There are a few key moments throughout my career when I can distinctly remember where I was when they happened. I remember sitting in the back of a share ride in 2020 as I received the news QS’ Middle East summit would be postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 restrictions. That was the first time the pandemic directly impacted the work of my colleagues and I.

I remember being in Helsinki during EAIE when the UK announced that it would finally be returning to post-study work rights in 2019. There was an air of triumph in the British delegation after a policy change almost a decade of lobbying in the making.

I can still see the wood-panelled living room of my Brisbane share house in 2017 as I watched the press conference for Change the course, the landmark Australian Human Rights Commission report into sexual harassment and assault on Australian campuses. I was shocked by the outcomes and even more shocked by some of the responses to the report.

But the one that sticks out the most was sitting in Wellington, staring up at a stage with a giant, circular screen as the then Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced New Zealand’s international education strategy in 2018. It was partly the setting, which reminded of a Pink Floyd concert, but it was mostly what the strategy represented to those in the room.

What was announced was the first fully articulated international education strategy for the country. A 2011 Leadership Statement had provided some guidance, goals and objectives, but it was a far cry from what was produced in 2018.

It was also very clear that the document meant a lot to the sector. It showed a concerted, thought-out plan for the future of New Zealand international education, and while some may have disagreed with its direction, it had at least elicited passion. Incidentally, delegates did let Hipkins, who would later become Prime Minister, know their disagreement in the only time I’ve seen a politician open to the floor at a conference. New Zealand does things differently.