Changing demographics: Supervising international social work students on placement in Australia

This paper reports on a 2017 Australia-wide survey of placement supervisors who work with international social work students. This project is one of the first of its kind that aims to understand the experiences of placement supervisors working with international students, and to identify their professional development needs. The Australian student cohort is currently changing, with a quarter of all university enrolments from overseas (Australian Government, 2015; Harrison & Ip, 2013). The number of international students studying professional degrees has likewise significantly increased (Harrison & Felton, 2013). There is concern, however, that some placement supervisors may have limited skills and experience working with international students, and that there may be a need to strengthen their skills and training for working with international students on placement (Felton & Harrison, 2017; Hvalič-Touzery et al., 2017; Mikkonen et al., 2016). This project is innovative in that it seeks the perspectives of placement supervisors. Preliminary results reveal only a quarter of surveyed supervisors have received training for working with international students, yet a significant majority of respondents feel it should be offered. By engaging the social work placement community, we aim to identify preferred professional development needs, as training for supervisors of international students in social work placements has been found to be uncommon (Felton & Harrison, 2017; Gursansky & Le Sueur, 2012).