5  hours  from  Singapore.  •  WA  is  playing  a  lead  role  in  Australia’s  regional  economic  engagement.  •  WA  has  accounted  for  about  50%  of  Australia’s  commodity  exports  in  recent  years,  

much  of  it  to  Asia.  

The  First  Murdoch  Commission  

•  The  First  Murdoch  Commission  recognised  WA  as  a  business,  trade  and  knowledge  centre.  

•  It  iden6fied  opportuni6es  and  challenges  for  WA  and  Australia.    

•  The  impetus  a  recogni6on  that  future  prosperity  required  informed  strategy  and  policy  seYng  that  op6mised  poten6al  benefits  and  sustainable  gains.  

Asia  Research  Centre  •  Established  in  1988.  From  1991  to  1999  it  was  a  Special  Research  Centre  of  the  

Australian  Research  Council.  •  The  Asia  Research  Centre  is  currently  the  University’s  centre  of  excellence  in  the  

social  sciences  and  humani6es;  includes  researchers  from  the  natural  sciences.  •  The  Asia  Research  Centre  has  been  an  interna6onal  leader  in  the  study  of  East  

and  Southeast  Asia,  undertaking  fundamental  disciplinary  and  interdisciplinary  research  examining  social,  historical,  environmental,  poli6cal  and  economic  developments  within  the  region.    

•  Thema6c  to  Centre  research  is  the  analysis  of  conflicts  in  a  range  of  situa6ons.  Its  collec6ve  approach  is  interna6onally  known  as  the  “Murdoch  School”  of  poli6cal  economy.    

•  The  Centre’s  objec6ves  are  to:  o  produce  high  quality  academic  research  publica6ons;    o  foster  high  quality  research  graduates;  and    o  contribute  to  policy  debate  and  public  understanding  on  issues  concerning  

contemporary  Asia.  •  The  Centre’s  produc6vity  has  been  staggering,  with  hundreds  of  scholarly  

contribu6ons.  

Indonesia  

•  The  Australian  Consor6um  for  'In-­‐Country'  Indonesian  Studies  (ACISIS)  has  been  coordinated  by  a  small  secretariat  based  at  Murdoch  since  1994.  

•  Murdoch’s  exper6se  in  veterinary  sciences  is  highly  regarded  in  Indonesia.  Many  prac6cing  veterinarians  obtained  their  PhDs  at  Murdoch  University.    

•  Collabora6ons  with  Indonesian  universi6es  and  research  centres  have  been  in  water  management,  biotechnology,  freshwater  biodiversity  and  marine  resources  management.  

•  The  Asia  Research  Centre  is  interna6onally-­‐recognised  for  its  exper6se  on  social,  poli6cal  and  economic  change  in  Indonesia.      

•  Its  successive  cohorts  of  Indonesian  postgraduates  remain  ac6ve  in  academia,  the  public  sector  and  within  NGOs.      

Kompas  mee6ng,  2013  

Indonesia  now  •  Murdoch’s  latest  strategic  ini6a6ve  –  

the  Indonesia  Research  Programme  –  is  led  by  Prof.  Vedi  Hadiz.    

•  Its  will  deepen  engagement  by  exploring  new  areas  of  collabora6on  with  Indonesian  educa6onal  ins6tu6ons,  research  centres,  ministries,  NGOs  and  media,  with  cri6cal  areas  being  food  security,  biosecurity  and  sustainable  development.    

•  The  ini6a6ve  has  resulted  in  new  and  renewed  collabora6ve  agreements:  Directorate  General  of  Higher  Educa6on  (Dik6),  University  of  Indonesia,  Airlangga  University,  Gadjah  Mada  University,  Universitas  Katolik  Parahyangan  (Bandung),  Bogor  Agricultural  University  and  Indonesian  Ins6tute  of  Sciences.  

Bappenas  training,  2013  

Indonesia  now  •  Other  high  profile  ac6vi6es  include:  

o  Joint  seminars  in  June  2013  and  March  2014  with  Kompas  media  group.    

o  Suppor6ng  policy  reform  by  training  Indonesian  public  servants    iden6fied  by  Bappenas  (Indonesian  Na6onal  Development  Planning  Agency).  

•  Nego6a6ng  a  mul6-­‐year  training  programme  for  Indonesian  academics  in  the  social  sciences.  Iden6fied  by  the  Indonesian  government,  the  collabora6ve  is  with  the  University  of  Indonesia.  It  will  eventually  involve  a  na6onal  consor6um  of  Indonesian  universi6es.  

•  A  collabora6ve  arrangement  with  the  Faculty  of  Social  and  Poli6cal  Sciences  of  Gadjah  Mada  University  (UGM)  facilitates  staff  exchange,  joint  teaching  and  research.  

Kompas  seminar,  2014  

China  

•  Murdoch’s  links  with  China  are  also  long-­‐standing.  

•  New  developments  include:  

o  Partnering  with  the  Chinese  Academy  of  Agricultural  Sciences  for  the  establishment  of  the  Australia-­‐China  Joint  Centre  for  Wheat  Improvement.  

o  A  collabora6on  with  the  Chinese  Academy  of  Forestry  with  an  MoU  for  academic  and  research  collabora6on,  building  on  more  than  20  years  of  collabora6on  and  staff  exchanges  that  began  with  an  ACIAR  project  on  eucalypts.  

China  o  Murdoch’s  Nature  Based  Tourism  Research  Group  

collaborates  with  Peking  University’s  Centre  for  Recrea6on  and  Tourism  Research,  and  the  Interna6onal  Tourism  Studies  Associa6on.  Exchanges  have  included  compara6ve  work  on  conserva6on  of  pandas  and  dolphins.  

o  In  2014,  the  two  universi6es  have  partnered  for  the  Interna6onal  Tourism  Studies  Associa6on  biennial  Conference,  hosted  at  Murdoch.  

o  China’s  Northwest  A&F  University,  co-­‐administered  by  Ministry  of  Educa6on,  Ministry  of  Agriculture,  Ministry  of  Water  Resources,  State  Forestry  Administra6on,  Chinese  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  Shaanxi  Province,  has  established  a  new  joint  Research  Centre  for  Abio6c  and  Bio6c  Stress  Management  in  Agriculture,    Hor6culture,  and  Forestry.  It  partners  with  Murdoch’s  Centre  for  Food  Security  and  Biosecurity.    

VC  Professor  Richard  Higgol  with  Professor  Sun  Qixin,  President  of  Northwest  Agriculture  and  Forestry  University,  signing  an  agreement  for  a  new  joint  research  centre.