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1.
Transition support for international students has traditionally adopted deficit models which attempt to ‘fix’ assumed academic literacy problems. This study explores a more culturally inclusive initiative which supported international students at a UK university in a holistic and developmental way. The initiative was delivered across an academic year and a mix of focus groups and semi-structured interviews were undertaken for evaluation purposes. Although small-scale, the initiative emerged as a lively learning community which was highly successful in facilitating both academic and sociocultural transition. Qualitative data illuminate a number of fruitful methodological foci, including informality of the learning space and exploration of intercultural learning and teaching practices. Findings indicate that these cultural explorations were instrumental in helping students navigate the new learning and teaching system and forge a stronger sense of academic and social belonging. These outcomes were cultivated within an ethos that valued and enhanced the diverse skills, identities and attributes that students brought, rather than one that suppressed their previous learning practices. Findings thus demonstrate how transition and academic success can be facilitated in ways that do not problematize international students and highlight the need for more holistic and inclusive ways of supporting them.  相似文献   

2.
This paper reports on the adjustment of East Asian Master’s level students who came to study at a campus-based university in the UK during 2004–05. International students face challenges in respect to language proficiency, academic expectations and social participation. In this longitudinal study the experiences of a group of students from East Asian countries were surveyed, with a sample of eight students from five countries tracked through regular interviews. The paper describes the level of satisfaction that students experienced and the challenges they faced. It was found that students largely enjoyed their sojourn and achieved satisfactory levels of academic success. They encountered ‘culture bumps’ rather than culture shock. Adjustment was facilitated by adequate preparation, appropriate academic attainment and satisfying levels of social participation with other international students. It is suggested that these students were experiencing an ‘international postgraduate student culture’ rather than integration into local culture.  相似文献   

3.
The current theories relating to international student transition have largely tended to concentrate on what is to be adapted. This research contributes to the pedagogic literature examining how the transition is made by international postgraduate students. Using data from 20 qualitative in-depth interviews in conjunction with observations of teaching sessions and the researchers’ field notes, we discovered a process-based stage model which identifies a step-by-step approach at a micro-level of academic transition. Our findings extended the prior stage modes to incorporate students’ pre-arrival experience and claim that the pre-departure stage plays a crucial role on Chinese students’ later academic adjustment in the UK. The finding of our four-stage-model helps not only higher education institutions increasing sensitivity to the design of study programmes and induction provision but provides practical implications for recruitment agents that attempt to engage students’ pre-arrival preparations in terms of enhancing their marketing strategy in the long term.  相似文献   

4.
Abstract

This paper reports on a study of prior and current experiences with English of non-local Asian international students and of their language expectations when commencing their studies at an English-medium university in Hong Kong. In addition to grappling with new academic demands, these sojourners need to adapt to a vastly different social environment, further complicating the already challenging school-to-university transition. A mixed-methods approach was adopted to generate data with the employment of online questionnaire surveys and semi-structured individual interviews. In total, 224 completed questionnaires were returned, among which 60 were identified as responses from Asian international students. Eleven students of five different Asian nationalities participated in interviews. The results show that despite different socio-cultural backgrounds and prior learning experiences, these international students had similar expectations regarding the institutional language environment of an internationalised university, within which they expect English to be not only a medium of instruction but also a lingua franca for social interaction with their peers and local counterparts. The findings provide internationalised institutions with insights into the needs and expectations of incoming students from regions which are geographical neighbours but with varying cultural norms, educational standards, colonial heritage, degrees of elitism, and technological development.  相似文献   

5.
The aim of this study was firstly to describe the experiences of international students living and studying in a UK university, to understand and explain their responses to those experiences and to make recommendations to stakeholders in the light of the findings. The research found that international students’ two biggest concerns are their English language skills and their detachment from domestic students. International students were surprised at the size of the challenges they faced and worked hard to bridge the gap between their academic and sociocultural skills and those needed in the UK. International students provided emotional, practical and academic support to each other, but the academic support they offered to each other was not always reliable. International students engaged in a process of identity change during which they gained the skills they needed to be academically successful. Recommendations in regard to the academic and pastoral support of international students are made.  相似文献   

6.
The crucial role of social integration for the academic success of home students is a common theme in pedagogical research, but for international students the emphasis has been much more on cultural factors and the challenges of transition. The findings of the International Students’ Experience Project at the University of the Arts, London suggest that this is far from the whole story. International students come to the UK precisely to make cosmopolitan friendships, but are held back—by language and communication, but also, less obviously, by differences in age, qualifications, experience and expectations, and by the need to adapt rapidly to an environment which is new in every sense. While home students surmount the challenges of social integration with relative ease, international students thus need more support. By coming to understand the needs of these students in all their complexity, institutions can play a key role in facilitating integration.  相似文献   

7.
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.  相似文献   

8.
ABSTRACT

International doctoral students’ sojourn encompasses three transitional processes: to the new country, to the university and to a new academic identity as a researcher in a specific discipline. This article examines the role of social networks in facilitating these transitions for international doctoral students at one South African university. It is based on qualitative interviews conducted with 23 international PhD students representing eight different disciplines and various countries in Africa. The findings suggest that students are involved in a number of social networks, which all, apart from the academic network, exclude local students. This close-knit co-national network, while providing international PhD students with a well documented survival mechanism, may hinder their international experiences and limit the acquisition of the inter-cultural skills necessary for global citizenship in the twenty-first century. The findings also indicated that family networks back home played a role in instilling worries and doubts among students related to xenophobic attacks against foreigners.  相似文献   

9.
This paper examines and compares some aspects of the academic and social experiences of first-year teacher education students at two colleges, one in England and the other in the Republic of Ireland. It describes the transition from second level (and, for some, the transition from further education) to third level education and offers an account of the integration of first-year students into the academic and social system of their institution. In comparing the experiences of students in both colleges, we use inferential statistics, thus assuming the legitimacy of inferring differences in the populations from which the samples come. Although we have no reason to believe that the students and colleges in our study are untypical of teacher education students and their respective colleges more generally in England and Ireland, we acknowledge the need for tentativeness in making the leap to the broader population and for further research to explore the national and international comparisons using a wider range of students and colleges.  相似文献   

10.
Under the education globalization tendency, studying abroad, which is a core topic in education, has more and more frequently appeared in the international environment in recent years.Study will never be an easy social activity, needless to say study abroad, which involves people from different cultures.This essay focuses on the academic challenges that the Chinese overseas students in UK confront in their studies.  相似文献   

11.
Twenty students from different educational backgrounds within the UK were interviewed to investigate how well they considered their secondary school education had prepared them for the educational and social demands of an ‘elite’ university and life within its most traditional colleges. The study asked them how they perceived students from different educational backgrounds and how they thought they were perceived. Entering a traditional Cambridge college was found to be easiest for students from prestigious ‘public schools’ within the private educational sector. State school students were more likely to experience anxiety, and those who adapted successfully were likely to have strong independent learning skills and a robust sense of self-efficacy. The study suggests that students coming from state schools to Cambridge are making a more difficult academic and social transition than students from private schools, for which they are given no special support.  相似文献   

12.
More than 3 million students study outside their home country, primarily at a Western university. A common belief among educators is that international students are insufficiently adjusted to higher education in their host country, both academically and socially. Furthermore, several groups of international students experience considerable amounts of stress while adapting to the culture of the host-institute. Several researchers argue that studies on adaptation of international students should widen its focus to the underlying mechanisms that leads towards this “misalignment”. In a cross-institutional comparison among 958 students at five business schools in the Netherlands, differences in academic performance between local and international students were identified by focussing on their levels of academic and social integration. Students’ academic integration was measured with the Students’ Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), while students’ social integration was measured with a newly developed and validated questionnaire. The results indicate that the degree of academic success of international students is multi-faceted. International students with a (mixed) western ethnic background perform well on both academic and social integration, and also attained higher study-performance in comparison to domestic students. In contrast, international students with a non-Western background are less integrated compared to other international students. Nevertheless, they have a similar study-performance. Finally, academic adjustment is the main predictor of study-performance for Dutch, Western and Mixed-Western students. Social adjustment was negatively related to study-performance. The lack of fit for predicting long-term study success of non-Western students indicates that their academic and social integration processes are more complex and non-linear.  相似文献   

13.
While extensive discussion has been devoted to internationalising the curriculum in a response to the presence of international students, little is known about how academic staff members perceive the presence of this student cohort. Using data collected through semi‐structured interviews with 80 academic staff from four different faculties in one higher education institution, this study investigates staff understanding regarding international students, with particular attention given to how disciplinary differences shape their responses. Findings indicate that staff from ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ disciplines hold different instructional beliefs, which then affect their teaching and learning practice. Discussions are provided on how these differing conceptions of teaching fit into the context of academic development with respect to international education.  相似文献   

14.
The main controversy as a result of the commercialisation of international education markets is that international students especially those from China are unable to perform as well as UK students in UK universities. So far, research has yet to identify the influence of placements on the academic performance of Chinese students from entry to graduation. Using four cohorts of accounting and finance students in a UK university, this present work is the first to find that Chinese students who undertake placements in the third year are seven times more likely to achieve good degrees (2.1 or 1st) than those who opt out of work placements. It is also found that Chinese students who have a high prior academic achievement and better academic results from years 1 and 2 are likely to undertake placements. Finally, the results show that the academic performance of international students is influenced by domicile.  相似文献   

15.
Abstract

Amidst opportunities for universities to consider international academic staff in supporting internationalisation and innovation in academic practice, there is very little research to provide insights into their attitudes towards institutional approaches and frameworks in place to enable this. This article focuses on this research gap, suggesting that this academic community might enhance the development of internationally-informed and innovative pedagogic practice. The research reported within the article constitutes a preliminary study, set within a UK higher education case study setting. Methods included focus groups and themed in-depth interviews with a sample of 34 international academic staff from over 15 countries. The findings and discussion provide insights into the perspectives and experiences of international academic staff in relation to the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning and other institutional practice. Innovative pedagogic practice as enabled by international academic staff is discussed, as are approaches to the internationalisation of the curricula. The findings are relevant to the UK higher education context but also to the global context: academic institutions need to consider whether curriculum and processes are limited and limiting in favour of a narrow cultural lens.  相似文献   

16.
Despite the rapid increase of international students in the Chinese higher education sector, little is known about their experiences in China. This paper reports a longitudinal study investigating experiences of a small group of international students during their undergraduate study in an English-medium medical course at a Chinese university. Data were generated through annual interviews, complemented by two rounds of questionnaire surveys respectively held at the beginning and end of the course. Drawing on self-determination theory, findings reveal the learning process through which the participants, responding to and interacting with new academic and social environments, gradually achieved adaptation and personal growth. Meanwhile, the research presents evidence of the students’ dissatisfaction, arising mainly from three aspects of their university environments: linguistic, pedagogical, and attitudinal. Policy implications are discussed and suggestions for future studies are given.  相似文献   

17.
This study aims to explore Chinese international students' academic and personal transformation under the influences of formal education in schools and informal education outside of the classroom. A qualitative inquiry using in-depth, semi-structured interviews was employed with eight senior undergraduate Chinese international students attending Canadian universities. The results of the interviews showed that Chinese international students are actively shaping themselves through the process of transitions. The transformation occurring within each individual is multi-faceted, and their re-adapted learning skills largely overlap with their reshaped attitudes. Moreover, their changed sense of self intertwines with changes in their thinking. These transformations are also evident in the assertion of their agency which empowers and helps them through challenges during periods of adjustment. This study also shows that the retrospection, self-determination and commitment to taking action enable Chinese international students to continue to pursue their goals and dreams.  相似文献   

18.
The recruitment of international academic staff is viewed as one of the strategies to internationalise the universities. International academic staff, however, usually encounter many challenges when in a foreign context. This study aims to investigate the challenges of Chinese academic staff teaching in the UK in terms of language, relationships and culture. Eight Chinese academic staff from three different disciplines in one UK university were interviewed. The interviews focused on three areas: their language abilities, socialisation patterns and ideas of pedagogy. It is hoped the study may help institutions, educators and scholars to consider this worthwhile issue as an area of study and provide better support to meet the needs of international academic staff.  相似文献   

19.
ABSTRACT

This paper examines the multiple, intersecting identities expressed by international taught-post graduate students who are studying in a culture and language that is not their own. The study presented includes the collection of data around and beyond a planned pedagogical intervention on a pre-sessional EAP programme. The data were thematically analysed. Conflicting and intersecting identities emerged around themes of: performative, representational and core identities; international, national and individual identity; troublesome and transformative knowledge; power, agency and choice. These interwove with key underlying pre-occupations: language development; disciplinary knowledge and societal structures. By focussing on identity studies alongside the language and culture of academic contexts, international students developed an understanding of, and reflexivity around, their position within UK HE contexts. I argue this focus eased transition into a new study environment and allowed students to both better access the taught and hidden curriculum, and to understand their resistance to it.  相似文献   

20.
Despite the exponential growth of visual research in the social sciences in the last three decades, continuing empirical enquiries are arguably more relevant than ever. Earlier research employed visual methods primarily to investigate distinct cultural practices, often seeking the views of marginalized, challenging or hard-to-reach participants. In this study, non-British postdoctoral academics took photographs that visually or symbolically represented the highlights of their academic acculturation experience as international PhD students in the UK. The semi-structured interviews of academic and non-academic related experiences that made a significant impression revolved around participants’ visual metaphors. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a widely employed inductive qualitative technique, was utilized, with visual data complementing the narrative evidence. This innovative method both aesthetically and insightfully enhanced the representation of participants’ lived experiences and was instrumental in validating participants’ narratives. Additionally, this article examines the pragmatic utility of employing metaphors in a photo elicitation technique (also critically reflected upon by the participants who are academic researchers themselves). The paper therefore offers a collective reflection not only on the features and advantages of this approach, but also on the key challenges and some recommendations to inform contemporary visual methods practice.  相似文献   

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