Historical perspectives on the social licence of international education in Australia
This article was published in IEAA Insights on 30 September 2025.
Research is often a process of exploring rabbit holes, and in 2019 I allowed myself to fall down one (perhaps as a distraction from the PhD I was trying to finish). I had found, in the process of writing a journal article with my PhD supervisor, some documents about the Australian Organisations’ Co-ordinating Committee for Overseas Students (AOCCOS). This group of organisations in Sydney was tasked (and funded) by the Department of External Affairs (now DFAT) to support what were then called ‘overseas students’ in Australia. Rotary, the Country Women’s Association, Apex, the Sydney University Graduate Women and other groups and individuals got together to work out how to support the growing number of students coming to Australia for study. AOCCOS was not the only organisation doing this work – other groups were established in major capital cities and over the years in regional centres.
Using the archival documents I had found I wrote a paper for the 2019 ISANA Conference, which was later published as an article: Overseas students coordinating committees – the origins of student support in Australia? I always knew, however, there was more to this story and so I have slowly chipped away at finding out more about these groups and what they meant for international education in Australia. I applied for and was privileged to be awarded a 2025 National Library of Australia Fellowship; this was an opportunity for me to really dig into the Co-ordinating Committees and the way international students engaged with the Australian community.