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Historically, the benefits of Australian scholarships for Indonesian students have been regarded as self-evident, yet my research indicates they are harder to quantify. Scholarships are one of the most substantial components of Australia's aid programme with Indonesia. Early evaluation of the programme has largely focussed on the benefits to individual scholars, with less emphasis on the impact on the ...

The need to enhance support for countries to improve progress towards development (including capacity development), was highlighted by the 2005 Paris declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action. Indeed developing capacity has been identified as one of 'the most critical issues for both donors and partner countries'. Distance learning partnerships, supported in part by student ...

The theory of change that underpins many international scholarship programmes suggests that with exposure to quality education found in leading universities, students will bring newfound knowledge and experiences back home to positively shape the future of their countries. Inherent in this model are many associated assumptions about the type of knowledge acquired and how these students might influence change ...

International mobility, particularly when offered to students from low-income contexts in the form of undergraduate scholarships, presents challenging migration dilemmas that influence the lived experiences and outcomes of such programmes. In this post, I reflect on how the experiences of international scholarship recipients from low-income contexts might inform the ways we choose to define and measure success ...

The ACU manages several short fellowship programmes which offer academics the opportunity to spend a period of time at universities or organisations in the UK and undertake professional development tailored to their specific professional needs. The fellowships can be seen as a collection of individual training paths, and their evaluation can therefore present some distinct challenges. Here, we take a look at two specific ...

Half a cheer for the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Too all-embracing to be achieved in the timescale available, maybe even too ambitious to hold some governments effectively to account. On the other hand, they have once again focussed the world on development issues, and in an age where numerical rankings and performance targets are all the rage, they will provide a universal measure of progress.From the perspective of ...

Founded in 1901, the Rhodes Scholarships scheme is one of the longest running programmes of scholarly exchange still in existence and has served as a model for many schemes that have since emerged. As such it offers an ideal context for examining, as well as raising new questions about, the organisation and overall efficacy of scholarship programmes across the twentieth century. Although never officially stipulated, the Rhodes ...

How can we understand the outcomes of international scholarship programmes? And what shapes the long-term impact of programmes on their alumni and society? These were the central questions posed to a panel of experts at the NAFSA Association of International Educators annual conference in Boston, last month.  Participating were Dr John Kirkland from the ACU, Professor Joan Dassin of Brandeis University, Martha Loerke of the ...

Last month the ACU and the South African Research & Innovation Management Association (SARIMA) put on a joint conference in Johannesburg, focussing on the theme ‘Research and innovation for global challenges’. The ACU is the world’s first and oldest charitable university network, with the aim to support, develop and promote higher education across the Commonwealth and beyond. It is therefore fitting to focus this ...

On 28-30 April 2015, Africa for the first time hosted the latest in a series of the Gender Summits established in 2011 as a platform for dialogue on gender issues in science. Gender Summit 5 Africa 2015, Quality research and innovation through equality, focused on poverty alleviation and economic empowerment through scientific research and innovation and brought together academics, policymakers, funding agencies, and civil ...