Marshall McLuhan (1960) used the metaphoric term 'global village' to highlight the symbolic shrinking of the earth brought about by the increasing use of electronic technology that facilitated the simultaneous interaction among people in distant locations with relative ease and speed. Thus, with advanced technological achievements and increased travel, education has become even more internationally mobile with border crossing among students being the rule rather than the exception. Education has now become an international commodity that is bought and sold freely and higher education has begun to focus on study abroad programs as one example of internationalization strategies. In fact, the study abroad experience is now a common feature of study opportunities at most university campuses around the world. The University of Sydney (USYD) subscribes to the Bologna Process and every year over six hundred overseas students enroll in 16 faculties, many of whom are European. Recognizing that new social and cultural knowledge is gained and developed in educational experiences, USYD has attempted to establish that every faculty provides study abroad students with teaching and learning experiences that contribute to a key set of graduate attributes which translate into the social, cultural and economic capital of these students, thus preparing them to live in the ‘knowledge economy’. The research framework for this presentation uses a case study methodology to present the perceptions of local lecturers and European students in the study abroad programs at the Faculty of Education and Social Work to ascertain the extent to which the graduate attributes of students participating in the program translate into social and cultural capital thus preparing them for life back in Europe or indeed the wider globalized knowledge economy. This case study is designed to enable us to ascertain the ways in which study abroad students and lecturers engage with each other, reconstruct new identities, or not, as a result of the impact of new study abroad learning communities.

The research design will be based on case study methodology and will include collection of data through: online questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and case studies. The questionnaire will be distributed to new in-coming study abroad students many of whom are European at the beginning of every semester for six (6) semesters, seeking their views on that they hope to gain from the Study Abroad experience. At the end of each of those six semesters, a further questionnaire will seek to ascertain to what extent their initial perceptions have been met along with any other knowledge, skills and competencies they may have gained as a result of the experience.

This paper discusses the conceptualization and early findings from a broader longitudinal study which examines the perceived efficacy of the study abroad experience at the University of Sydney over a period of three years. At the core of this research, is an examination of how teaching and learning is constructed by local lecturers and experienced by European students. We will also examine social learning systems through the emerging communities of practice and changes in the identities of local lecturers and European students who participate in study abroad programs at the Faculty of Education and Social Work and will argue that through their participation in study abroad programs, these students tap into that futuristic part of the wider world community that seeks to fit into the knowledge economy with competence and confidence.