Global Mobility: Access, Innovation, and Impact

• Institutionally supported immersion programs are lowering financial barriers to global mobility while expanding access to new regional destinations and a wider range of students.
• Measuring the true impact of global mobility extends beyond enrollment figures, encompassing reflective learning, repeat participation, and long-term professional trajectories.
• The future of global mobility points toward virtual and hybrid models that lower costs—financial and environmental—while deepening connections across partner institutions and global campuses.

Transcript

Keryn Chalmers: [00:13] Mobility from an Australian perspective has always often been bound with cost. We’re so far away from, you know, we’re an island, and we’re very removed from other countries and continents.

[00:28] The element of mobility that’s always been difficult for Australian business schools is that accessibility and the cost of sending students to other destinations. But we’re finding ways of dealing with that now and making that accessibility much easier.

[00:51] What we’re now doing at Monash University is we’ve created a strategic priority of making sure that every Monash student has an opportunity for a mobility experience. We’ve created a global immersion guarantee, and so, students at the end of their first year, if they want, have an opportunity to undertake a one- or two-week immersion in another country.

[01:18] That’s opened up mobility opportunities in a range of countries we previously did not have, places like Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Fiji, and Vanuatu, to name a few.

[01:34] Going back to the accessibility point, that global immersion guarantee is actually funded by the university. So, the students are not paying any travel-related costs for that.

It enhances their learning experience and gives them great insights that they wouldn’t otherwise get without that immersive experience.

[01:45] Coming out of COVID, I think student mobility and students’ desire to do, whether it be a semester abroad or whether it be these shorter-term immersive experiences, has probably never been greater. There’s such a strong appetite for that.

[02:03] While European destinations are still popular, some of the newer locations where we’re driving these immersive experiences in are really popular as well. There’s a great appetite amongst the students, and often we see if they do one, they want to do another as well.

[02:24] I think student mobility is something that students really appreciate. It enhances their learning experience and gives them great insights that they wouldn’t otherwise get without that immersive experience.

[02:40] In terms of faculty mobility, I think we’re seeing patterns change with faculty in terms of preferred locations. Unfortunately, through the various political environments that we see, there are certain destinations where, in the past, taking a sabbatical in a particular country may have been a real focus.

[03:07] Now we’re seeing changes in the destinations, particularly where faculty spend their sabbatical leave. At any point in time within a year, we probably have about 30 faculties that are on sabbatical leave in various countries around the globe.

[03:43] I haven’t actually done a tracking of how that mapping changes, but that certainly would have changed in recent times in terms of where they’re spending longer periods.

Impactfulness can have many different measures.

[03:34] Monash University has a global footprint. In addition to our Australian campuses, we have a campus in Malaysia, a campus in Indonesia, we have a campus in Suzhou, China. And we have a presence in Prato, Italy, and a presence in India.

[03:55] We’re seeing this more and more in terms of business schools creating a global footprint. So, certainly our focus is on how we can enhance those footprints to lever[age] opportunities for students and use the connections with industry in those locations to bring into our study tours and our immersive experiences. And also to create more mobility for our own students across our campuses as well.

[04:30] Impactfulness can have many different measures. I guess if we start with some basics that maybe don’t get to the heart of impactfulness, but one is just the number of applications that we would have from our students, our learners, to do an immersive experience outside of their own campus.

[04:51] And though the number of applications is certainly more than what we can accommodate for our faculty-led tours in something like the global immersion guarantee, that’s a guarantee. That’s why we’re adding more locations for that demand.

[05:08] Another metric would be for students who do an immersive program; it’s often been so life-changing that they want to experience it again. So, another metric of the impactfulness is the students who then apply to another program in another location.

[05:28] And then, we always get students who are undertaking this for credit to do a reflective piece as part of their assessment.

Mobility and creating global citizens and students with an international perspective will always remain at the forefront.

[05:36] That reflective piece often shows what an impactful experience it has been for the students in terms of just recognizing where their career path may be, their own purpose, being exposed to situations they haven’t otherwise been exposed to, and changing their outlook, appreciation, and direction they take with their own study.

[06:05] I guess in tracking something more long-term, it’s the students who may end up going back to work in that country, for example, because it has been such an experience that has opened their eyes to what is out there.

[06:21] I think that’s still an area under work and development in trying to measure the long-term impact that these experiences can have. So, looking ahead, mobility and creating global citizens and students with an international perspective will always remain at the forefront.

[06:42] What we will see is more immersive experiences emerge, but also immersive experiences that reduce travel cost, whether that be from making it more financially sustainable, and more sustainable from an environmental perspective, in terms of reducing travel costs.

[07:03] That’s where I think we’ll see the growth in virtual experiences, the ability to connect students in different locations, whether that be with our institutional partners or for schools that have multiple campuses around the globe. How do we create more connections to drive virtual mobility?