Twenty-one international students have been appointed as official Brisbane Student Ambassadors at the inaugural induction ceremony, held at Brisbane City Hall on Wednesday 15 July. 

From China, USA, Japan to India; the 21 students represent 18 of Brisbane’s largest source markets and were selected based upon their unrivalled passion to tell their Brisbane experiences to the world. The students are aged from 18 to 45, and are studying a wide range of education courses such as nursing, international business, media and the creative arts.

To complement their academic responsibilities, these enthusiastic and creative students will take on the intrinsic role of communicating their unique real-life Brisbane experiences to their family, friends and networks at home.

Brisbane Marketing, the economic development agency started the recruitment process two months ago under its Study Brisbane initiative, opening up nominations to Brisbane’s 51,000 plus international students. A team of creative experts from the agency developed a multi-digital toolkit to assist the students to reveal their Brisbane experiences.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman hosted the ceremony and personally welcomed each student to the culturally-diverse Brisbane Student Ambassador program.

“All 21 students have shown an ambitious appetite to represent Brisbane in their own creative way which makes them the ideal Ambassadors for the City,” Cr Newman said.

“There’s nothing better than personal referrals. That’s why I’m looking forward to seeing what our ambassadors have to say, as they convey their impressions of our city to their home communities across the world.”

“This program is about profiling Brisbane’s attributes to the global student community, which in turn will increase the City’s share of the education export market and strengthen supporting industries, such as tourism, hospitality and airlines,”

The international student market is an extremely competitive business and Brisbane is competing against global cities to lure international students.

John Aitken, CEO of Brisbane Marketing said Brisbane needs to be as creative as possible to appeal to international students.

“Some of Brisbane’s greatest virtues are lifestyle, tropical climate, friendly and accommodating culture, its creative and new world thinking. The most effective way to profile these assets is through word-of-mouth and personal advocacy,” Mr Aitken said.  

“That is why we are asking our international students to tell their personal stories to family and friends at home. It’s honest, real and very powerful.

“This is just the beginning of our international Student Ambassador Program as we aim to assist in stronger community integration and greater interaction with international students. As international students develop friends for life, they also become advocates of Brisbane when returning home.”

For more information visit www.studybrisbane.com.au