How Allianz Partners is giving international students 24/7 care with Sonder

About Allianz Partners Australia 

Every year, thousands of international students travel to Australia to build a new life while they study. Often it’s the first time they’ve been away from family, friends and the support networks they’ve always relied on. That means learning to navigate a new country, a new culture and everyday challenges largely on their own. All while managing their studies.

Allianz Partners Australia recognised the toll this can take, and set out to make sure students had somewhere to turn. As part of a broader focus on supporting customers in the moments that matter, Allianz partnered with Sonder to give international students access to 24/7 safety, medical and mental health support, included as part of their Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC), at no extra cost.

Now in its eighth year, the partnership means over 215,000 students have access to Sonder’s platform, whenever and wherever they need support.

“We’re really focussed on being able to provide students with the tools to seek help when they need it.”

The challenge: Supporting students far from home

International students face the same pressures as their domestic peers, coursework, finances, and the everyday stress of student life. But without a support network, that pressure can build quickly, and research shows they don’t always feel able to ask for help.

“It would feel quite lonely and isolating. It can feel overwhelming at times just navigating what a completely different country is like.”

• Far from usual support: Students arrive without the friends, family and familiar systems they’d normally lean on when something goes wrong.
• Rising mental health concerns: More than a quarter of students (26.4%) struggle with their mental health, and anxiety is the most common presenting concern.
• Help-seeking stays low: International students are consistently less likely than domestic students to reach out for support, often held back by language barriers, cultural stigma, or simply not knowing where to turn.
• Safety in unfamiliar surroundings: Getting to and from class after dark, in an unfamiliar city, can feel daunting, and safety is consistently cited as one of the biggest factors in students choosing to study in Australia in the first place.
• A digitally-native generation that reaches out differently: Even when students do seek support, they don’t always do it in the way universities expect. 

For Sonder, meeting students here means designing support around how they actually reach out, in their own words, in their own language, and in the format that feels safest to use.

The solution: Holistic, 24/7 care built into student cover

Through the Allianz Care OSHC policy, international students gain access to Sonder’s platform for safety, medical and mental health support, available by chat or phone, any time of day or night.

• Multiple ways to reach out: Students can choose chat, text or phone, whatever feels most comfortable for them. Chat remains the most common way students get in touch with Sonder, a format that feels less confrontational than a phone call, and one that fits naturally with how this generation already communicates.
• Support in their own language: Students can seek help in their own language, removing one more barrier to reaching out when something’s wrong.
• Journey monitoring: Sonder’s Share my Journey feature helps students feel safer travelling home after dark in an unfamiliar city.
• Whole-person support: From finding a GP to navigating a mental health concern, Sonder is a single point of contact for whatever a student needs.

Results: Students feel supported, connected and less alone

The partnership has delivered meaningful outcomes for international students navigating life in a new country:

• Broad reach: The partnership now supports over 36,000 students each year, with more than 215,000 set to gain access.
• Personalised care: Students describe the support as tailored to them, rather than a generic service.
• A sense of home: For many students, having the right support in place is what helps a new country start to feel familiar.

“I would use Track my Journey after classes. Any time that the sun set after 6pm, I would just use that on my way home.”

An ongoing partnership delivering results 

Moving overseas to study is a big step, and for many international students, it comes with real safety, health and wellbeing challenges that can be hard to navigate alone. Allianz Partners Australia’s partnership with Sonder means students don’t have to.

By building 24/7 safety, medical and mental health support directly into student cover, Allianz and Sonder are helping international students feel a little less alone, and a little more at home, wherever they choose to study.

“It’s not insurance. It’s not paying a claim. It’s caring about the person and making sure that we’re providing the assistance that they need.”