‘Signs of life’ – that’s the statement from ACICIS Consortium Director, Liam Prince as he released the 2022 ACICIS Annual Report yesterday.
It has been a tough few years for the UWA-based Indonesian Student Mobility organisation which was forced to run virtual study abroad events throughout the covid period. However green shoots were shown in 2022.
‘In total, ACICIS assisted 288 Australian (and international) students to undertake study in Indonesia in 2022—a 10% decrease in the size of ACICIS’ annual student cohort after a 3% increase in 2021. This modest result for 2022 reflects, on the one hand, student fatigue with online and virtual programs in a third pandemic-affected academic year, while on the other, considerable uncertainty and increased costs faced by Australian students seeking to study abroad in the second half of the year.’ Prince said.
And at the end of May, ACICIS had 63 semester programme participants and 267 in short courses, with these numbers likely to increase. While still slightly down on 2019 numbers Prince says “after COVID, this is a really good result and in-country Indonesia study is back”. (Campus Morning Mail 4 June 23)
Broader Mobility trends
The annual report delivers data that many may not be aware of and is well worth a read for those interested in the subject matter.
As an example, the AUIDF mobility benchmarking is referenced with a sector (university) wide viewable to be seen.
‘Patterns of learning abroad by Australian university students in 2021 were significantly different to past years—understandably given the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic. In addition to the overall 71% drop in the number of students pursuing learning abroad, more than two-fifths (42%) of reported experiences took place in a destination identified as “Other”. According to the AUIDF, “Other” is likely to have served as a proxy destination for virtual learning abroad experiences in 2021, with many universities choosing not to identify a specific offshore location for these virtual experiences.’
‘Though reported Indonesia-based learning abroad experiences declined by 84%—from 2,061 experiences in 2019 to 330 experiences in 2021, Indonesia remained the 6th most popular study abroad destination for Australian university students (as it was in 2019). The 330 students who undertook a learning abroad experience in Indonesia constituted 2% of all recorded learning abroad experiences undertaken by Australian university students in 2021, down from 3.5% in 2019.’
I think the Koala speaks for all when he says he is looking forward to the 2023 Annual Report and statistics and return to real-life, transformational experiences being reported on – Insya’Allah.
Photo credit: ACICIS
