‘There's a much bigger world of science than just Australia': Australian students’ development of disciplinary knowledge, transferable skills and attributes through a New Colombo Plan short-term mobility program to Japan

Abstract

One in four Australian undergraduate students participates in learning abroad during their study. Since 2012, faculty-led mobility programmes have overtaken exchange programs to become the most popular outbound mobility type in Australia. However, little has been known about how faculty-led short-term mobility programmes affect students’ employability and what might be the benefits of Australian science students’ participation in this type of mobility in the Indo-Pacific. This article analyses how a faculty-led programme in science to Japan affects its participants’ employability, from the perspectives of students participating in a New Colombo Plan mobility program funded by the Australian government. The study found that it was changes in the students’ guided learning circumstance as they navigated the transient space in off-track locations in Japan that enabled them to learn new disciplinary knowledge, acquire transferable skills, accumulate real-life Indo-Pacific experiences and develop empathy and cultural understandings. Despite the development of these qualities, the study found challenges facing students to link knowledge-skill-attribute development to employability. The article discussed implications for developing a more systemic and coordinated approach across the curriculum, career support unit and global mobility office to integrate learning abroad experiences into pedagogy and career counselling service to enhance student employability.