WINNER

University of Sheffield, UK - #WeAreInternational

Using video content featuring home and international students, the campaign has influenced the international student debate by celebrating their contributions to the UK’s knowledge base, economy and culture, and has lobbied the UK government to remove barriers that prevent this. It has also had significant impact overseas via US sister campaign #YouAreWelcomeHere that was inspired by #WeAreInternational.

Shortlisted finalists:

Loughborough University, UK - #LboroFamily’s Road to Rio campaign

ETS, USA - #TOEFLGrownUpMoment campaign

Study Queensland, Australia – #summerlifeqld campaign

WINNER

Morneau Shepell, Canada - International Student Support Program (ISSP)

Developed in response to the prevalence of mental health issues and low help-seeking behaviour among international students, the ISSP provides 24/7/365, on-demand mental health support for international students via an app. Students can speak to a culturally-matched counsellor in their own language, anytime they need to. Their support has led to increased academic success and retention and an increase in help-seeking behaviour.

Shortlisted finalists:

EduNova, Canada – STAY in Nova Scotia program

International Student Admissions Service (ISAS), UK

WINNER

University of Sydney, Australia

The University of Sydney demonstrated a transformational approach to service delivery and student engagement achieved via investment into new buildings, ensuring below-market rents, doubling interest-free loans, waiving deposits, increasing bursary funds for international students, embedding cultural competence into training for residential leaders and resident arrival packages/resident care program.

Shortlisted finalists:

University of Sheffield, UK

MyStay International, USA/Australia

WINNER

Institute of International Education (IIE), USA - Generation Study Abroad

IIE’s Generation Study Abroad initiative aims to double and diversify the number of US students studying abroad by 2020. It has become a national and global movement with 700+ partners worldwide. A scholarship program encourages students to go abroad who would otherwise not participate in an international experience, and partnerships with media and study abroad organisations are helping them spread their message to a broad audience. Commitment Partners all attest to a higher-than-national average participation rate in study abroad and 28% of commitment partners are engaging with the K-12 community to build the pipeline.

Shortlisted finalists:

Cambridge English Language Assessment, UK – Access to English for Refugees and Asylum Seekers initiative

International Students House, UK – ISH Scholarship Program

Australian Government Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia - New Colombo Plan

WINNER

Global Reach, India

Global Reach has a long track record of pioneering approaches to education counselling via engagement with governments on pilot visa trials, based on compliance. It shows a commitment to improving standards in southeast Asia and has expanded into Bhutan. Organising fam trips for its staff also underlines its approach to best practice placement. A new strategy for 2016 saw a commitment to career counselling beyond education services.

Shortlisted finalists:

ESL, Switzerland

UKEAS Nigeria, Nigeria

WINNER

Open University, UK - English in Action platform

English in Action is a technology-enabled platform that has been designed for classroom teachers in Bangladesh to help them improve on English tuition delivery and ensure communicative ability of students is enhanced. EiA uses Mediated Authentic Videos with pedagogical guidance and was funded by DFID. Materials are carried on low-cost mobile phones. EiA has been used in 227 of 490 districts in Bangladesh. Nearly 43,000 primary teachers and 3.1 million primary children have participated.

Shortlisted finalists:

Abari, Nepal and Laika Academy, Australia - Nepal Innovation Program

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany - General Management Plus Program

WINNER

Dunya Alruhaimi, Iraq – University of New England, Armidale, Australia

Dunya came with her husband and 2 young children to study at UNE – an ESL course led to a Masters in Education (TESOL). In response to an extremist attack in Iraq, she started volunteering extensively at UNE and across the Armidale community, to help and support many students and locals, building intercultural awareness across the community. She now works as Project Officer at UNE’s International Hub and is about to start a PhD at the same institution.

Shortlisted finalists:

Aizan Sofia Amin, Malaysia – University of Glasgow, UK

Hani Choudhry, Saudi Arabia – University of Sheffield and University of Oxford, UK

WINNER

EduNova, Canada

EduNova works to raise the profile of Nova Scotia’s education and training expertise in Canada both nationally and internationally. Last year the association launched the STUDY and STAY in Nova Scotia program, a collaboration between post-secondary institutions and federal and provincial governments. Other initiatives include the EduNova Airport Welcome service, government funded fam tours for agencies and targeted digital media marketing for members. It has secured CAN$6.9 million in provincial and federal funding over the past 12 years.

Shortlisted finalists:

AIRC, USA

BOSSA, China

ISANA, Australia

WINNER

Kaplan Open Learning/University of Essex, UK

Established in 2007, the University of Essex Online is in fact a partnership with KOL that was set up to deliver distance-learning undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Testament to the success of the operation are NSS satisfaction metrics over the last five years that outperform all other university departments and a retention rate of 80% for postgraduate programmes. Almost half of the student cohort to date has been international. A strong and adaptive approach to student support is the backbone of the partnership.

Shortlisted finalists:

Sannam S4/various HE partners, Global

CEG Digital/Falmouth University, UK

WINNER

Duolingo, USA – Duolingo English Test (DET)

Available on demand, from anywhere in the world, and at low cost, the DET is a secure, computer adaptive language proficiency test that is lowering the barriers of language proficiency testing and social mobility around the world. With dynamic adaptation to individuals and integrated video interview, it is helping both students and admissions teams assess students’ English level at different stages of the student journey and already used by 90 universities and institutions.

Shortlisted finalists:

Sentio, Global Education Network, USA – Global Competence Certificate (GCC)

Erasmus Student Network (ESN), Belgium – MappED!

WINNER

Global Leadership League, USA

The Global Leadership League is a women’s leadership development organisation specifically for the field of global education and created in response to a desire to solve “significant gender challenges” in the industry. In just over a year, GLL has had 1200 expressions of interest, hosted three sold-out events and its first webinar. It has 300 members and is committed to offering leadership skills training and mentoring.

Shortlisted finalists:

Malaysian Qualifications Agency, Malaysia

International Alumni Job Network (IAJN), Hong Kong/Vietnam

WINNER

Markus Badde - CEO, ICEF, Germany

Markus’s aim has been to create a legacy of professionalism in international student recruitment. Taking over the running of ICEF from his father, ICEF is now the world leader in international education networking events. Markus has started successful initiatives such as ICEF Monitor and ICEF agent training, to add to the events and workshops that are the foundation behind the ICEF name. He has been a driving force behind the scenes supporting associations that advocate for positive change in international education - he was a founding member of AIRC in the US.

Shortlisted finalists:

Jonathan Kolber - President, ILAC, Canada

Antonio Anadon - President, Ideal Education Group, Spain and Latin America