Australia: Navigating the Pandemic and Exploring New Pedagogical Horizons

The Australian university system relies heavily on international students, and thus the pandemic hit the tertiary education sector hard. However, such adverse events also led to rapid responses to accommodate the needs of students stranded abroad and interstate, as well as the needs of those who were local but unable to physically attend classes due to lockdowns. The global pandemic also uncovered the importance of competent language service provision, which, in turn, highlighted the critical need for well-trained translators and interpreters in languages spoken by local communities. This chapter focuses on the higher education translating and interpreting (T&I) programs at RMIT University in Melbourne in 2020–2021, when the pandemic saw a surge in the training demand for non-mainstream languages. In addition to outlining the challenges of catering for a large number of these non-mainstream languages, the chapter also highlights the importance of the collaboration between educational institutions and stakeholders.