Australian High Commission

Malaysia

High Commission address: 6 Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, Kuala Lumpur - Telephone: 2146 5555 - Fax: 2141 5773

Australian Education Counsellor welcomes new scholarships - the Australia Awards

20 November 2009 – The new Education Counsellor at the Australian High Commission, Ms Louise McSorley, welcomed the announcement of a new international scholarship program, the Australia Awards.

Ms McSorley described the initiative, announced recently by Australian Prime Minister Mr Kevin Rudd, as a 21st century response to the Colombo Plan, designed to build a new generation of leaders with links to Australia.

Ms McSorley reiterated Prime Minister Rudd’s commitment to education in the region. “Our existing scholarship program is already extensive. We intend to make it better,” she said.

Australia currently funds AU$200 million in scholarship programmes, supporting approximately 5,000 international students at any one time.

The Australia Awards will comprise two streams – a leadership stream which will encourage the best and brightest scholars to come to Australia, and a development stream which will focus on capacity-building in developing countries.

Ms McSorley anticipated interest from many Malaysian students who are already aware of the benefits of a world-class Australian education. The new awards will be overseen by a board comprising high-level government officials, captains of industry and academics, with AU$8 million committed for the first phase of the awards.

The first Australia Award recipients will take up their scholarships from 2010.