Hot topics

The 2025 AIEC program offers a rich selection of some of the most important issues impacting International Education. The program has something for everyone and features policy updates, market insights, examples of good practice, research findings, innovative use of technology, new models of learning and teaching, and industry trends. Our program sessions draw on the findings of research, case studies and leaders in the field of international education.

Here are some of the topics that will be explored and discussed at AIEC 2025.

View 2025 Program at a Glance

Strategic insights

Essential insights and market intelligence across a range of key interest areas, designed to help you plan for the immediate and longer term: 

• Boosting international recognition of Australian qualifications

• Bridging international education and immigration
• Building partnerships in transnational education across ASEAN
• Challenges and opportunities of joint degree programs in global higher education
• China’s future transnational education landscape
• Chinese employment trends - implications for Australian education providers
• Climate action in international education
• Designing transformative education programs for development
• Empowering global citizenship: integrating Indigenous perspectives into international education
• Geopolitical shifts and international education
• Global demographic shifts and implications for international education
• Harnessing the soft power potential of Australian international education
• International education and Australia’s Free Trade Agreements with Southeast Asia
• International education policy: Where to from here
• Learning abroad and scholarships - Driving our public diplomacy and regional relationship-building
• Mapping the transition: A competency framework for university postentry English support practitioners
• Mobility, partnerships and impact
• Navigating the evolving transnational education landscape
• Opportunities for Australia-India collaboration
• Research vs reality – financial pressures relating to the cost of living and accommodation
• Shaking up international education with regional flair
• Shaping the New Colombo Plan – 2026 and beyond
• Social licence in international education
• Strategic risk management in international education
• Supporting SEAS students’ participation in learning abroad programs
• The changing role of international education practitioners
• The future of international education
• The future of transnational VET
• The rise of new education destinations
• Trends in Sino-Foreign Higher Education TNE programs
• Understanding the changing landscape of global student flows
• What bilateral US-Australian government priorities signal for international education

Country and Regional insights

Dedicated country and region-specific sessions, relevant to all sectors, to ensure you have the latest updates on developments and opportunities including: 

• Africa

• Bangladesh
• China
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Southeast Asia
• Sri Lanka
• Vietnam

Innovation and technology insights

New ways of working smarter, teaching, learning and engaging through technology:

• AI as a Supportive Tool for International Students’ Academic Integrity

• AI in international education: challenges and opportunities in student engagement
• AI in the teaching and learning context
• Applying UDL to online courses for international students
• Assessment Renaissance: authentic design in the era of generative AI
• Building authentic international student communities in a tech-led world
• Cyber attack preparedness and response in international education
• Harnessing AI to transform the admissions process
• Using data and AI to build real relationships with prospective students

Insights for Schools

In 2025 sessions of particular interest to schools will be concentrated into one day and include a range of key topics including:

• Boosting recruitment: school strategy

• Connecting cultures: global competence and intercultural understanding in schools
• Cultivating the conditions internationally to support system change in schools
• Global competence: the foundation of international engagement in schools
• School transnational education: a bridge to global empowerment and diplomacy
• Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) offshore program - the partnership model

Marketing and recruitment insights

Key sessions that focus on innovations in marketing, communications and recruitment:

• AI and human connection in student recruitment

• Digital marketing trends
• Harnessing student led content
• How future international students engage with content
• How student values, choices and behaviours are being challenged by new market forces
• Leveraging RedNote for engagement of international students from China
• Market diversification strategies
• New international student recruitment channels
• Rediscovering the hidden channels to market
• Student driven marketing and communication
• Student voice in Tik Tok
• Transforming pre-departure content into engagement & conversion
• Using data and AI to build real relationships with prospective students

Policy insights

Latest policy changes presented by policy makers, government representatives and other key experts in the field:

• A data perspective on the impact of Australia’s new policy framework on international education

• Data driven strategies to overcome market challenges
• English language testing standards as predictors of academic success and community integration
• Insights from 2024 and 2025 and recent additions to Australian Government international student data
• Pathways to Australian tech: insights from ACS’s professional year and migration longitudinal study
• Results of latest research on how global institutions are leading the way on climate action in international education
• Shifting our data narratives from analysis to insight driven action
• Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025 Data and Insights
• Tracing success: a national study of direct entry ELICOS tracer studies in Australian higher education

Student insights

Sessions dedicated to helping you to better understand, support and engage with international students:

• Beyond rainbow flags: real DEI for international LGBTIQA+ students

• Beyond the degree: bridging the employability gap for returning graduates
• Empowering independent student representatives in higher education
• Empowering international alumni for greater impact and shared success
• Empowering international students: building confidence, skills, and experience through immersive and structured volunteering program
• Engaging with the university campus: first year international students’ intentions and behavior
• Innovations in career support for international student career readiness
• Insights from the Overseas Students Ombudsman and National Student Ombudsman
• International students as mystery shoppers: Insights from Edified’s latest mystery shopping research
• Perception vs reality: International students and the rising cost of living
• Revolutionising employability for international students
• Speaking truth to power: what international students want you to know
• Student experience insights and the cost of attrition
• Supporting international student well-being
• Tackling racism in international education
• The role of parental influence on decision making and student experience
• WIL and COIL

View 2025 Program at a Glance

Key dates

11 February - Call for proposals opens

14 March - Call for proposals closes

May - Registration open

mid-June - Program released

31 July - Super early bird registration closes

12 September - Early bird registration closes

14–17 October – AIEC 2025

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