Internationalisation of higher education curriculum: the contribution of international students

Internationalisation of Australian higher education was initially characterised as growth in the number of international students. While the economic benefits brought by this student cohort and the challenges associated with teaching them are well noted in the literature, their academic contributions are hardly acknowledged. Using a qualitative research approach, the paper explores the extent to which international students facilitate the internationalisation of the curriculum and the intercultural learning of domestic students. Interviews with academic staff in one university in Australia indicated that international students brought a diversity of cultures that inspired teachers in their teaching. While academic staff members positively value these potentials, they argued that domestic students remained neglectful and unaware of the changing cultural environment. It was a challenge for staff to get domestic students to utilise the cultural resources represented by the students. Some implications were discussed concerning ways in which the process of internationalisation can be progressed in a more effective way.     

The potential skills contribution of international students to South Africa

Abstract

There has been a significant increase in the number of international students, especially in those from other African countries, at South African universities over the last ten years. This has elicited some research, notably from Ramphele, Crush and McDonald (1999); Hall (2004); and Snowball and Antrobus (2005; 2006). However, none of these scholars considered the possibility of exploiting the skills potential of international students in South Africa, especially at a time when the country faces skills shortages. The authors conducted a survey at six higher education institutions (HEIs) in 2008, which sought to determine the skills profiles of international students in South Africa. It was found that the majority of international students are registered in disciplines where skills shortages exist, that a significant number of these students are young and that many would like to remain and work in South Africa. Labour policy makers in South Africa seem to be unaware of this, hence policy is ill-adapted to derive economic benefits from international students.     

The experiences and outcomes of domestic and international students at four Canadian universities

Most studies of international students have focused on their adaptation to host societies. By way of contrast, this article deals with the academic and social experiences of international and domestic students in four Canadian universities and, consistent with the ‘college impact model’, examines the relationship between experiences and objectively measured and self‐assessed outcomes. In general, it is found that international students are as involved in campus activities as domestic students; however, they lack particularly the academic support enjoyed by domestic students. Moreover, the scores of international students on both objectively measured and self‐assessed outcomes are lower than those of domestic students. Regression analyses reveal that the amounts of variance in outcomes explained by variables in the college impact model are lower for international than for domestic students. For both groups of students, however, academic experiences explain more of the variance in self‐assessed than in objectively measured outcomes. In addition to variables in the college impact model, value is added to various outcomes by mere attendance at particular universities.     

Achieving inclusion of students with disabilities in Turkey: current challenges and future prospects

Developing inclusion in schools has been an objective for many countries in recent decades, giving rise to a variety of definitions, policy -making activities and school practices. This paper focuses on the attempts made towards inclusion of students with disabilities in Turkey. We start by introducing inclusive education and its parameters, and continue with recent trends in education in Turkey. Next, we discuss current progress in including students with disabilities within mainstream schools, and continue with the legislative attempts made to improve this position. After that, we discuss recent developments and challenges in the education and inclusion of students with disabilities, and conclude by noting several recommendations for realising their inclusion in Turkey. While the purpose of this paper is to investigate the inclusion of students with disabilities in the Turkish context, there is much of relevance to other international contexts going through similar developmental processes in terms of inclusion.     

Understanding the symbolic capital of intercultural interactions: a case study of international students in Australia

Intercultural interaction plays an important role in contributing to international students’ learning and wellbeing in the host country. While research on international students’ intercultural interactions reveals multifaceted aspects of personal and social factors, there is a tendency to consider language barrier and cultural differences as individual factors that constrain their interactions with the institutional community. Drawing on 105 interviews with international students in Australian vocational education and training and dual sector institutions, this paper examines international students’ intercultural interactions in host institutions and the factors that act as enablers or inhibitors for intercultural interactions. It highlights the social and structural conditions in creating symbolic capital of elitist Anglo-Australian culture and English language, and social differentiation. This paper offers insights into understanding the legitimacy of such elitism, in hope that future conceptualisation, research and practices of intercultural interactions may locate international students within their cultural diversity.     

Unpacking academic requirements: international students in Management and Education disciplines

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative case study that explores how international students in different disciplines struggle to interpret their disciplinary requirements. The study shows the emergence of five main forms of unpacking academic expectations that individual students in the study employed. It will be argued that these international students appear to be active and capable of drawing on various strategies and problem‐solving skills in order to take control of their academic life and enable them to participate in the academic practices of their discipline. The students' experiences also indicate that the interaction and dialogue they establish with their lecturers plays a significant role in their success in the course.     

Challenges to Brand Australia: international students and the problem with speaking

Although communication skills in English are important for both their career prospects and the success of their overall study experience, many international students find their spoken English a barrier to employment after graduation. In this paper, we draw on longitudinal interview data from international postgraduates to investigate the individual and social factors that impacted on the development of their speaking skills as they studied in Australia. Our findings suggest that, despite high levels of motivation to improve, they received little instruction in such skills on their English for Academic Purposes programs and had little access to them in the community. We argue that for compelling moral as well as economic reasons universities urgently need to address these issues through both instruction and social integration initiatives if they are to safeguard their lucrative but vulnerable overseas markets.     

Allied healthcare undergraduate education: international students at the clinical interface

The global movement of students in higher education is a relatively recent phenomenon, which has gained momentum in the last 30 years. Much research has been focused on the experiences of this population. Relatively little is known about international allied healthcare students who undertake clinical placements as part of their undergraduate course. This study explores students’ perceptions of their clinical experience. The chosen focus group method was prefaced by a pilot study; both were conducted within the allied healthcare school of a university in the UK. Four themes emerged from the study: communication, cultural differences, relationships with professionals and survival strategies. Communication referred to both the interaction with and between the students, their patients and fellow members of the multidisciplinary team. Cultural differences were expressed in the negotiation of differing cultures at the patient interface. A third theme was the students’ relationship with clinical professionals; within this, the relationship with the student’s clinical educator was paramount. Finally, survival strategies represented the advice students wished to impart to future international students to facilitate their clinical placement abroad.     

Social structures in the economics of international education: perspectives from Vietnamese international tertiary students

Drawing on the findings from in-depth interviews with Vietnamese international students studying at Australian universities, this article presents insights into the sociological influences that stem from international students' social networks, at home and abroad, and how they impact on students' aspirations and engagement in international education. Underpinned by Bourdieu's social capital framework, this article critically challenges human capital ideology for its assumptions of individualism and utilitarian function of education as economic goals. The implication for international education providers is to create learning and living opportunities that consider students' social and cultural conditions so as to develop their capacity, self-determination and citizenship.     

Culture and country choice of international students: evidence from Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to examine the influence of the cultural elements on international students’ country choice. It also examines whether individual values moderate the influence of cultural elements on the country choice of international students. Drawing upon a sample size of 223, the data was analysed using structural equation modelling technique. Among the five cultural elements, education, language and social institutions were found to have a positive significant influence on the international student’s country choice. When moderated by individual values education was found to be the only key significant value to international students when selecting a country to further their education. The cultural elements should be given much attention by marketers, government and managers of academic institutions. An improvement in the standards of education in developing countries would attract more students from developed countries.     

Peer learning in international higher education: the experience of international students in an Irish university

Some of the main concerns in international higher education are the feeling of isolation among international students and their inability to adapt to the host environment, which may result in sub-optimal academic performance. Theoretically, peer learning can be an effective method to reduce these problems since it has the capacity to address isolation and adaptability issues among international students in a way that improves their learning experience and outcomes. Given the above, our study was designed to investigate this topic, focusing on the experience of international students. In this exploratory case study of a leading Irish university, we adopted a survey method via questionnaire to quantify and compare the experiences of a sample of international students at the said university. Five aspects of peer learning were explored, namely usage rate, current practices, outcomes, challenges, and coping strategies. We also included an open-ended section in the survey instrument for respondents to offer qualitative suggestions to the host institution. Through methodological triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative data, we discovered diverse practices, challenges, and outcomes of peer learning across different groups of international students in this university. The paper concludes with a discussion of research implications and suggestions for future studies.     

Enhancing the work placement experience of international students: towards a support framework

This article reports the findings from an institutional case study into the work placement experience of undergraduate international students studying at a UK-based university. Given the centrality and importance of the employability and internationalisation agendas in higher education, little published literature considers both and how they impact upon the work placement experience of international students. With past increases in international student recruitment numbers and the drive for students, regardless of their nationality, to gain work experience, there is a need for institutions to better understand work placement from the international students’ perspective. Findings revealed that challenges exist in finding and securing work placement, with critical themes emerging to include placement information, visa rules, culture differences, prior work experience, academic preparation for placement and academic writing ability. A support framework is proposed to assist institutions to consider how they could align their practices to meet international students’ work placement and employability needs.     

Assessing policies for attracting international students: case of Malaysia

While the world market for international students in higher education is dominated by traditional major players such as the US, UK and Australia, Malaysia has emerged as a recent contender with a market share of 2%. There is a gap in the literature in assessing the contributions of policy initiatives, including trade agreements, towards attracting inbound international students, especially from emerging contenders such as Malaysia. The objective of this paper is to compare and assess the policy initiatives at the unilateral, multilateral, regional and bilateral level and their impact on the host environment which is defined in terms of the key pull factors that have attracted international students to Malaysia. The main findings show that domestic policy initiatives have enhanced the host environment for attracting international students by providing a governance system that protects the interests of international students through its regulations. Efforts to improve quality assurance and accreditation also serve to attract international students. The regulation of fees contributed towards competitively priced programmes that are also pull factors. Multilateral, regional and bilateral commitments are relatively new, emerging only after 2006, and have less potential influence on inflows of international students as these commitments reflect, at best, existing practices in this sector.     

新自由主义与民族保守主义的钟摆交替:欧美国家国际学生流动政策的逻辑与演变

国际学生在一国发展中的战略地位毋庸置疑。在国际学生的招收和使用上,国家和政府不是被动的接收者,政府在国际学生的招收和使用方面扮演重要的建构性角色。通过梳理和解读国际学生流动政策和措施,文章进一步厘清了21世纪以来欧美发达国家国际学生流动政策背后的新自由主义和民族保守主义逻辑。欧美发达国家一方面意识到争夺国际学生对于在"全球人才竞赛"中增强国家竞争优势至关重要;另一方面为照顾本国日益消极的舆论和选民日益高涨的民族主义情绪,严格缩紧国际学生的移民签证。在不同阶段或者不同执政党领导时期,国际学生流动政策呈现出以国家利益为轴心,在新自由主义与民族保守主义之间来回摇摆的演变态势。如何在激烈的"全球人才竞赛"中保持优势与照顾到更加民族主义的国内舆论之间保持平衡,成为欧美国家国际学生流动政策的重点和难点。     

The flow of international students from a macro perspective: a network analysis

This paper provides a network analysis of the international flow of students among 210 countries and the factors determining the structure of this flow. Among these factors, bilateral hyperlink connections between countries and the number of telephone minutes (communication variables) are the most important predictors of the flow’s structure, followed by trade, the physical distance between countries, a common border between countries and a common language between two countries. The USA is by far the most central country in the flow of international students, followed by China, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and India. These results are discussed in light of World-System Theory. Future research should examine how the network of international student flows changes over time and consider additional factors to provide a better understanding of the network as an international system.     

Engagement in learning: a comparison between Asian and European international university students

Drawing on research on both engagement in learning and approaches to learning, we examine the associations between international students’ approaches to learning, factors in the teaching/learning environment and self-assessed academic outcomes. A total of 307 students responded to our survey. Their experience of the purposefulness of their course assignments and the relevance of their studies was related to students having a deep approach to learning and being organised in their studies. Moreover, students applying a deep approach to learning and being organised in studying seemed to perceive their study success more positively. Furthermore, the better students’ perception of how well their courses were organised and aligned with other studies, the lower their stress level was. The Asian students in our study exhibited a slightly more surface approach to learning, and were more organised in their studies than the European students, but the differences were very small.     

Understanding aspirations and expectations of international students in Australian higher education

The aspirations and expectations of the growing international student cohort in Australia are implicitly incorporated into recruitment and internationalization strategies but have received little academic analysis. To address this gap in the literature, this paper develops a conceptual model built upon earlier research by Tim Mazzarol and Geoffrey Soutar, which focuses on the push and pull factors relating to home country and country of destination, respectively, in relation to students' decisions to seek international study. Focusing predominantly on Chinese and Indian students, we conceptualise, extend and place the push and pull factors within a social psychological framework in relation to students' aspirations and expectations of international education, indicating factors that can be influenced by higher education (HE) institutions and their programmes, and those which cannot. We then interrogate the model and its applicability in Australian HE through the case study of an Indian international Study Tour conducted in our Australian HE institution in 2009. In the present context of decreased international student enrolments in Australia in 2010, where we seek to better understand our international students, the proposed model provides a basis for identifying international students' expectations and aspirations and developing prospective international relations.     

International students in transnational mobility: intercultural connectedness with domestic and international peers,institutions and the wider community

International students’ connectedness with their peers, institutions and the broader community significantly affects their learning and wellbeing. It is important to understand their multiple desires for intercultural connectedness in order to nurture it. This paper analyses the motives and nature of international students’ intercultural connectedness. It is based on a study that includes more than 150 interviews and fieldwork with international students and staff from 25 vocational education colleges in Australia. Drawing on Blumer’s symbolic interactionism theory as a conceptual framework, the study found international students’ motivation to engage in intercultural connectedness is linked to not only their desire for respect and recognition for intellectual, cultural and linguistic capacities and diversities but also for employment aspirations. The research shows various dimensions in which intercultural engagement is seen to encompass not only empathy, sociability and equity but also employability. The findings suggest meaningful interaction is essentially bound to reciprocal learning.     

国家助学贷款的现状及政策分析

国家助学贷款是由政府发起并引导,由政府、银行、学校和学生四方共同建立的一种公共治理结构。在建构国家助学贷款公共需求服务模式的过程中,政府、银行、学校和学生之间的利益在政策变迁中不断被调整,其目的在于寻找到一种临界点,使得各方在合理获利的基础上都承担一定的风险。     

Journeys across educational and cultural borders: international postgraduate students with young children

There is substantial research about international postgraduate students but little research about their experiences as parents or their children’s experiences. We focus on four postgraduate international students with young children navigating early childhood education and care in New Zealand. A narrative analysis, informed by socio-cultural understandings of learning and post-structuralist understandings of identity, revealed emotional complexities, stress and transformation as parents and children made many transitions. Parents wanted their own culture respected and their host culture decoded. Families experienced tensions around the use of home and host languages as they juggled children’s present and future linguistic needs. Supporting international students in their family identity has positive effects for them, their children and their doctoral studies, and hence for universities. Further research about the experiences of international students who are parents and of their children could assist in the formulation of policies to effect such support.