Hooton S1
1The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Due to the funding shortfalls caused by both the COVID-19 pandemic and recent education policy changes, universities across Australia face difficult trade-offs in the funding allocation to their different support services. The increased competition for limited resources has resulted into student support services seeking out-of-the-box solutions to continue ensuring high-quality service delivery.
International Student Support (ISS) at the University of Adelaide engaged in innovative partnerships with both university community and business stakeholders to deliver successful Semester 2 2023 Orientation activities for commencing international students. Partners included YouX (the University of Adelaide Student Union), Medibank, and Words on Wheels (a South Australian tour company).
The cooperation with YouX (the University of Adelaide Student Union) resulted into the adoption of a sponsorship matrix facilitating partnerships with businesses wanting to connect with and create meaningful experiences for international students. The close collaboration with Medibank contributed to the realisation of highly engaging international student activities (i.e., ‘Fantastic Race’ and ‘Bingo Card Competition’). The partnership with Words on Wheels provided international students the opportunity to explore different tour experiences across South Australia.
This presentation aims to unpack these three examples of mutually beneficial partnerships to provide a launch pad for further conversations on how to leverage (university) community and business partnerships to deliver an excellent international student experience under financial scarcity conditions.
Biography:
Shawna loves leading her team of International Student Support to find creative solutions to complex issues. With a Masters of Education in Leadership Studies, she takes joy in exploring new ways to motivate and energize her team. Heralding from Canada, she still gets very excited to see a kangaroo or koala. She spent several years living in Korea and in Europe, before settling in beautiful Radelaide 9 years ago. She is excited to see everyone in ISANA again for a face to face conference and being inspired by her peers.