Down under or centre stage? The world images of Australian students

As part of a major international study, 219 first‐year geography students at three Australian universities drew sketch maps of the world. These maps were overwhelmingly Sinocentric in orientation. In terms of content, Australian students tended to include slightly fewer countries than students elsewhere. The level of inclusion of individual countries in the sketch maps was influenced greatly by the area and population of the countries in question but secondary factors such as proximity to Australia, Commonwealth nation status, historical/cultural factors and level of economic development were also important. In comparison to students throughout the world, Australian students demonstrated a fair knowledge of East Asia and ASEAN nations, Western Europe and Commonwealth nations, and relatively poor knowledge of Latin America, non‐Commonwealth Africa and South‐west Asia.