‘Pushing the boundaries’: participant motivation and self-reported benefits of short-term international study tours

Abstract

Short-term overseas study tours serve as a means of developing students’ global competencies. The authors conducted pre-departure and post-return focus groups with three groups of students at an Australian university who had participated in short-term study tours to Asia to explore their motivations for participating and their self-reported benefits following completion of the study tour. Students’ key motivations revolved around the allure of a challenge, the desire to complete coursework quickly, experience cultural immersion, expand their networks, develop their ‘soft’ skills and to set themselves apart from other graduates in the future. The main self-reported benefits of the study tours centred on increased confidence from ‘pushing the boundaries’, enhanced intercultural understanding, improved interpersonal skills and the perception that career goals, particularly in relation to working overseas, had been clarified.

Keywords:

• Asia
• global citizenship
• internationalisation
• short-term overseas study tours
• student mobility

Acknowledgement

An earlier, abridged version of this paper was presented at the ISANA Conference, Brisbane, Australia 3–6 December 2013.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.