As universities navigate increasing financial pressures and growing expectations to demonstrate the impact of international experiences, robust evidence is becoming more important than ever. We spoke with Rohan McCarthy-Gill, Head of Global Mobility at the University of Sussex, about how his team is using miXabroad to demonstrate the value of learning abroad, strengthen institutional advocacy and improve the student experience.
For many universities, demonstrating the value of learning abroad has traditionally relied on student testimonials, participation figures and internal surveys. While these provide useful insights, they don't always tell the full story of how international experiences contribute to students' personal, academic and professional development.
At the University of Sussex, the Global Mobility team recognised the need for a more consistent and comprehensive approach to understanding student outcomes.
"We were seeking to address a gap in how consistently and robustly we capture and understand the student experience and impact of our mobility programmes," explains Rohan.
While Sussex had previously collected student feedback, including through Erasmus+, the surveys were limited in scope and lacked the ability to compare outcomes with other institutions.
"In recent years, this has resulted in our insight becoming more anecdotal than evidence-based."
The challenge was particularly important as expectations around demonstrating impact continued to grow. Internally, the team needed to communicate the value of mobility to senior leadership. Externally, funding programmes such as the Turing Scheme required stronger evidence of student outcomes, particularly for underrepresented groups.
Sussex joined miXabroad to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the student experience, with the ability to compare its results against national and international benchmarks.
For Rohan, this comparative perspective was particularly valuable.
While we had used internal surveys in the past, these lacked both depth and the ability to benchmark meaningfully beyond our own institution – we were in an echo chamber.
Through miXabroad, Sussex can now understand not only how its students experience learning abroad, but how those experiences and outcomes compare with students at other institutions.
The findings have been encouraging.
It was interesting – and pleasing – to see that we were above the UK and international averages on a range of indicators. It came as a pleasant surprise, and is also an indicator of why this form of benchmarking is so useful – how could we otherwise know how we were tracking?
Importantly, benchmarking has also helped the team identify opportunities for improvement.
While Sussex performed above national and international averages across several indicators, the data also highlighted an area where the institution was falling behind: post-return engagement and support.
For Rohan, this wasn't entirely unexpected. Supporting students to reflect on and make the most of their international experiences had long been an area the team wanted to strengthen, but competing priorities and limited resources presented challenges.
Rather than simply acknowledging the finding, the team has started using the evidence to inform its approach.
We've taken the nudge on the post-return indicators to fuel some post-return engagement events and conversations with students to get them to reflect themselves, and with each other, on their experiences.
It's an example of how student feedback can move beyond reporting to inform practical improvements.
By identifying areas of relative strength and opportunities for development, Sussex can make more informed decisions about where to focus its efforts and resources to enhance the student experience.
The data provides insight into outcomes including student confidence, personal development and intercultural growth, supporting more meaningful conversations with colleagues and senior leadership.
As Rohan explains, this is particularly important when financial pressures increase expectations around institutional expenditure.
Also crucially it enables us to provide that important evidence-based context that senior leadership often seek, especially in times when fiscal pressures mean that there is more expectation to justify expenditure on different forms of programming.
The evidence is also becoming increasingly relevant to external reporting. With the UK's reassociation to Erasmus+ and ongoing engagement with the Turing Scheme, Sussex sees opportunities to strengthen how it demonstrates the outcomes of international mobility, including for disadvantaged and underrepresented students.
Rohan also plans to use the findings to advocate for additional resources, particularly as expectations around mobility programming continue to grow.
The potential applications of the data extend beyond reporting and programme improvement.
For Sussex, evidence of the personal, professional and academic outcomes of learning abroad also presents an opportunity to communicate the value of international experiences to prospective students.
Global student mobility exists within a broader ecosystem of opportunities, and we want to ensure all the positive personal, professional and academic outcomes are highlighted to students deciding where to study.
This reflects an increasingly important opportunity for universities: positioning learning abroad not simply as an additional student experience, but as part of the broader value of a university education.
For Rohan, the value of miXabroad lies in providing a systematic, comparable and student-centred approach to understanding the impact of learning abroad.
And his advice to other institutions considering the platform is simple:
Take the leap! There really isn't anything out there quite like it, and it's so valuable in all kinds of contexts. When considering the scale of the investment we make in our institutions for student mobility, without a systematic way to track and compare it, we will fall short of maximising this investment.
As the sector faces increasing pressure to demonstrate value, the Sussex experience highlights why moving from anecdote to evidence matters. By understanding what is working, identifying where improvements are needed and communicating student outcomes with confidence, institutions can make a stronger case for learning abroad ultimately ensuring students get the most from their international experiences.
Interested in how miXabroad can support your institution's learning abroad reporting and demonstrate impact? Get in touch:
Emily O'Callaghan
CEO, miXabroad
emily@mixabroad.com
+61 403 746 628
book a meeting.