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In order to address the challenges of learning and teaching given the seismic changes in news consumption, production and the surfeit of information, this paper explores the trajectories of learning in journalism in two culturally different academic institutions: Xiamen University in China and Western Sydney University in Australia. This comparative research presents the new and innovative ways news and information gathering is taught while instilling good, ethical practice in future journalists and information gatherers. It explores the challenges facing both institutions and countries, in building a good journalism foundation through ethical research, use of authoritative sources, balance, fairness in reporting, writing and presenting news with accuracy and speed while targeting multimedia platforms for maximum reach to target audiences. Cultivating storytelling abilities in students using scenarios, simulations, real-life situations, lived experiences, situational and mobile learning, is identified as a common approach to nurturing responsive and responsible journalism in both institutions. The paper outlines the methods that work and explores the opportunities as well as challenges these approaches present in understanding journalism and in delivering news while preparing students for the future of work. The first part of the paper overviews journalism development in China and how the craft is taught at Xiamen University. The second part focuses briefly on Australian journalism history and the pressure and challenges the Fourth Estate faces in fulfilling its public interest role. It then outlines methods of engaged learning activities at Western Sydney University. The paper concludes by discussing the common meeting points of learning in a global and changing world where there will be greater need for journalists to present the truth in news through verification and fact-checking - common perennial foundations of the craft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social connectedness experiences among older migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Australia. Data were collected via two rounds of semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic and cluster analysis. Participants were 40 migrants aged 66-91 years, of German, Dutch, Romanian, Chinese, and Vietnamese origin. They identified a range of factors affecting their social connectedness experiences: personal preferences, individual efforts to connect with others, English language proficiency, driving ability, and length of residence. Data analysis also revealed four groupings of experience: the isolated, family, ethnic community, and multicultural cluster. These patterns of connectedness were experienced differently across the ethnic groups. The findings suggest the benefits of providing culture-specific social connection opportunities to help older migrants to stay socially connected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the expected results of the current COVID-19 outbreak to arrivals of Chinese tourists to the USA and Australia. The growing market share of Chinese tourism and the fact that the county was the first to experience the pandemic make China a suitable proxy for predictions on global tourism. We employ data from the 2003 SARS outbreak to train a deep learning artificial neural network named Long Short Term Memory (LSTM). The neural network is calibrated for the particulars of the current pandemic. Our findings, which are cross-validated using backtesting, suggest that recovery of arrivals to pre-crisis levels can take from 6 to 12 months and this can have significant adverse effects not only on the tourism industry but also on other sectors that interact with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional universities are common around the world, and important to the higher education system. This paper mainly analyzes the features of performance framework for regional universities in Australia, and discusses how the framework inspires the performance evaluation of regional universities in China. Firstly, the main features of Australian regional universities were summarized as the diversity of students, the strong local features, and the important social influence. Then, the key components of the performance framework, namely, core, optional, and institution-specific measures, were introduced in great details. Drawing on the framework and the local conditions, several suggestions were put forward to promote the performance evaluation of regional universities in China: develop high-level universities, serve local development, and diversify evaluation standards. The research results help to promote higher education in China and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication is considered a crucial skill set by employers who require universities to develop students' communication skills, to meet their requirements in the workplace. This study focuses on graduates' perceptions of their skill in professional communication; its development during their studies; and its value when making the transition to employment. The paper is based on two studies undertaken in Australia with interviews with graduates. The graduates are both of Australian and Chinese origin working in Australia and China across various industries. Presentation skills, writing, and intercultural skills were considered most important. Although most participants were satisfied with the way they had developed these skills at the Australian university, some international graduates needed more help from university to attain these skills. Recommendations regarding structured interventions for intercultural communication, work-integrated learning, and professional training of academic staff were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, an increasing number of Chinese students has come to Australia to study; some of them opted to settle in Australia as permanent residents while others chose to return to China. More Chinese students are pursuing further studies overseas due to China's recent rapid economic growth, which increased the ranks of middle- and upper-middle class families who have the means to send their children to study abroad. The trend also reflects China's intergenerational wealth transfer in the "first demographic dividend" period. This paper reviews the recent patterns of international mobility of Chinese students to Australia and examines the factors that affect Chinese students' settlement decisions. The paper links the patterns of international mobility of students to the demographic structure of the sending country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conduct of fieldwork and preparation of a written report for school-based assessment will become compulsory in the upcoming Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education examination in Geography from 2014 onwards. It is hoped that students will in due course become more independent and inquiry-oriented learners and that the validity of assessment can be enhanced by grading against prescribed criteria. The types of fieldwork commonly used in teaching the subject, their merits and shortcomings, and the adequacy of the assessment measures for the achievement of intended objectives, are analysed first in this light. Implementation problems are examined next together with suggestions for improving the assessment and learning process. Noting the value of assessing student performance in fieldwork and developing effective criteria for this purpose, the conclusion is that a global approach of enhancing teacher reconceptualisation of teaching and learning and student participation in decision-making should be adopted if this major curriculum change is to succeed as planned. The use of school-based assessments (SBA) in public examinations is an increasingly popular development worldwide. The Diploma Programme examination of the International Baccalaureate Organisation (2004) for instance has been allocating 20% to 50% of the marks to SBA in all subjects since 1968. External examinations in Australia are widely accompanied by teacher assessments; in Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory they have even been completely replaced by SBA (Baumgart and Low, 1990). In England and Wales, SBA, under the name of teacher assessment was introduced to the General Certificate of Secondary Education examination (Gipps and Stobart, 1997) which was first implemented in 1986. Hong Kong, a former British colony returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, is following these examples by incorporating SBA into all subjects (except Mathematics) in the new Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) examination, which is to be taken by students from 2012 onwards after three years of junior secondary and three years of New Senior Secondary (NSS) studies, replacing the long-established five-year secondary and two-year Advanced Level system. The express purpose is to enhance the validity and reliability of assessment and redress the problems brought by the concentration of public examination papers on the more measurable and concrete cognitive objectives of academic subjects at the expense of authentic abilities and other less tangible learning outcomes (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2005).School-based assessments for DSE Geography, to be compulsory from 2014, will be based entirely on the reports completed by students after conducting their own independent field inquiry. A teacher survey (Hong Kong Geographical Association, 2004) and the related consultations revealed concerns about the fairness, manageability and impact of the arrangements. This paper attempts to examine the nature of fieldwork inquiry and its usefulness as SBA. Problems are discussed in view of teacher concerns, and improvements are suggested for assessment changes so that students can benefit from their inquiries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An airport network forms the backbone of any air transportation system. The relationships among the origins and destinations of flights result in a complex network of routes which can be complemented with information associated with the routes themselves, for instance, traffic load and distance. In this paper, we modeled the Australia's civil domestic airport infrastructure as a network and analyzed the resulting network structure and its features using complex network tool. This case study identifies and investigates complex network measures, such as the degree distribution, characteristics path length, clustering coefficient and centrality measure as well as the correlations among them to understand the topology of an airport network. This analysis of the Australian Airport Network (AAN) indicates that it has a cumulative degree distribution described by the power-law function. As it has an average path length of 2.90, it is considered to have small-world properties. It is also found that it has a clustering coefficient of 0.50 which is higher than that of a random network of the same size which indicates that the transitivity and cohesiveness of AAN is different from a random network. In contrast to the World-wide Airport Network (WAN), the AAN is found to have disassortative mixing similar to the airport networks of China and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the notion of external referencing has been undertaken across a range of disciplines, its adoption in a tourism setting remains largely fragmented. This project applies a 'floating classroom' as part of a virtual Community of Practice (CoP) to enable tourism policy and planning educators to perform a benchmarking exercise for maintaining teaching quality despite geographical separation and social distancing mandates. Virtual CoPs can help maintain teaching quality at a time when universities are increasingly required to uphold international standards of excellence and as the coronavirus continues to make face-to-face interactions risky. The CoP enabled mutual support and knowledge sharing for the design of teaching approaches, materials, and authentic assessments. The paper was limited to three educators teaching similar courses in Anglophone institutions and reports the results of a one-off study. But findings will assist educators interested in maintaining or enhancing teaching quality over the course of the pandemic and post-COVID-19 futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the identity negotiation experiences of first, second and 1.5 generation Chinese immigrants in Australia. Integration into the Australian larger society requires first generation immigrants to learn or improve their English language skills and adapt to the host cultural practices to the extent possible so that they can be accepted as a member of the mainstream society. Second and 1.5 generation immigrants have the advantage of being well-equipped with knowledge of the host cultural practices and English language skills as they were either born in the host country or migrated at a young age. However, as they grow up, they realize that it is not possible for people with Chinese ancestry to be 100% “Australian”, no matter how well they speak the English language or how closely they follow the Australian way of life. Their physical appearance sets them apart from the Anglo-Australians at first sight. Consequently, they also need to perform to the expectations of both cultural groups, and this is what they do on a daily basis. Drawing upon data from 35 semi-structured interviews with first, second and 1.5 generation Chinese in Australia, this study illustrates that shifted identity, rather than blended identity is favoured by majority of respondents as they navigate through the bicultural environment to “fit in” different contexts. The Findings from this study highlight that identification with a culture does not necessarily suggest belonging to that culture. Identification and belonging are not the same. Those findings are discussed in light of implication for theories on identities and acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the global network society, the power of a nation-state is built not only on its hard-power, but also on its soft-power. International communication, understanding and tolerance are essential for national development as well as for the world's peace and prosperity. This research studied the attitudes of Australians towards China, via documentary study and secondary-data research. The paper discussed perceptions and opinions of Australian government and citizenry in three aspects: multilateral international relations, economic and trade and the rise of China; analyzed the characteristics of international communication in the information network era and explored the international communication challenges facing China. It showed that China's dramatic economic development and the benefits of Australia-China relationship had gained general recognition among the Australians. However, there was considerable distrust of China among the Australians. Some of them even wished to team up with the United States in order to constrain China. It recommended helping the international society know, understand and trust China be a focus of China's international communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed from the perspective of the international competition of the backward international status of China's sugar industry. Based on Thailand, Australia and Brazil sugar industry development mode, the strategy was claimed which include planting, processing and deep processing of the three main components of sugar industrial chain, as well as three-level of the industry, the market and the financial resources. The ultimate goal of the strategy was designed to seize the international voice of china's sugar-related products. Also, China's sugar industry financial engineering support system was analyzed and developed by using the industry financial engineering theory and related methods. Finally, Planting support system and related issues were given as case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study explored the information literacy (IL) development of international higher degree research (HDR) students from China as they undertook their research studies in an Australian university. International HDR students need advanced IL skills to complete their research degree. However, IL research and training in western countries has tended to regard international HDR students no differently from their undergraduate counterparts. That is, there has been a focus on basic information skills rather than considering the more complicated and advanced IL needs within a research context. The project presented in this paper aimed to explore this gap. Three international PhD students from China participated in this research. A biographical approach was used to collect the data, and a total of 222 reflective accounts were collected from the participants over a period of fifteen months. In these reflections, they recorded significant life and study experiences at the University of Western Sydney. This approach allowed the participants freedom to express their thoughts and feelings without interruption and enabled them to speak frankly and freely without prejudice. The approach to data analysis underpinning this study was based on Bruce's (1997) relational model of IL. The findings indicate that these international HDR students experience significant difficulties in developing their IL skills during their research studies in their western university. The complex nature of research study, which demands high levels of IL, significantly contributes to these difficulties, as do the different language and culture of international students which pose additional challenges to their information use. This article concludes with recommendations for research supervisors and librarians to consider in the provision of IL education for international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift in international migration research away from a focus on permanent displacement and settlement to transnationalism has not been accompanied by a similar shift in international migration systems which are still based on the old paradigm. This study utilizes Australia-based secondary and primary data to show the actual nature of population movement between two of Australia's major countries of origin of migrants: China and India. It focuses particularly on one group of migrants — university-based researchers and teachers. The paper demonstrates that the mobility relationship between Australia on the one hand, and India and China on the other, is most accurately depicted as a complex system involving substantial and diverse flows in both directions. Survey data are used to explore the linkages maintained by Indian and Chinese academics in Australia with their homelands. The findings suggest that there is considerable scope from the perspectives of China and India to engage their diaspora in activities which will be beneficial to development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University rankings are having a profound effect on both higher education systems and individual universities. In this paper we outline these effects, discuss the desirable characteristics of a good ranking methodology and document existing practice, with an emphasis on the two main international rankings (Shanghai Jiao Tong and THES-QS). We take a critical look at where Australian universities rank internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the attitudes towards inclusive education of pre-service teachers in teacher training institutions in four different countries: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Using the Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale (Wilczenski, 1995) and a series of demographic variables, this study concludes that pre-service teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education differ between countries across three factors which have been labeled academic and physical, social, and behavioral. Pre-service teachers in this sample are most positive about including students with social concerns. An examination of the items in this factor revealed that these issues, such as shyness, would rarely require immediate intervention and large amounts of extra time and effort on the part of the teacher in the same way that the behavior factor would, which rated low in terms of positive attitudes internationally. Demographic variables which can be emphasized by teacher training institutions such as close contact with a person with a disability, training, teaching experience, knowledge of policy and law, and confidence levels, all had a significant impact on attitudes. This paper argues that teacher training institutions should consider for inclusion in their programs practical experiences with inclusive education in positive and supportive environments, opportunities for students to experience success and reflection, and academic content regarding knowledge of policy and law relating to inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]