Australia Awards
This report details the findings of the 2021 Global Tracer Longitudinal Survey, which follows a sub-cohort of Australian development scholarship alumni who participated in the first Australia Awards Global Tracer Facility (GTF) Global Tracer Survey in 2016. The survey was administered online in November and December 2021 to alumni from 15 countries who had studied in Australia as part of a scholarship, focussing on alumni who completed their award between 2007 and 2010. More than 400 alumni participated (a 46.1% response rate). The analyses in this report focus on the changes that have occurred over the past five years for these alumni as they consolidate their careers. They provide a new, extended insight into the long-term outcomes of Australian development scholarships.
The Australia Awards are intended to help alumni return as 'change agents'. Results from this new survey show the impact of the awards continues to be evident more than a decade after alumni undertook their scholarships in Australia. In the progression of their careers, alumni note that Australian degrees continue to be relevant to their work and recognised by their employers, with most alumni (89.8%) continuing to hold positions of influence over the past five years. These results indicate that alumni are sustaining the career trajectories to which their Australian scholarship has contributed. Most alumni who held a formal leadership role in 2016 continued to do so in 2021 (73.5%).
In the five years since last being surveyed by the GTF, alumni responsibilities in the workplace and the complexity of their work have increased. Of these alumni, 90 per cent reporting increased complexity of tasks undertaken and overall level of responsibility in their roles. And 78 per cent stated they are now managing or supervising a larger number of people. This influential group of alumni who are now firmly into their mid to late careers also reported that their professional networks have grown since 2016 (95%).