Today we celebrate five years of success for the New Colombo Plan (NCP), which has supported thousands of young Australians to study and work overseas.
The New Colombo Plan is a long-term investment in the Indo-Pacific, which continues to help build our national prosperity and our place in the region.
Since 2014, the NCP has awarded around 50,000 scholarships and mobility grants to Australian undergraduates to study, learn a language and undertake work experience across the Indo-Pacific.
Today thousands of NCP alumni are leveraging their respective experiences in the Indo-Pacific as they embark on their professional careers.
I thank our many partners who have helped make the NCP a success, particularly Australian businesses and private sector partners in the Indo-Pacific.
Their support has been instrumental in providing practical, real-life work experience for students, helping to develop a new generation of Australian leaders with the skills and cross-cultural understanding needed for today's workforce.
The NCP has helped to turbo-charge student mobility, with nearly one in four undergraduates now taking part in an international study experience, according to a recent study by the Australian Universities International Directors Forum.
Central to the NCP has been the Australian Government's commitment to provide opportunities for students who represent the diversity of our community.
In 2019, there was a six-fold increase in Indigenous scholars, nearly one in three scholars came from rural and regional Australia and one in five from a lower socio-economic background.
