Understanding and measuring activity in an internationalisation agenda can be difficult. New player in the market, miXabroad sets out to do just this.
Ravi Ammigan, John Dennis, Will Archer, and Emily O’Callaghan are co-founders of the new offer. The latter two are well-known in Australian International Ed. Archer was the driving force behind the highly successful I-Graduate company, which launched the student barometer. O’Callaghan has a long affiliation with the sector and is currently an IEAA board member.
So what is miXabroad?
The Koala spoke with Cofounder, Emily O’Callaghan who says “miXabroad is a network of international educators quantifying and evaluating the profound and life-affirming learning experiences during education abroad. miXabroad measures, compares and tracks the impact of outbound student mobility over time and across program, destination and student cohort types. miXabroad will develop a global network of insights and good practice and is currently pulling together a founders group, to join the Advisory Board to refine the tool and provide different institution and regional contexts to the study.”
“Though in early stages, initial engagement with the sector has been positive with several institutions already joining miXabroad to enhance their measurement and understanding of their activities.” She said.
miXabroad aims to assist universities and Study Abroad offices to demonstrate the value of their internationalisation strategy through:
▪ A unique approach: the miXabroad instrument employs a multi-component model, unlike traditional surveys, to evaluate programs. It incorporates numerous validated constructs and scales,
creating a common and comparative measure of experience, importance, and impact, across program types.
▪ Validity and reliability: Designed based on well-documented theoretical frameworks, miXabroad’s sentiment analysis addresses key topics such as intercultural competence, global citizenship, academic performance, personal development, and employability.
▪ An independent evaluation tool: Grounded in research and informed by practice, miXabroad serves as a benchmarking tool that enables institutions to compare their programs globally. It helps identify strengths and areas for improvement, allowing universities to measure the impact of their internationalisation strategies across different student cohorts.
miXabroad provides insights to inform decision-making and enables comparative reporting for a broad range of stakeholders, including:
▪ University leadership
▪ Faculty
▪ Study Abroad staff
▪ Governing bodies
▪ Funding bodies
▪ Peak bodies
▪ Government agencies
▪ International alliance groups
The miXabroad instrument features over 100 standardised measures covering demographic variables, program type, and all aspects of the experience, from studies to safety, and from support services to social. These inputs enable detailed analysis and reporting to show how motivations, perceptions and impacts differ by student type.
Program types, including:
▪ Semester abroad
▪ Short-term faculty-led
▪ External provider
▪ Alternative break
▪ Collaborative Online International Learning
▪ Global internships
▪ Virtual internships
▪ Blended programs
Data is reported by program category to assist teams in understanding the impact, and differing experiences, of cohorts across programs and destinations. These comparative insights aid institutions in measuring and tracking their internationalisation goals.
As a start up itself, The Koala wishes miXabroad every success!
For more information and to get in touch with miXabroad, see here.
