International student recruitment to universities in England: discourse,rationales and globalisation

The recruitment of international students to universities in England has become a central issue in an era of globalisation for university administrators, senior managers, international offices and heads of schools and faculties. We examine the policy rationales for the recruitment of international students to England. Through the use of in‐depth interviews with key role players at four English universities, we compare the rhetoric, rationales and reasons for the recruitment of international students. A range of discourses can be identified in the recruitment of international students and an economic competition rationale is dominant. This is expressed within the discourse of globalisation.     

Factors influencing international student satisfaction in Korean universities

Despite South Korea emerging as one of the new players in the international education market over the last decade, our knowledge of the extent of international students’ satisfaction studying in South Korean universities is modest. To fill this research gap, our study used 873 valid survey responses from international students originating from 69 countries studying at 62 Korean universities. An exploratory factor analysis was first used to extract a set of important factors from a number of variables. Then an ordered-logistic regression was conducted to identify factors influencing international students’ overall satisfaction. A number of recommendations and areas of intervention have been identified ranging from learning experience to living and support services. Equally important, this study confirms the validity of the hypothesis that international students from the East Asian cultural sphere attain more satisfaction than other international students who are more culturally dissimilar from members of the host population. The findings of this study contribute to the overall effort of raising student satisfaction and thereby supporting the enrollment of additional students and managing attrition and retention problems through continuous improvement.     

International brand alliances and co-branding: antecedents of cognitive dissonance and student satisfaction with co-branded higher education programs

The study investigates how in international partnerships the brand credibility of each partner, student-institution identification with each partner, and perceived service quality relate to student satisfaction. A structured survey questionnaire was completed by 528 students taking a co-branded higher education program in Hong Kong or Sri Lanka. The results indicate that the brand credibility of a foreign institution is a stronger influencer on student identification with the foreign institution as compared to the relationship between credibility and identification with the local partner. The negative relationship between organizational identification and cognitive dissonance for each institution in the partnership is also stronger for the foreign institution. As the popularity of international partnerships and co-branded higher education programs continues to grow, the importance and dominance of foreign brand credibility and student identification with foreign institutions is recognized.     

Socio-cultural adaptation,academic adaptation and satisfaction of international higher degree research students in Australia

The number of international higher degree research students has grown at a significant rate in recent years, with Australia becoming a hub for attracting such students from around the world. However, research has identified that international higher degree research students often encounter a wide range of academic and socio-cultural challenges in adapting to their new environment, which can have a significant bearing on their levels of satisfaction with their studies. This paper outlines the findings of a mixed method study exploring the experiences and perceptions of international higher degree research students from five different countries in Australia. Findings revealed that the most important issues in terms of satisfaction were not directly related to academic studies. Instead, factors such as integration into the community, interacting with other students, relationships with supervisors, and the provision of adequate desk space were often given the greatest weight. Implications for how university policy can better support international doctoral students are discussed.     

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.     

Evaluating student satisfaction of quality at international branch campuses

The aim of this research is to present the determinants of students’ perceptions of quality and experience of study at international branch campuses in Malaysia, a country that is set to become an academic hub in Asia. This study used a multi-method approach for data collection. The respondents comprised 245 students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) from six renowned international branch campuses operating in the country – three from Australia, two from the UK and one from India. In addition, a total of 21 face-to-face interviews were conducted after the survey. The results revealed that across the seven dimensions examined concerning education and non-education qualities – university reputation/image, programme quality, lecturers and teaching quality, student learning environment, effective use of technology, counselling and academic advising support, and social life (direct/indirect) facilities – the students were largely satisfied. The paper adds to the existing body of research on higher education service quality, particularly on students’ perceptions and expectations of international branch campuses.     

International study in the global south: linking institutional,staff, student and knowledge mobilities

ABSTRACT

The international mobility of institutions, staff, students and knowledge resources such as books and study materials has usually been studied separately. This paper, for the first time, brings these different forms of knowledge mobilities together. Through a historical analysis of South African higher education alongside results from a quantitative survey of academic staff in three international branch campuses in South Africa, the paper suggests three things. First, it points to the importance of regional education hubs in the global South and their role in South–South staff and student mobilities. Second, it points to the importance of reading these mobilities as outcomes of historically attuned policymaking – educational, migratory and political. Finally, the paper points to the theoretical possibilities that arise by bringing institutional, staff, student and knowledge resource mobilities in place and suggests new avenues for further research.     

新建地方本科高校教育服务质量与学生满意度的结构方程模型分析

通过对江西新建地方本科高校宜春学院、九江学院高等教育服务质量满意度的抽样调查,发现高等教育服务投入质量对过程质量和结果质量有显著的正向影响、过程质量对结果质量有显著的正向影响、过程质量和结果质量是影响学生满意度的主要因素、结果质量和学生满意度对学生行为意向有显著的正向影响。     

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.     

Using expectations and satisfaction to measure the frontiers of efficiency in public universities

Students’ satisfaction with their university and course is of fundamental importance to retain students and promote their positive worth-of-mouth. The objective of this research is to analyse the level of efficiency of Portuguese public universities, according to the expectations and satisfaction of their students. To accomplish the objective, this article uses data envelopment analysis methodology. As our unit of analysis, we selected the faculties making up the universities researched. The analytical input came from the expectations of 1669 students regarding their study programme and their universities. The outputs stem from their satisfaction with their study programmes and their universities. We conclude that university practices do not currently guarantee efficiency. We also observe that efficiency in the relationship between expectations and general satisfaction with the study programme does not represent efficiency in the relationship between expectations and general satisfaction with the university, and vice versa.     

Higher Education Institutions: Satisfaction and Loyalty among International Students

This study empirically investigates the relationship between satisfaction with educational service augmenters and consumer loyalty within the context of the international student market. An enhanced state of consumer satisfaction, also labeled as delight, is captured by focusing on service augmenters that fall outside the domain of the core educational service. The results indicate that while satisfaction with the augmenters does determine consumer loyalty, the augmenters that enhance the delivery of the core seem to have the strongest impact on consumer loyalty. Apart from research implications, the findings have interesting managerial implications, especially for administrators in educational institutions and policy makers associated with U.S. higher education.     

The relationship between student understanding,satisfaction and performance in an Australian engineering programme

It has often been suggested that actual or anticipated final grades may influence the ratings given by students in student experience surveys but few studies have been able to test this using actual grades. A study was carried out involving six courses over all four year levels of an undergraduate engineering programme, where students were asked to identify themselves in an experience survey by providing their student ID on the survey form. The aim of the study was to investigate a number of questions related to the readiness of students to identify themselves, and to examine any correlation between final examination grades, ratings of student satisfaction and the students’ perception of their level of understanding of material in their courses. Students were discovered to have a poor idea of how well they understand the concepts presented in their courses. This lack of an accurate idea of their own understanding is particularly important because ‘student understanding’ correlated to the ratings they gave to the course. Ratings were largely unaffected by final marks but students who gave their ID outperformed those who did not in end‐of‐year examinations. Higher year level students were more inclined to identify themselves and ratings tended to increase with year level.     

试述我国研究型大学与高层次来华留学生培养

本文从研究型大学的特质出发,结合我国研究型大学的实际做法和经验,较全面地论述了研究型大学与培养高层次来华留学生的关系,及研究型大学对培养高层次来华留学生的作用,并就如何发挥研究型大学的优势培养高层次来华留学生创新人才做了阐述。     

Physical classroom environment and student satisfaction with courses

The higher education market in South Korea has matured over recent decades. Higher education institutions have invested in many areas to boost the student experience. Student satisfaction has been identified as a key variable in explaining the holistic evaluation of the course. This study aims to fulfil a void in research by developing a study model consisting of cognitive evaluation, affective evaluation and student satisfaction with the course. Furthermore, two constructs of classroom physical environments were added to measure the moderating effect of satisfaction’s antecedents. Results indicated that student satisfaction with a course was significantly explained by cognitive and affective evaluations. Affective evaluation played a mediating role between cognitive evaluation and students’ satisfaction with the course. In addition, the impact of cognitive evaluation was greater than that of affective evaluation. The cognitive and affective evaluation constructs in the proposed theoretical framework accounted for 56% of the variance explained in student satisfaction with the course. Moreover, results of the invariance test revealed that ambient conditions of the classroom and its spatial layout and functionality significantly enhanced the effects of cognitive evaluation and affective evaluation on student satisfaction with the course.     

Student perceptions of satisfaction and anxiety in an online doctoral program

Eighty-four students in an online health education doctoral program taking the first course in the program over one year (four quarters) were surveyed in regards to their computer, Internet, and online course anxiety, and overall course satisfaction. An 18-item anxiety tool with domains in computer, Internet, and online learning was administered in the first and last weeks of an educational research course to assess for changes in student anxiety. A 24-item satisfaction tool with domains regarding the instructor, technology, setup, interaction, outcomes, and overall satisfaction was administered at the end of the course. Results show a significant negative correlation between anxiety and student satisfaction. Student anxiety levels were in the relatively moderate range; changes in anxiety levels over time were not significant. Participants who felt anxious when using computers or the Internet, or when taking online courses experienced anxiety with other domains.     

直属高校来华留学生教育发展现状及其改善

直属高校是中国高校中最有可能率先实现世界一流大学目标的高校,而留学生的数量和结构是判断高校国际化程度高低的核心标志。采用定量和文献的研究方法,对2005-2008年直属高校来华留学生教育的规模、学历、洲际、经费资助类别进行了统计与分析,提出了改善直属高校来华留学生教育的发展思路。     

高校图书馆为留学生读者服务的思考

随着中国经济实力和国际地位的不断提高,越来越多的外国人渴望了解中国。近年来外国留学生的数量不断增加,但中国高校图书馆受传统服务模式的影响,对留学生读者的服务重视不够,留学生读者在使用中国的高校图书馆时会遇到语言交流、图书馆差异和服务差异等障碍,不利于中国文化的对外传播。因此,高校图书馆应重视留学生读者的服务工作,建设专门针对留学生读者的馆藏资源,提高馆员的业务素质和外语水平,定期举办一些适合留学生读者参加的活动等,提高为留学生读者服务的质量。     

Predicting student satisfaction and perceived learning within online learning environments

Student satisfaction is used as one of the key elements to evaluate online courses, while perceived learning is considered as an indicator of learning. This study aimed to explore how online learning self-efficacy (OLSE), learner–content interaction (LCI), learner–instructor interaction (LII), and learner–learner interaction (LLI) can predict student satisfaction and perceived learning. A total of 167 students participated in this study. Regression results revealed that the overall model with all four predictor variables (OLSE, LCI, LII, and LLI) was significantly predictive of satisfaction and perceived learning. The study found that LCI was the strongest and most significant predictor of student satisfaction, while OLSE was the strongest and most significant predictor of perceived learning. However, LLI was not predictive of student satisfaction and perceived learning. This study suggests that instructors employ strategies that enhance students’ OLSE, LCI, and LII. Research is needed to understand how LLI fosters student learning and satisfaction.     

What College Counselors Need to Know About International Student Advisers: Field Notes on the Professionals,the Clients,and the Challenges

As the service functions of campus-based international student offices in American colleges and universities have changed and evolved, especially since 9/11, the roles of the professionals in those offices, the “international student advisers,” have changed as well. These unique professionals function in the central pressure point between two very different world views of international students. Higher education perceives them not only as benign members of the academic community, but as strong and necessary benefactors intellectually, culturally, and economically. However, this perspective is not shared by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents more often than not see international students as potential security threats. International student advisers are engaged in a high-stakes business where an adviser's actions can have tremendous impact on a student client's life, for good or for ill. This article will explore the professional lives of international student advisers and demonstrate the facets of their complex work which make it unique in higher education.     

高等学校学生工作项目化管理的经济学思考

经济学中项目管理的内涵包括确定项目和实施项目两项内容,项目管理有优化项目资源配置和协调项目矛盾与冲突两大功能。将项目管理的基本理念运用到高等学校学生管理工作．可以最大限度地利用现有的学生活动资源、规范管理行为、降低管理成本、提高工作效率,实现培养大学生综合素质和创新能力的目的。