Forget job-readiness. Students heading abroad are looking for experiences that shape who they are, not just their careers. New findings from miXabroad’s global benchmark, released at this year’s IEAA Learning Abroad Forum in Hobart, reveal what really drives them.
Nothing kick-starts a conference like a good mic-drop moment – the kind that has everyone scrambling for their notebooks.
That moment came courtesy of Dr Catherine Goetze from the University of Tasmania.
In her keynote address, Travelling Through Times of Turmoil, she observed: ‘‘Job-ready arguments aren’t what we hear from education abroad students. It’s the last thing on their minds.’’
You could sense a shift in the room. Against the usual tide of employability claims and futureproofing promises, it was refreshing to hear a blunt reminder of what students want, rather than what we think they want.
Dr Goetze’s observations on employability and education abroad set the scene perfectly for unveiling early insights from miXabroad’s pilot survey – findings that put student voices and their motivations at the centre.
miXabroad CEO Emily O’Callaghan was joined on stage by two of our founding partners – and all-round mobility champions – Jeannette Geesmann (University of Western Australia) and Linda Rust (University of Melbourne) to discuss findings for their institutions and how they stack up against Australian and global benchmarks.
The insights spanned student satisfaction, program length, host country safety perceptions and more. But perhaps the most striking theme to emerge centred around student motivations and where education abroad leaves its deepest mark.
L-R: Jeannette Geesmann, Emily O'Callaghan and Linda Rust at the IEAA Learning Abroad Forum.
Connections first, careers later
When students head abroad, career goals aren’t what drives them. Globally, their top priorities are clear. They want to:
- Experience something different (88%)
- Understand another culture (73%)
- Meet people and make friends (70%).
Career readiness and job prospects? That sat much further down the list, with only 37% saying it mattered most.
It’s not credentials that draw students towards education abroad. It’s curiosity, connection and the promise of a different way of seeing the world.
Yes, academic experience matters… but it's not the whole story
78% of students globally say the academic experience is important. Encouragingly, 88% report being satisfied or very satisfied with the teaching, class sizes, resources and classroom engagement at their host institution.
But here’s the kicker: students place greater value on what happens outside the classroom. An overwhelming 95% told us that non-academic aspects matter to them, and 94% are satisfied with that side of their experience.
Friendships, social connections and cultural discovery enrich education abroad immeasurably. These are the elements students rate most highly, underscoring that the transformative value of global learning extends well beyond lectures and textbooks.
This will come as no surprise to anyone working in the field, but anecdote only gets us so far. Now, the evidence is in.
Where the real impact lies
Impact is at the heart of miXabroad (it puts the i in miX after all). As CEO Emily O’Callaghan put it: ‘‘We’re not just interested in what their experience was, but how it impacted them personally and professionally.’’
As Linda Rust confirmed: ‘‘It’s not only about the practicalities of going abroad. We also need evidence of the real impact on students and their experiences. That’s why we're so keen to begin collecting this data.’’
We track 21 areas where education abroad can influence students – from academic performance and critical thinking to resilience and empathy. We then group these into six broad categories: learning and applied outcomes, career and professional development, communication and interpersonal skills, personal growth and self-awareness, cultural competency and global awareness, and social and environmental impact.
Students report strong outcomes across the board. The standout was personal growth and self-awareness, with 95% citing positive impact. The lowest? Career and professional development, at 83%.
It may come as a surprise, but it echoes Dr Goetze’s observation that employability is rarely top of mind for students. That’s not to dismiss career readiness: 83% is still impressive. But when students reflect on their time abroad, what stays with them most is resilience, self-confidence and self-understanding – the hallmarks of personal growth.
Students don’t always connect the dots. By having all of these soft skills, they are more employable. As learning abroad professionals, our job is to connect these dots in our re-entry programs.
Jeannette Geesmann, The University of Western Australia
Connecting the dots to employability
Career skills may not drive students to go abroad. They may not be what students talk about when they first return either. But the intangible qualities they develop – resilience, adaptability, confidence – often surface later, when life and work put them to the test.
As Jeannette Geesmann noted: ‘‘Students don’t always connect the dots. By having all of these soft skills, they are more employable. As learning abroad professionals, our job is to connect these dots in our re-entry programs.’’
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 makes the case clear: the very skills that students gain abroad are the ones employers prize most. Their top five?
- Analytical thinking (69%)
- Resilience, flexibility and agility (67%)
- Leadership and social influence (61%)
- Creative thinking (57%)
- Motivation and self-awareness (52%).
In a world shaped by disruption, isolationism and what the WEF calls ‘‘geoeconomic fragmentation’’, human-centred skills like resilience, agility, leadership and global citizenship are more critical than ever.
And that’s where education abroad shines, shaping not just graduates, but adaptable, empathetic humans ready for an uncertain future.
Beyond the binary and out into the world
Of course, skills don’t live in silos. Education abroad isn’t simply about work or play, academic or non-academic, professional and personal skills. These distinctions blur.
Through these experiences, students become well-rounded global citizens – pushing themselves beyond their comfort zones and discovering new ways of seeing themselves and the world.
This is where education abroad is uniquely placed to shape the next generation for a world that demands resilience, empathy and connection.
Interested in partnering with miXabroad to find out how your institution’s education abroad programs stack up against national and global benchmarks? Get in touch.
Peter Muntz is the Communications Director at miXabroad.