It truly takes a village to create the Guides—this was my key takeaway from the first of five webinars hosted by ISANA International Education Association. The session focused on promoting the Best Practice in International Student Engagement Guides (TKN 11/11/24).
It’s not surprising that project team lead Professor Ly Tran expressed this sentiment as the Guides are a product of extensive consultation and research conducted over the last two years, which includes:
- Desktop analysis of existing literature and examples of innovative practice
- Three surveys were completed by 3,466 current international students, 1,752 international student graduates, and 956 education provider and ancillary organisation stakeholders
- 11 consultation workshops with 213 stakeholders
- Interviews with 40 key stakeholders
All areas of international education were represented in the survey results and consultations: 29% from higher education; 13% from vocational education and training; 12% from ELICOS; and 10% from schools.
That’s quite a village!
The main aims of the Best Practice in International Student Engagement Project (Introduction — ISEngagement.org) are:
- to identify good practice in international student engagement across a range of areas
- to increase recognition of the value of international education and the contributions of international students in the Australian community
- to develop and promote good practice guides and resources in engaging international students.
These aims have been delivered in developing the six Best Practice in International Student Engagement Guides and a framework for developing innovative programs to enhance international student; a Virtual Map that acts as a directory of state-specific student services for international students; and a set of five case studies.
Project member Danielle Hartridge presented a “Call to Action” to the webinar participants. She asked participants to:
- review the resources to assess how they could use them in their valuable work
- promote the resources across their organisations and networks
- embed the links to the resources in the appropriate area on their organisation’s website
- participate in the evaluation of the resources through the feedback form (when ready)
This webinar was the first in a series of five webinars – each webinar offers the same content. Future webinars are listed below – registration links for each webinar can be accessed at Workshops — ISEngagement.org:
- November 29th from 2:00pm-3:00pm – Hosted by Deakin University
- December 3rd from 2:00pm-3:00pm – Hosted by English Australia, Focus on the Guide for enhancing international students’ mental health and well-being
- December 10th from 2:00pm-3:00pm – Hosted by the IEAA Student Life Network
- December 12th from 1:00pm-2:00pm – Hosted by Study Australia Partnership
