DAVID BOURCHIER: Hello, my name is David Bourchier. I'm the head of Asian Studies at UWA.
Asian Studies is in the Social Sciences School within the Faculty of Arts. It's actually quite
a big department. We also teach Chinese and Japanese and Korean and Indonesian studies.
But Asian Studies is, in a sense, the major that you can take that covers the whole
lot. In Asian Studies, students learn how to understand and interpret the
societies and cultures and politics of contemporary Asia. The main focus we have,
because of the staff that we have here, is on China, Indonesia, Korea, and Japan. And our
focus is very much on the contemporary culture of those places. It is possible to learn a language,
as I mentioned, but the Asian Studies major doesn't actually require you to
take a language even though, you know, we always encourage you to do language as electives. So,
why would you study Asian Studies? One reason employers like it, there's a lot of emphasis
on internationalisation in the workplace and it's a desirable skill to have. Another thing
about Asian Studies is that it, unlike a lot of the other disciplines, it actually combines
science and the humanities and this is a desirable thing in the eyes of a lot of employers.
There's an opportunity when you do Asian Studies to do part of your study in Asia,
and that's always a very attractive thing for employers because it shows that you're willing
to step outside the box and differentiate yourself from other students. And it's also a lot of fun. I
mean, there's a lot of student activities, there are a lot of student clubs, a lot of enthusiasm
around for Asian topics at UWA. So why does Asia matter to Australia? Well, first of all, it's a
hugely important economic centre in the world. It's got China, it's got India, it's got Japan,
some of the largest economies and most vital and dynamic economies. And also, just looking
at where Australia is in the world. I mean, we live in Asia for a start, but we also depend on
Asia very much, economically. Four out of the top five of our trading partners are in Asia.
And there's a, you know, now and in the future, there's going to be a lot of economic
employment opportunities in Asia for people who are willing to step up and learn about
it and possibly learn a language as well. A lot of people get into it just because they're interested
in the popular culture in Asia through K-pop or through anime or, you know, film or music.
And so, yeah, we definitely cater for that. There is a very strong push from the government,
there has been for the last five or 10 years, to get involved in learning about
Asia. And there's been a successive succession of reports coming out from Australian government,
both sides of government, emphasising the need for Australia to learn more about Asia.
It's recognised that actually we don't know very much about it. So governments have really pulled
out the stops to get students to be interested in Asia and go to Asia as part of a big programme
called the New Colombo Plan, which provides very generous scholarships for Australian
students to go and spend some time in Asia studying towards their degree in Australia.
So just about us, we're one of the largest disciplines in the School of Social Sciences.
We've got nine staff, all of them are inspiring teachers. We've got a very good record of getting
top teaching awards from within Asian Studies and really good feedback from students as well.
All of the staff within Asian Studies speak Asian language fluently and they're all known
internationally for their research on aspects of Asia. We've also got a lot of links to the
business community and external stakeholders of various kinds, and we take advantage of them to
provide internships and provide introductions and experience in that, in the business world. So how
can you study Asian Studies subjects? Well, one way is just to take individual units within Asian
studies. You can take them as electives from just about any subject that you happen to be
studying at university. You can integrate them into a major with a Bachelor of Arts.
You can combine them with engineering, commerce, with science, and a lot of other areas as well.
The thing which we would like to recommend to you, because it's really the flagship of Asian Studies,
is the Asian Studies major. And that provides a really solid knowledge starting with
foundational units on Asian cultures, societies, religions, history, and so forth. And then, in
the second and third years, going into more detail about the individual Asian Study, individual Asian
societies, and where you can really get stuck into the in depth knowledge about individual places.
The focus in our units is very much on contemporary issues. So there's a whole
range of things you can choose from. You don't necessarily have to do all of these things
but you can choose to specialise in one of these things. We've got a lot of linkages outside
the country too with universities in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, Japan, Korea, China,
and Indonesia. And lots of opportunities to do in country studies in those places. And, this is
a really, really good experience for students and looks great on your CV. And it's a way of getting,
you know, credit towards your UWA studies while living in a different country. And, you know,
you can take advantage of the New Colombo Plan scholarships for that, they're very generous.
So what can Asian Studies lead to? Well, it's all sorts of things actually. I mean, there's,
it's really hard keeping track of our graduates ‘cause they go all over the place, depending,
in part, what else they do in their studies. But you know, there's a lot of business involvement
by Australian companies in Asia and mining and energy is one of the things that a lot
of students get into. There's banks, there's journalism, all sorts of other opportunities
in the private sector in either working in Asia or working with Asia related business in Australia.
Probably most of our graduates end up in one way or another going into the civil service,
into government jobs. Many of them end up in the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade, in the border protection, the Department of Defence, Australian Federal Police, Intelligence,
all sorts of things like that, where that sort of expertise is really, really valued.
There's an example of a couple of advertisements here showing that, you know, government agencies
in Canberra are actually looking for people who've done Asian Studies and who've got that sort of
cultural sensitivity that we try to encourage in our students. Here is another advertisement there
from the Office of National Assessments. And as far as employment, you know, there's always the
example of Kevin Rudd, who was an Asian Studies graduate from the Australian National University.
Joey Eagleton is a graduate of Asian Studies who's now working in the Department of Foreign Affairs
and he was kind enough to put together a few words about his experience studying here. JOEY EAGLETON:
Hi, my name is Joey, and I'm currently completing an Asian Studies honours degree at the University
of Western Australia. I previously completed my undergraduate degree, also majoring
in Asian Studies, and in return for this year as part of my career development with my current
work at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I found my Asian Studies degree
very rewarding personally, as well as professionally later on. Once I graduated
during my study, I was lucky enough to complete an exchange programme to Indonesia
for one year studying Indonesian language. I had started studying Indonesian
from scratch at UWA as part of my Asian Studies degree and I really enjoyed it and wanted to
become more proficient in speaking Indonesian. I initially signed up for six months studying in
Jakarta, Indonesia, but I ended up extending for another six months because I enjoyed it so much,
which the university was very supportive of. And, all that overseas study was recognised and
accredited as part of my UWA degree, which was great. So where could an Asian Studies degree
take you? From my experience after graduating, I worked in Japan as an assistant language teacher,
teaching English at a public school, which was a lot of fun before returning to Australia and
joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra. Without a doubt, that what
I studied as part of my Asian Studies degree at UWA, helped me get my first full-time job
straight out of university, and it's continued to inform my career choices later on in life as well.
What I really enjoyed most about my Asian Studies degree was the diversity you could choose from.
And you're encouraged to choose units in areas you might be unfamiliar with as well. For example,
I was very focused on studying about Indonesia. I've always found Indonesian very interesting,
but I've had the opportunity as part of my Asian Studies degree to study units on Chinese politics,
Japan, as well as lots of lots of other interesting places.
A lot of that knowledge I've found very useful and I've really drawn on in my current role in foreign
affairs and trade. So if you're potentially thinking about career, either working in the Asian
region or in maybe the public service, in foreign affairs or maybe defence or something like that,
something along those lines, I would highly recommend considering Asian Studies as study path.