Challenges Faced by University Staff Members when Providing Services to International Students: An Australian Perspective

A qualitative case study examined the challenges of service provision and utilization at an Australian university. Using a Social Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology, 73 participants were interviewed, including 38 staff members (16 academic, 22 non-academic), 25 international (IS) and 10 dome...

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Main Authors: Harryba, S., Guilfoyle, Andrew, Knight, Shirlee-ann
Format: Journal Article
Published: Common Ground Publishing 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.3251
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36326
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author Harryba, S.
Guilfoyle, Andrew
Knight, Shirlee-ann
author_facet Harryba, S.
Guilfoyle, Andrew
Knight, Shirlee-ann
author_sort Harryba, S.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description A qualitative case study examined the challenges of service provision and utilization at an Australian university. Using a Social Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology, 73 participants were interviewed, including 38 staff members (16 academic, 22 non-academic), 25 international (IS) and 10 domestic students (DS). Challenges that staff members experienced when working with IS included university and student-level challenges lack of incentive, heavy workloads, and perceived language barriers. A main issue related to equity and whether or not staff members were acting in an equitable manner towards the IS and DS. Themes that emerged included lack of training for staff members responsible for working with ESL students and miscommunication between staff members. These issues added onto an already heavy workload which was felt as even heavier because of IS perceived language barriers. For many academic staff members, these factors appear to have contributed to the reported increase in leniency-whereby lectures evaluate academic work from IS differently to those of DS. The implications of these findings for institutions which enroll IS are discussed.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2012
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-363262017-01-30T13:55:04Z Challenges Faced by University Staff Members when Providing Services to International Students: An Australian Perspective Harryba, S. Guilfoyle, Andrew Knight, Shirlee-ann University Staff International Students Academic Support Equity A qualitative case study examined the challenges of service provision and utilization at an Australian university. Using a Social Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology, 73 participants were interviewed, including 38 staff members (16 academic, 22 non-academic), 25 international (IS) and 10 domestic students (DS). Challenges that staff members experienced when working with IS included university and student-level challenges lack of incentive, heavy workloads, and perceived language barriers. A main issue related to equity and whether or not staff members were acting in an equitable manner towards the IS and DS. Themes that emerged included lack of training for staff members responsible for working with ESL students and miscommunication between staff members. These issues added onto an already heavy workload which was felt as even heavier because of IS perceived language barriers. For many academic staff members, these factors appear to have contributed to the reported increase in leniency-whereby lectures evaluate academic work from IS differently to those of DS. The implications of these findings for institutions which enroll IS are discussed. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36326 http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.3251 Common Ground Publishing restricted
spellingShingle University Staff
International Students
Academic Support
Equity
Harryba, S.
Guilfoyle, Andrew
Knight, Shirlee-ann
Challenges Faced by University Staff Members when Providing Services to International Students: An Australian Perspective
title Challenges Faced by University Staff Members when Providing Services to International Students: An Australian Perspective
title_full Challenges Faced by University Staff Members when Providing Services to International Students: An Australian Perspective
title_fullStr Challenges Faced by University Staff Members when Providing Services to International Students: An Australian Perspective
title_full_unstemmed Challenges Faced by University Staff Members when Providing Services to International Students: An Australian Perspective
title_short Challenges Faced by University Staff Members when Providing Services to International Students: An Australian Perspective
title_sort challenges faced by university staff members when providing services to international students: an australian perspective
topic University Staff
International Students
Academic Support
Equity
url http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.3251
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36326