Supporting International Students to Become Part of An Internationalised Research Community

Author(s):

Linda Hui Yang(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 12 A, Internationalisation: Experiences and Support

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-26

09:00-10:30

Room:

NM-Theatre R

Chair:

Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela

Contribution

The number of international students at UK universities has more than doubled in the past decade. The UK attracts 15% of the international market for postgraduate research students and is considered a global leader in this area. Recent HESA figures show the proportion of international full-time postgraduate research students increasing from 34% in 2002/3 to 50.3% now (HESA 2014). These students now represent half of the full-time UK doctoral student body and have become increasingly important, not only to the financial health and sustainability of the UK universities, but also to UK universities’ research output, knowledge base and innovation (HEPI 2010).

Similar statistics apply in other English-speaking countries, including Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. This internationalisation of the post-graduate student bodies provide both challenges and opportunities to the universities and individuals involved.

In a report on postgraduate education in the UK, Sastry (2004) expresses concerns that, “[I]n the longer term, however, it is not clear whether the benefits of study in the UK will be sufficiently profound to support indefinite expansion ... it is also likely that overseas students and their sponsors will become better informed and more demanding’ (57).

Consequently understanding the features of the research environment that contribute to the success of international post graduate students, and offering the support necessary to ensure their success is becoming increasingly important. This process can be thought of as internationalising the research environment as it applies to research students.

In the UK context, a number previous studies have examined the experience of international postgraduate research students, and have identified common factors contributing to that experience such as supervision (Archibong, 1995; Goode 2007), access to research cultures (Deem & Brehony, 2000), academic transition (Evans & Stevenson 2011), and integration with home students (Walsh, 2010). However, these studies have not considered how research environments could be improved to better support international students. In addition, these studies mixed home and international postgraduate research students together (e.g. Chiang 2003) to all postgraduate research students, generalised findings obtained from students in one or two disciplines (e.g. Borg et all 2011), focused on international postgraduate research students from a single region, such as Jordan (e.g. Zeilani et al 2011), or from a single discipline, such as nursing (e.g. Evans & Stevenson 2011) or engineering (e.g. Walsh 2010), involved many nationalities (e.g. Goode 2007), or included students at different levels of studies in small sample sizes (e.g. Archibong 1995), with a consequent lack of focus.

The study reported here conducted an investigation of the impact of the research environment on international postgraduate research students’ experience whilst pursuing full-time research degrees in science, social science, arts and humanities at a research-intensive UK university. The findings have implications for several key issues that have emerged from recent studies of international students’ experience, such as relationship with supervisor, integration with home students, research and transferable skills training, language improvement and employment and career.

The aim of this study is to help HEIs improve practice in the support of international postgraduate students and to secure their position in the increasingly competitive global education market. This study involved East Asian and Middle Eastern students, and although the findings should apply to all international Postgraduate research students, they also have more specific implications for sub-groups of postgraduate research students from these regions.

Method

A co-enquiry approach was adopted, with the participants involved in the interpretation of the findings and the construction of recommendations for best practice. Fitness for purpose was the guiding principle with regard to the research design. The participatory research approach was adopted because it gives equal control of the research by both participants and the researchers, and respects the indigenous knowledge which resides in members of the community. The research subjects were final stage international postgraduate research students from the East Asia and Middle East studying in disciplines across the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Semi-structured interviews were adopted to give primacy to the students’ own perspectives and to explore in-depth the uniqueness of their experience with regard to the phenomenon under investigation. In terms of the interview questions, both direct and indirect approaches were adopted to encourage clear, frank and open responses. Individual interviews were carried out to ensure the comprehensiveness, richness and trustworthiness of the data. Eleven postgraduate research students from the East Asia and the Middle East and in the final-stage of their doctoral journey (3rd year and above) participated the project. The convenience sampling approach was used to identify participants. Data collection was carried out in two stages. Following an initial on-line questionnaire, participants were interviewed individually. All the interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and checked for accuracy. Field notes were taken immediately following each interview to provide context. Data analysis was an iterative process. A thematic analysis approach was used to organize the data. A constructivist methodological approach was adopted for the interpretation of the data, recognizing that students’ accounts of their research experiences are socially constructed, reflecting their own unique lives and backgrounds and reinterpreted for a researcher during the interview process. A focus group meeting was held where the initial analysis was presented to participants, who were asked to review the findings. The focus group was also asked to contribute to the overall evaluation of the extent to which research environments meet their expectations and needs, and to identify recommendations for best practice.

Expected Outcomes

Two main findings which emerged from the data analysis. Firstly, the research environment which applied for all participants from science, social science and arts and humanities postgraduate research students was found to consist of five components. These were identified as research community, knowledge and skills, employment and career, facilities and pastoral support. Secondly, research community emerged as the key component of the research environment contributing to the success of international postgraduate research students. The research community is a key factor in determining the quality of international postgraduate research students’ experiences, including general happiness, integration, mental health, working with supervisor, research and transferable skills development, intercultural awareness and skills. This study demonstrated that, for international postgraduate research students, being part of an internationalised research community which acts as a community of practice is the most important support that can be provided. Therefore, universities who have an ambition to host increasing numbers of postgraduate research students should take steps to develop culturally inclusive research communities, and ensure international postgraduate research students are supported to become part of those communities. It is hoped that the results of this study will encourage these universities to increase efforts to support international postgraduate research students, including in particular training of academic supervisors and research group leaders, so that these staff use culturally sensitive approach working with and supporting international postgraduate research students and understand the importance of building an internationalised research community of practice. The findings of this study were developed from an analysis of a group of international students. A useful next step would be to assess the validity of the findings with a group of home students to discover how many of the findings are specific to international students and how many are in fact applicable to all postgraduate research students.

References

ARCHIBONG, U. 1995. Overseas students’ research supervision: their experiences and expectations. Journal of Graduate Education 1, 85-93. BORG, M., MAUNDER, R., JIANG, X., WALSH, E., FRY, H. & DI NAPOLI, R. 2010. International students and the academic acculturation process: the role of relationships in the doctoral process. Internationalisation and the student voice: Higher education perspectives. Routledge, London. CHIANG, K.XH. 2003. Learning Experiences of Doctoral Students in UK Universities. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 23. 4-32 DEEM, R. & BREHONY, K. 2000. Doctoral students’ access to research cultures: are some more unequal than others? Studies in Higher Education 25, 149-165. EVANS, C. & STEVENSON, K. 2011. The experience of international nursing students studying for a PhD in the U.K: A qualitative study. BMC Nursing, 10. 1-13 GOODE, J. 2007. Empowering or disempowering the international Ph.D. student? Constructions of the dependent and independent learner. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 28, 589-603. HIGHER EDUCATION STATISTICS AGENCY (HESA) 2014, Statistics – student qualifiers at UK Institutions, https://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_studrec&Itemid=232&mnl=14051 SASTRY, T. 2004. Postgraduate education in the United Kingdom – Executive summary. Oxford: Higher Education Policy Institute. WALSH, E. 2010. A model of research group microclimate: environmental and cultural factors affecting the experiences of overseas research students in the UK. Studies in Higher Education, 35. 545-560 ZEILANI, R. S. A., ALXNAWAFLEH, A. H. & EVANS, C. 2011. Looking back at the doctorate: A qualitative study of Jordanian graduates from PhD programs in the UK. Nursing & Health Sciences, 13, 360-365.

Author Information

Linda Hui Yang (presenting / submitting)

University College Dublin

Dublin

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