Shekinah Kannan: Hello, listeners. Welcome back to Extra Credit. Your podcast gateway into the world of international education. If this is your first time tuning in, we're here to uncover the ins and outs of studying abroad through the eyes of students, faculty and education experts from around the globe. I'm your host, Shekinah, and today, we're diving into a fresh start in what's widely considered the world's best study-abroad destination – Australia. More specifically, we'll be looking at how two of Australia's top universities have been guiding international students through new beginnings and why their upcoming merger into Adelaide University promises even greater support and opportunities. Joining me to discuss this exciting future are two key figures deeply involved in student engagement and support. We have Brendan Hughes, director of the student engagement unit at the University of South Australia, and Shawna Hooton, manager of international support at the University of Adelaide. Together, they'll walk us through how Adelaide University will shape a welcoming, innovative and supportive environment for international students. We'll talk about everything from choosing the right university to overcoming homesickness, making friends and preparing for a great career. So, without further ado, let's welcome them. Hi guys. How are you today? Shawna Hooton: Hi, Shekinah, thanks for having us on the show. It's great to be here. Brendan Hughes: Hey, Shekinah, great to be here as well. Thank you. Good intro. Shekinah Kannan: Thank you so much for making the time to join us, and we're really excited to know more about Adelaide University and, of course, how your respective institutions are supporting international students today. So, to jump right into it, Adelaide University's homepage opens with this line, “Launching the next generation of leaders towards their significant firsts.” By the phrase significant firsts, we know Adelaide University is recognising how important this transition period is. It's the first big decision to choose a subject to prepare for their first career, the first time they're choosing a university, the first time living alone, and so forth. Before we go into how Adelaide University supports students through each of these new stages in their lives, it will be great to know more about the overarching policy and philosophy that Adelaide University takes in supporting international students. Brendan, perhaps you want to walk us through that. Brendan Hughes: Sure, I'll probably go first with this, and then Shawna can contribute. But I think we also chose the term “launching” because Adelaide is going to be home to the Australian Space Agency as well. So there's some double entendre with the idea that we've got the Space Agency, we've got the newest university in the world and like you said, based on the histories of the University of South Australia and the University of Adelaide, which have been around for over 180 years, we are looking to build a more successful and contemporary future-focused teaching and learning experience for students, including international students. Adelaide University will become a member of the prestigious group of eight universities, which are the research-focused universities, but also really trying to balance that idea of research excellence as well as equity and accessibility. We're aspiring to be the best university in student employment outcomes. So that's some of our philosophies that you were looking for, and also to be in the top one per cent of universities in terms of world rankings. So, with the outstanding facilities and practices that the two universities currently have, we're going to build on those, I guess, again, with the theme of launching would be that launchpad towards going into the future and being future-focused. We're transforming our curriculum by making sure that it's industry-relevant and industry-informed. We're also going to be making sure that students, I believe most students these days, are looking for a university degree that can help them have an outstanding career. So really focusing on that career development, the work integrated learning, how they can become better, the best versions of themselves, and make the world a better place. Then lastly, just in terms of having a student experience vision for Adelaide University, we've developed one across the university that's been informed by our current students, that is essentially holistic and integrated in its approach. It's relentlessly pursuing accessibility and inclusion. We will collaborate and create rich experiences across our engaging communities and will integrate employability across the student experience. So this is going to achieve that student experience for our international and domestic students to come together at Adelaide University and to be able to have the most terrific experience that they can, which is recognising this is a big ...
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