In this episode of Global Horizons, Peter and I wander through three and a half decades of international education, from the days when Wollongong was considered “aggressive” for opening an office in Japan, to the launch and heartbreaking end of The Scholar Ship, to his 15 years shaping JMC’s international work in the creative industries. Along the way we talk about caps, fairness, and why policy settings have hit the private sector so much harder than universities.

You will hear us dig into:

• How The Scholar Ship created a “university at sea” focused on intercultural leadership, and why the GFC and oil prices brought it undone

• What it felt like to watch that ship sail into Sydney Harbour and realise you had helped build something genuinely world class

• The leap from federal government land surveyor to running Wollongong’s Japan office, and then setting up ANU’s regional office in Bangkok

• The strange joy and terror of consulting life, from currency swings that wipe out your margin overnight to clients who keep pulling you back

• Why Peter fell in love with Japan, Sweden and Vietnam, and what those countries taught him about creative talent and mobility

  
  

From there we shift into the creative industries and the future. Peter reflects on 15 years at JMC, why he is bullish on performance and the arts in an age of AI and virtual production, and how Swedish arts high schools and emerging Vietnamese creatives are reshaping the pipeline of global talent. Music is still music, he argues, and performance is still performance, even if the tools keep changing.

We also get very real about the past few years in Australia:

• How the student caps and immigration debates have disproportionately damaged the private sector

• The quiet injustice of private provider students being shut out of the New Colombo Plan and OS-HELP

• Why Peter thinks Australia’s historic strength in relationship building is being undermined by bureaucracy and short term politics

• The danger of becoming a “fairweather friend” to partners who remember who stuck with them when times were hard

One of my favourite parts of the conversation is Peter’s story of COVID at JMC. While others were cutting, he bet that, like previous crises, the downturn would last about two years. JMC kept its international team intact, especially in-country staff in Indonesia and Malaysia, moved people onto projects where needed, and doubled down on relationships. The result was their best ever international intake in February 2022, up 35 per cent on 2019.

We finish with advice for students and early career professionals. It is simple and hard to argue with: go somewhere. It does not have to be Australia, or any particular country. Just go. Peter went to Japan with a backpack and a bit of Japanese, and everything that followed, from Bangkok to Latin America to the creative industries, unfolded from that single decision to leave home.

Global Horizons is a production of The Global Society, Australia’s Learning Abroad support company. Our editor is Len Zamora and our distribution specialist is Angelo Ablao. Rob Malicki is the executive editor and host. The podcast wouldn’t be possible without The Koala News, Australia’s international education news website. This episode is supported by Choosing Your Uni, Australia's unique, AI-powered platform that helps domestic and international students to find the right institution for them, and that helps Australian institutions to access new markets. For guest suggestions and feedback, email podcast@globalsociety.com.au