A trying Endeavour: a case study of value and evaluation in an international scholarship program
Creators: name: Barker, Joanne
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 390201
subject: Education policy
classificationCode: 440708
subject: Public administration

description: International education practitioners recognise the importance of government-funded international scholarship programs, but as an area of scholarly research it is worthy of greater attention. The significance and value of government international scholarships at a broad level is rarely clearly articulated, apart from the benefits to the individual recipients. My research is interested in the value of a scholarship program to stakeholders and policy influencers, including the value to the national government which funds the program, and the role of that government in delivering it.

This research examines how an international scholarship program was valued by scholarship stakeholders and influencers and how its value was understood and articulated by the government which funded it. The research explores how evaluation was used to support the program’s rationale and what drivers of change impacted on its lifetime trajectory. The research is focused on a case study, the Australian Government’s Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships program (known in its last year as the Endeavour Leadership Program and referred to in this research as ‘the Endeavour program’) which existed between 2004 and 2019. My work identifies four key policy aspirations which emerge from the published objectives of an international scholarship program. The four policy aspirations are: (1) enhancing a national reputation; (2) developing relationships with priority countries; (3) attracting high achievers – benefits to the donor country, and (4) developing individual potential – benefits to individual program recipients. The four policy aspirations are aligned with forms of value uncovered in the findings.

My research engages directly with 32 individuals who are scholarship stakeholders (those with an interest in international scholarships); key informants (those who have insider knowledge), and policy actors (those who may have influenced the policy directions of international scholarship programs). Their experiences and opinions are examined using the Endeavour program as a focus for in-depth interviews, and are then drawn together with evidence from official government documents relating to the Endeavour program. Some government documents were in the public domain, others were obtained under Australia’s Freedom of Information legislation. 

This research findings reveal forms of value in the Endeavour program which are rarely codified in the metrics of scholarship program outcomes, such as the contribution to a national reputation in international education and the development of bilateral relationships between countries through institutional links. It uncovers the essential goals and purposes of an international scholarship program and explores the value which it represented for the international education community and for Australia. Unexpected outcomes include the predominance of the tiny Kingdom of Bhutan as one of the most substantial beneficiaries of the program. The research uncovers an ambitious program with over 6,600 recipients and into which significant public monies were invested over 16 years, but which was hampered by being highly diffuse in its intentions. My research finds that the Endeavour program foundered on missed opportunities, inadequate consultation with stakeholders and a failure to use rigorous evaluation processes to identify and articulate its substantial benefits – and value – to Australia. 

The Endeavour program is a case study which provides valuable insights into the planning and evaluation processes which underpin international scholarship programs. This research contributes to understanding about the critical importance of setting scholarship program objectives which are measurable and achievable and which go beyond the success stories of individual awardees. Evaluation based on individual scholarship holders’ achievements cannot be the sole evidence of outcomes, nor can the collective impact of a scholarship program be articulated as the sum of individual outcomes. The research has implications for any international scholarship program funded by government (or other donors) which wishes to articulate its benefits to the host country and, as additional benefits to the program itself, to safeguard its own reputation and longevity.