Global Student Exchange Program
The Global Student Exchange Program, led by the University of Toronto in collaboration with the University of Sydney, King’s College London, and National Taiwan University, is dedicated to advancing post-secondary student mental health research through interdisciplinary collaboration, training, and knowledge sharing. By fostering international partnerships and facilitating student exchanges, the network equips the next generation of researchers with the skills and global connections needed to address the urgent challenges in student and youth mental health.
Background
The Global Research Network led by the University of Toronto, and including the University of Sydney, King’s College London, and National Taiwan University, has been addressing a critical research gap related to the urgent post-secondary student mental health challenge by developing collaborative, inter-disciplinary research, training and knowledge mobilization partnerships with leading global student and youth mental health researchers, inclusive of students.
The network includes an International Student Exchange Program that gives trainee scholars the opportunity to learn from and engage with experts in mental health research from across the network, gaining skills and building long-term relationships to facilitate global collaboration.
Objectives
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- Develop collaborative, interdisciplinary research partnerships with global research leaders;
- Facilitate opportunities to share knowledge and build connections with global experts; and
- Build a robust pipeline to support the next generation of student mental health researchers.
Student Exchanges
To promote interdisciplinary learning and collaboration, graduate scholars will work with faculty mentors from a breadth of academic disciplines at their local and global partner sites in preparation for up to a two-week exchange to the global partner site.
Training Program
In addition to meeting regularly with a co-mentor team consisting of a faculty member from the local and global partner institution, student scholars will also engage in a robust training program to maximize their learnings from the Global Scholar Research Exchange. Activities will include:
- A skills-building seminar series to build community and enhance networking among the cohort;
- A global speaker series profiling the latest research from around the world;
- A completion of the eModule series to develop their post-secondary student mental health research skillset; and
- Participation in an annual research exchange institute, to facilitate networking between exchange cohorts, and grow connection across the partner institutions.
In addition to these activities, scholars will have access to existing infrastructure established by the Global Network, including local and international research networks, and Special Interest Groups.
Funding and Partnerships
Funding currently provided by the University of Toronto, the University of Sydney and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) is supporting:
- UofT graduate students traveling to global university partner sites;
- Graduate students from global university partner sites traveling to UofT;
- A Research Exchange Institute in tandem with the International Association of Youth Mental Health international conference in Vancouver, March 2025
We welcome interest from other institutions to partner on this program. If you are able to provide additional funding this can support exchanges for graduate students to visit UofT and other global member sites.
For further information and partnership, please contact: Sarah De La Rue, Director, Strategy & Operations Sarah.DeLaRue@uToronto.ca
To learn more about our current and upcoming funding programs, please visit our Opportunities page.