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The Director of Murdoch University's Asia Research Centre, Professor Richard Robison, said he was proud the Asia Research Centre was regarded as one of the top half-dozen Centres of its kind in the world.
 "As Australia's only Asia-focused Special Research Centre we have achieved considerable success over the years -- bringing into the University some $8 million in Commonwealth grants and other monies," said Professor Robison.
He said that at the Centre, his staff were constantly working to establish closer relations with Asia, as evidenced by the recent, highly successful Centre-organised conference From Miracle to Meltdown: The End of Asian Capitalism, held in WA last month in conjunction with Yonsei University, South Korea.
"The conference was the first of two organised by the Centre -- the second will be held in Seoul, South Korea," said Professor Robison.
Targeting the Asian currency crisis and its impact on the Asia-Pacific region, the conference was a huge success, he said.
It was attended by people from all over the world, including the United States and Europe as well as from the Asian region and all parts of Australia.
The Asia Research Centre primarily studies the Asian political economy and globalisation by engaging in academic, business and government-related research, consultancies, postgraduate training and the development of national and regional research cooperation.
"The Asia Research Centre is also the WA node of the national Centre for Democratic Institutions, first established at the Australian National University, Canberra, late last year," said Professor Robison.
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| "At Murdoch I found the freedom I needed to establish a world-class centre for Asian research." |
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He said the Centre had recently received a grant for $300,000 from the WA Department of Commerce and Trade to investigate market economies and leadership changes in Asia, and to help strengthen the Centre's expertise on China.
Established at Murdoch University in 1991 with a grant from the Australian Research Council, the Asia Research Centre received a further six-year $5.5 million grant from the Council in 1994.
"This allowed the Centre to continue to investigate social, political and economic change in contemporary Asia, and the implications of this for Australia," said Professor Robison.
Professor Robison has a long history with Murdoch University.
"I arrived here in 1977 with a BA from the Australian National University in Canberra and an MA and PhD from the University of Sydney," he said.
"At Murdoch I found the freedom I needed to establish a world-class centre for Asian research," said Professor Robison.
"When I first began my academic career I decided I wanted to go to a new university where I could build something of my own, rather than trying to fit into something constructed by others. Murdoch allowed me to do this despite its small size and somewhat isolated location."
Now Professor Robison is Western Australia's only representative on the Foreign Affairs Advisory Board in Canberra -- a Board set up by the Minister to provide expert advice about the Asia-Pacific region.
He is also a member of the Canberra-based editorial boards of The Australian Journal of Political Science, The Australian Journal of International Affairs and Pacific Review and the Board of the Australia-Indonesia Institute.
"It is vitally important to be represented in Canberra as it is easy to be forgotten when you are here in WA," said Professor Robison.
"My current research interests include Asian politics and economics specialising in Indonesia, the politics of structural change and deregulation in the international economy, politics and business in Asia, and the politics of democratisation."
Professor Robison was Dean of Humanities at Murdoch University for three years (1986-88), and served several terms on the University's Research Board and Academic Council.
He has also authored or edited numerous internationally published books and collected volumes, but admitted that keeping up his publishing and research efforts -- together with running the Centre -- could be challenging.
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