I have been wanting to write something about this paper for a while. It is finally published and I think it is worth sharing here as well.

Together with Dr. Fahmi Abdul Rahim, who led this paper, and Hawa Othman, we wrote about our experiences managing Malaysian students in Australia. The paper is titled Serving Students, or Using Them? Developmental Leadership in a Sending State's Education Mission Abroad, and it was published in the Asian Journal of Research in Education and Social Sciences.

You can read the paper here: https://doi.org/10.55057/ajress.2026.8.8.39

Working with Malaysian students in Australia was a big part of my experience in Perth. We organised programmes, worked with student associations and created opportunities for students to get involved. But when I look back, I think there is something more important than simply making sure that our programmes run well.

Are we really helping students growor are we just getting them involved because we need people to help us run our programmes?

I think this is something worth thinking about. Sometimes, we can get so caught up in organising an event that we forget to let the students take the lead. We want things to run smoothly, so we make the decisions and settle everything ourselves. It may be easier that way, but are we really giving them the opportunity to learn?

During my time in Perth, I learned that working with student associations was not just about getting things done. It was also about giving students the space to make decisions, try things out and learn from the experience. Sometimes, we need to step back and let them do things their way, even if we think we could do it faster ourselves.

Of course, it is not always easy. There are budgets, responsibilities and things that we need to be careful about. But I think there is still room to give people the opportunity to grow. We do not always have to be in front, and we do not always have to be the ones making every decision.

Looking back, I think one of the best things we can do is to help students become more confident and independent. It is not just about the programmes they have organised or the events they have successfully delivered. It is also about what they can do after that, and whether they are ready to take on bigger responsibilities and help others along the way.

Writing this paper has given me another opportunity to reflect on those experiences. There are many things I learned in Perth, and I am glad that we could put some of them into writing. I hope this paper will also encourage others who work with students to think about how we can give them more opportunities to learn and grow.

Still learning, still reflecting and hopefully becoming a little better at what I do.

P.S. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is to step back and let others take the lead.