For a growing number of young students across Asia, the first step towards an international education is not an offer letter from an Australian university. It is a two-week study tour, an exchange program, a homestay with an Australian family or a first nervous conversation with a local student.
Recent study tours involving students from Japan and Hong Kong have provided just that experience, giving under-18s a taste of Australian education and daily life while allowing them to consider what studying overseas might look like in the future.
Taking advantage of the Northern Hemisphere summer holidays, the students travelled to Melbourne to improve their English, experience Australian culture and spend time living with Australian host families.
Their programs included English classes and cultural activities, as well as visits to universities including the University of Melbourne and Monash University and local schools.
But the university visits were about more than touring lecture theatres, libraries and impressive campuses.
With the support of local student associations, the visiting students had the opportunity to meet Australian university students and hear about the realities of studying and living in Australia, including friendships, student activities, part-time work and the everyday challenges of living away from home.
That peer-to-peer interaction can be particularly valuable for younger students. A university brochure can explain a course, and a campus tour can show students where they might study, but talking to someone of a similar age about what life is actually like can make the idea of studying overseas considerably more tangible.
It is also why the involvement of Australian students matters. Without that human connection, an international study tour can easily become little more than a well-organised sightseeing exercise.
Living with an Australian host family adds another dimension.
For students travelling overseas at a young age, often without their parents for the first time, the experience can involve a surprising number of small challenges.
Preparing breakfast, getting used to unfamiliar foods, navigating public transport and communicating in another language can all be more complicated when everything that was routine at home suddenly becomes unfamiliar.
There were some entertaining examples along the way. One student reportedly mistook artisan sourdough bread for mouldy bread, while others were distinctly unimpressed by the ham and cheese sandwiches prepared by their Australian host families.
Those moments may sound trivial, but they are arguably part of the most valuable learning taking place.
International education is often discussed in terms of academic outcomes, qualifications and career opportunities. Yet one of its less tangible benefits is the ability to function when the familiar rules and routines no longer apply.
If everything in Australia looked, tasted and worked exactly as it did at home, there would be little point in travelling thousands of kilometres to experience it.
Learning how to communicate across language barriers, adapt to different customs, try unfamiliar food and find your way around a new city is part of becoming more confident and independent.
The study tours also extended beyond classrooms and campuses, with excursions including the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island.
Of course, there was plenty of the Australian experience that students expect, including the obligatory koala encounters. But the broader value lies in allowing students to see Australia as more than a collection of tourist attractions.
They are seeing its schools and universities, meeting its students and families, navigating its cities and getting a sense of what everyday life might be like if they were to return for a longer period of study.
For the Australian international education sector, that early exposure is potentially important.
Not every student who comes to Australia on a short study tour will eventually enrol at an Australian university. Nor should that be the measure of success.
For some families, the cost of several years of overseas education will simply be beyond reach. For others, a short study tour may be the only opportunity a young person has to experience an Australian university campus, speak with local students and imagine themselves living and studying overseas.
A short-term program might plant the seed for a future degree. It might encourage a student to improve their English. It might build confidence or independence. Or it might simply leave a young person with a better understanding of another country and a set of memories that stay with them long after they return home.
There is also a broader benefit that is easy to overlook. International education does not begin when a student arrives on a student visa. Relationships between countries and education systems are built over years, often through relatively small interactions between students, teachers, families and institutions.
For Australia, welcoming younger students from countries such as Japan and Hong Kong is therefore about more than filling a short-term program. It is an opportunity to introduce the next generation to the country, its people and its education system at an early stage in their lives.
Daniel Yuen is Head of Operations and Growth at OZiHouse.
