Exporting professional courses: cultural and educational implications

Abstract

Since the introduction of the Overseas Student Program (OSP) in 1985, courses have been ‘marketed’, often quite aggressively, by Australian universities. In most cases, overseas students have responded by coming to Australia. The cultural implications of the OSP are evaluated using a hypothetical case—Hong Kong Registered Nurses undertaking a post-graduate Public Health Nursing program in a higher education institution to prepare them for work with Vietnamese people in Hong Kong's refugee camps. The evaluation is based on an application of Dunn's jurisprudential metaphor and transactional model of argument to a consideration of the contextual and cultural issues which arise from an examination of the impact of the course. It was concluded that the course would not be appropriate. Moreover, arguments developed from the hypothetical case were found to be generalisable to the export of other professional courses, and the relevance of many offerings were questioned.