Understanding international students’ study experiences in Australia: Introducing CRADLE Fellow Dr Fiona McKay
7 May 2019
I’m a new CRADLE Fellow for 2019. I’ve been at Deakin for almost seven years and, in that time, I’ve taught thousands of students: postgraduate and undergraduate, on campus and off campus, and domestic and international. In this time, I’ve become really interested in how our international students meet the challenges of higher education in Australia.
Deakin welcomes thousands of internationals students from all over the world each trimester. While many international students succeed at their studies in Australia, some struggle with the vast differences in teaching styles and approaches to learning. At Deakin we take a Cloud First approach to teaching, and we spend a lot of time and effort ensuring that our units can be completed wholly online. This is great for people who need flexible and accessible learning so that they can structure their study around other commitments. But for international students who are required to complete most of their studies on campus and are more used to a traditional model of teaching and learning, this can be a shock, and it can take them a little time to settle into the Deakin routine.
Despite a huge increase in the number of international students coming to Australia, there isn’t much research investigating their study experiences while here. The research that has been completed is related to loneliness, isolation, and physical and psychological needs, and academic needs, abilities, and experiences of international students, especially around English language proficiency. But there’s really not that much on international students’ expectations, how they deal with feedback, how they navigate assessment, or how they engage with the learning environment.
With my Fellowship I’m trying to go part of the way to filling this gap. Over the next few months, I’ll be speaking with a range of postgraduate students from all over the world who have decided to study at Deakin. I’m hoping that these conversations will help me to understand why some international students struggle in their first trimester, with the hope that we can design more successful resources and interventions to help them to achieve better learning and have an enjoyable overall learning experience while at Deakin.
2019 is an exciting year for me. I applied for the CRADLE Fellowship because, as a busy teaching and researching academic, sometimes it can be difficult to dedicate specific time to reflect on and provide evidence for our teaching practices. This Fellowship allows/encourages/forces me to take that time. I’m excited to see what the results are and how we can work with the findings to ensure an amazing Deakin experience for our international students.
For more of Fiona’s research, follow her on Twitter @feemck, LinkedIn or ResearchGate.
