Grads overseas are way too important to forget

By DIRK MULDER and GRETCHEN DOBSON

As of August there were 423,349 international students enrolled in Australia.

They make our campuses and communities more diverse and provide financial contributions to the institutions they attend. But they are forgotten when they graduate and return home.

Another largely forgotten group are domestic Australian students who, in an ever-increasing globalised workforce, leave Australia to pursue their dreams of making it big overseas.

And then there are transnational alumni, living and working in two or more countries on a regular basis. Think domestic and international alumni working for a multinational and travelling regularly overseas (and that can mean back to Australia); or the international alumni who have called Australia home for many years.

All these groups are out of scope for the institutions they attended and their members have lost touch, both geographically and emotionally with their university or college.

The relationship between student and alma mater is an important one, which should run well beyond graduation.

In a five-part series Dobson and Mulder explore the key elements to enhance relationships with international alumni.

Part one is in Features, here.