Wednesday, March 15, 2023

2:25 PM - 2:45 PM

110B

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Details

The provision of international scholarships for developing countries is listed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [Goal 4 target 4b], but what does recent research tell us about good practice in the delivery and evaluation of international scholarship programs? This presentation examines the significance and value of government-funded international scholarships at a broad level, beyond the benefits to the individual recipients. How are scholarship programs valued by stakeholders and policy influencers, and what factors contribute to perceptions of value and therefore substantial stakeholder support? The session will be based on research undertaken from 2018 to 2022 and uses as a case study the Australian Government’s Endeavour program, terminated in 2019. Endeavour was a prestigious two-way scholarship program funded by Australia at a cost of over $500m during its lifetime, which selected over 6,600 merit-based recipients for long-term programs (including PhDs) and fellowships (3-12 months duration) during its existence over 16 years. The research finds that the Endeavour program had long been hampered by highly diffuse intentions and that it foundered on missed opportunities, inadequate consultation with stakeholders and a failure to use rigorous evaluation processes to identify and articulate its substantial benefits – and value – to the donor country. Learning Objectives: • Gain insights into the perspectives of scholarship stakeholders in international education who identify significant value in international scholarship programs with enhancing a national reputation and developing relationships with priority countries, and ways in which scholarship programs can contribute to these outcomes. • Increase understanding of why ‘success stories’ of individual scholarship recipients are inadequate to provide evidence of achievement against robust objectives. Awardees (individually or collectively) cannot make objective assessments about the impacts of their scholarship participation on organisations, communities, or national and international impacts. Evaluative regimes must include inputs from multiple sources including stakeholders who can focus on the benefits to the donor. • Be introduced to a 10-point ‘diagnostic check’ to assess the viability of an international scholarship program. Key questions to test the ongoing relevance and longevity of a scholarship program have been identified as part of the analysis of the Endeavour program. Target Audience: Policy stakeholders and contributors, managers and administrators of international scholarship programs, both internal and external to universities, and those working with scholarship provider organisations to achieve best practice outcomes for donor organisations and host institutions. Target Audience Level: Advanced

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Presenter(s)

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Chairperson