Fifteen students from Edith Cowan University (ECU), in Perth, Western Australia are on a study abroad visit to Samtse College of Education (SCoE) from 30^th September – 12^th October, 2019. The fifteen students are accompanied by Associate Professor Vicki Banham and Dr. Sonam Pelden, a Bhutanese national working as a lecturer in the School of Arts and Humanities at ECU.

The President of the College officially welcomed the group on the morning of October 3^rd 2019 with a brief introduction to the College highlighting some of the key milestones of the College ever since its establishment on May 29^th 1968 by our most beloved Late His Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. In his welcome address and presentation, he stated that Samtse College of Education is at a critical juncture where the College views the future challenges as opportunities to be more creative and innovative in designing teacher education programmes of national and international relevance.

The President emphasized the importance of maintaining such active and working institutional linkages with academic institutions abroad such as ECU to fulfill SCoE’s aspiration of becoming “A centre of excellence committed to research and innovation in education” in achieving the national educational goal of building an educated and enlightened society of GNH.

Associate professor Dr. Vicki Banham from ECU shared her delight in being here on behalf of the team and presented the College with books related to counselling, contributed by academics and students of ECU.

During their stay in Samtse, the students from ECU will attend mindfulness practice sessions facilitated by the academics in the Department of Contemplative Counselling Psychology and also attend classroom teaching with the Bachelor of Arts in Social Work and Contemplative Counselling Psychology students to experience and foster cross-cultural interaction and knowledge exchange in terms of teaching and learning in tertiary education classrooms in Bhutan and one another’s culture.

The group from ECU will also visit some of the local places in Samtse during their stay.