Australians as international students - where they go, what they do and why they do it

Current published information on the Australian student mobility offshore is reviewed as part of a long-term project aiming to determine the current propensity of Australian higher education students to study overseas and the return on investment that they can expect to achieve. It was found that limited data are available on the current extent of Australian student mobility offshore and that rationales to encourage offshore study tend to focus on broader aspects of personal development, rather than on the curriculum-specific learning outcomes. In an attempt to identify stronger incentives for investment in offshore mobility, this review considers mobility in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Since a graduate career in science and innovation frequently involves international collaboration, the return on investment in an international study experience should be readily measurable from the curriculum-specific learning outcomes and subsequent graduate employment outcomes of internationally mobile STEM students.