Australia Awards South and West Asia

Mohammad Mahmudul Islam Talukder recently completed a Master of International Security at the University of Adelaide, with the support of an Australia Awards Scholarship. He learnt a great deal from the experience, both in the academic world and from Australian society more broadly.

In the following video, filmed towards the end of his Scholarship, Mahmudul discusses his experiences as an Australia Awards scholar in Australia.

Mahmudul works in the police department in Bangladesh. He applied for an Australia Awards Scholarship because it gave him an ample opportunity to further develop his personal experience and skillset. He found the tertiary education experience in Australia to be very different from that in his home country. In Australia, he sees the studying process as focusing on two broad strands: firstly, building each individual’s capacity for research; secondly, group work that develops each individual’s skills to communicate with other people. Combined, he says, these two strands “assist the student to grow their career in [a] better way”.

However, while he has learnt a great deal from his course, in many ways Mahmudul believes that it is the experience of studying abroad in Australia that has taught him the most. He found Australia’s multiculturalism “most surprising, almost shocking” at first, in contrast to Bangladesh, which he sees as mostly homogenous. He found Australia so “diverse and multicultural that it was really hard to grasp at first”, but concluded that “it’s truly amazing”. Now he says that Australia is the “prime example” of how different peoples and different cultures “can coexist together with harmony”, and describes that as “the most important thing that I have learnt here”.

Mahmudul delivering the keynote speech at the Australia Awards End of Year Celebration.

Mahmudul experienced this diversity firsthand, both within the university and outside it. “I do lots of volunteering activity, especially connected with the university and international student support,” he says. This included volunteering during Orientation Week, helping new students to know the university better. He is also proud to volunteer with the Student Wellbeing Association at his university, helping students with their specific needs. “Apart from the university, I love to roam around, I love the beautiful nature, and Australia is a beautiful country,” he says, adding, “At the end I started learning cooking!”

In the final months of his Scholarship, Mahmudul’s leadership amongst his cohort of fellow Australia Awards scholars was recognised when he was invited to deliver a speech at the Australia Awards End of Year Celebration in Adelaide in November 2024. He shared the stage with the Governor of South Australia, Her Excellency the Hon Frances Adamson AC, who delivered the keynote address at the event.

Mahmudul greets Her Excellency the Hon Frances Adamson AC, Governor of South Australia, at the Australia Awards End of Year Celebration.

Australia Awards supported Mahmudul throughout his lifechanging Australian experience, even before he landed in the country. “For example, we had several pre-departure briefings before coming to Australia,” he says. “They help us with how to develop our documents, how to prepare our visas […] how to get accommodation in Australia while we are not in Australia, how to manage your time, how to manage your budget, those sort of things.” That support continued while he was in Australia. As he said towards the end of his Scholarship, “If we have any problem, if we have any enquiry, if we have any special need, we just communicate with them and they provide us whatever is possible.” It’s no wonder that he describes it as “one of the best scholarships provided in Bangladesh”.

For prospective applicants who would like to see Australia’s multiculturalism and experience the Scholarship benefits for themselves, Mahmudul’s advice is to consider their application holistically. “Australia Awards is a renowned Scholarship, and that’s why it’s very competitive,” he says. “So I would strongly suggest that applicants […] think about how their application will stand out from other applicants; […] how they’re thinking to develop their own country through this Scholarship; how the Scholarship can contribute to help developing their career, which [will] eventually assist their own country; […] why you are choosing this specific university; how the subject matter is relevant to your development option; and why Australia.”

As for Mahmudul, he’s taking all his Australian learnings and experiences and applying them in Bangladesh for the betterment of his country. “Australia Awards Scholarship gave me […] an opportunity to interact with lots of diversified students and communities that help[ed] me to understand how to interact with different people,” he says. “That knowledge and skill that I have from here, I can introduce […] into my country to work with people from diversified communities.”