In this field report from a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) study abroad programme, the author describes how students came to see collaboration -- a key component of arts practice -- as a buzzword, rather than a set of specific, tested, vital practices productive to a wide range of situations. The author argues that the arts have much to offer as a 'mobile critical paradigm' (Gallagher, Kathleen, and Barry Freedman, eds. 2016. "In Defence of Theatre: Aesthetic Practices and Social Interventions." Toronto: University of Toronto Press), particularly in interdisciplinary situations, but only if educators are exacting and purposeful as they define and employ collaboration as one of the arts' most enduring lessons.