International House Scholars Dinner 2024

The Vice-Chancellor’s address  to the International House Scholars Dinner was presented on Thursday 11 April 2024.

Thank you.

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, particularly the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people. I pay my respects to the Indigenous Elders, past, present and emerging, and I acknowledge all First Nations people at International House this evening.

I am grateful for the invitation to Sarah and me to join you once again for the annual Scholars Dinner.

Coming into this dining room, it is always hard not be affected by the sight of so many flags representing the diverse student community that lives and learns in this place. This semester there are 43 flags – 43 nations – represented at International House. You are students from every continent, and many different countries. Diversity of background is built into the fabric of this community – something reflected in the three different flags that represent people from the country we are in: the Australian Aboriginal Flag, the Australian National Flag, and the Torres Strait Islander Flag.

All these many national flags together tell a great story. Amidst huge diversity, you are a single and distinctive community, in which it is great to have the chance to live and learn.

Tonight, I want to express my best wishes for success to every student here, and of course, especially to congratulate those who are being awarded scholarships for their study at International House in 2024.

You live here in a community infused with the important idea of international friendship. There is a small number of similar institutions to this one at universities around the world, which is something that Sarah and I are well aware of because our son, Peter, spent a year of his university studies living at International House at the University of Chicago.

The ideals of International House resonate powerfully through history, and not only in Australia. They are summed up in the words of a philanthropist who wrote, nearly 100 years ago:

International House is a [place for] the day-to-day practice of international fellowship among [people]…
By bringing together…the educated young people of all lands, many of whom will, in years to come, be leaders in their several countries, and by giving them the full opportunity for frank discussion on terms of equality, there is being performed, I believe, a service for the well-being of the world…

That was the American philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. – and what he said applies equally to Australia, too. International House at Melbourne has played an important role in Australia’s later history, encouraging the move away from this country’s older colonialist mindset, embodied in White Australia Policy. This history predates you, the students in this dining room, by a long way. But it is important history, and a reminder that what you do by living and learning here as students may also have untold positive consequences for the world, in future.

So, for a number of reasons, I am delighted to be here again, tonight. As I grow older, it is inspiring to see the youth and the energy that is here, among you. One thing you remind me of is my own journey from my days as an undergraduate student, also living in college, through to today.

Being at college was one of the truly formative experiences of my life. That encourages me to urge you to make the most of this great community you are part of now. Inspire each other to be curious about the knowledge you bring here and look forward with confidence to the great contributions that you will all be making in many different places, in future.

I also want to challenge you a little. I think that it is important that each of you, while you are here at International House, learns everything that you can about navigating the differences between you and other people, when you are part of a large and truly diverse organisation. Learn to celebrate your differences and learn to learn from each other. This will stand you in good stead for your future careers, which I know for many of you will involve working in organisations that cross national borders.

This is partly a journey of self-discovery for yourself: it is about finding out what your driving values really are. We can find out a lot about ourselves when we talk to someone who is truly different – who perhaps challenges us in some way.

So let me turn that into a question for you. If you go on to become leaders – and I am confident that many of you will – how will you lead or work with others whose values you do not share, or who do not share yours?

How do we rise to that point of difference? How do we navigate it, remaining true to ourselves while respecting and advancing the purpose of the organisation that we work for? It is complex and far from being a simple challenge. But it is a challenge that has some things in common with what you are doing here every day, while living and learning at International House.

Part of the answer to that difficult question, for me, is precisely what we do when we study hard. Through university study, we develop in ourselves the qualities of rigorous reasoning, of knowing how to confront hard problems and tackle them in the light of evidence, while respecting our colleagues and fellow students and teachers. One great lesson that we can learn is that when we meet someone with different opinions to our own, we should not treat them as our enemy, but us a potential friend. This is something that you can go a long way to learning, through the discussions that you have and the friendships that you make here at International House.

To conclude my remarks, I appeal to that same sense of responsibility for others that is enshrined in the values that your head of college, Deborah Seifert, and all the staff here believe in so firmly. I know that Deborah often says to you:

"Uphold your family name, uphold the International House name, uphold your university’s name, and uphold your country’s name."

Those are values that I too can support, and I encourage you to strive for them every day.

Good luck to all scholarship recipients, and everyone who lives and learns here this year. And thank you for welcoming us back to International House, for whose important work we have the greatest respect.