Challenges Affecting International Students in Australian Higher Educational Learning Institutions
Title: Challenges Affecting International Students in Australian Higher Educational Learning Institutions.
Literature Review
In the world today, education is considered one of the most important elements in the life of every individual. In numerous countries globally, education is seen as an important investment a nation can make in establishing it future. According to Quinn and Rubb (2005), education is basically a powerful agent that is associated with change including improvement of health, livelihoods, long term economic development, and significant contribution to social stability. Bearing this in mind, it is therefore important to note that education is a fundamental human virtue, a source of good life, a necessity to the society, a sign of attaining freedom, and the key to attaining sustainable development goals (Bhardwaj, 2016). With a view to serve the needs of the community through development skills, attainment of prosperous careers, and financial security numerous students worldwide have continued the pursuit of higher education. In order to achieve this, students have had to travel to foreign countries such as Australia in pursuit of better and quality education in Higher Institutions of learning. However, despite the countless significant sacrifices made in pursuit of education, there exist various challenges that affect numerous international students especially those in Australian higher educational institutions complicating adaptations to new lifestyles and the educational environment.
During the period of 2013, Son and Park (2014) indicate that Australia had approximately 700,000 international students in its institutions of higher learning with the figures continuing to increase on a daily basis. However, Son and Park (2014) suggest that despite the increased numbers there exist various factors such language barriers, Visa problems, and cultural shock that affect international students in Australian higher educational institutions. Andrade (2006) asserts that the use of different languages in these institutions of higher learning present a difficult challenge for most international students as it prevents free flow of vital information causing communication barriers. As a result, this complicates adaptations to new lifestyles and educational environment for new international students. Apart from language barriers, cultural shock is another major challenge greatly impacting foreign students. Son and Park (2014) identify Australia as a country with multicultural diversities where individuals from different nations and cultures live together. With Australia being a country with its own distinct culture, many foreign students may find this cultural change a major factor affecting their stay and continued learning. While both language barriers and cultural shock remain some of the major issues, Visa problem remains to be another major challenge affecting modern day international students in Australia. The issuance of student Visa in Australia only applies for students who are enrolled for a full time basis and have passed all visa conditions and requirements in Australia.
Rationale
International students pursuing education in Australian higher educational institutions encounter significant and inevitable challenges and hardship during their stay abroad. In order to understand whether the challenges faced affect the social and academic lifestyle, it is important to carry out a study that will collect information from a vast majority of international student in order to identify if these challenges affect their academic and social lifestyle. If learned that these challenges such as language barriers, cultural shock, and visa problems indeed affect the students’ lifestyle, future research and investigation can be conducted to examine these problems and propose suggestions or possible solutions to do away or reduce these issues that affect the lifestyle of international students.
Research questions
To what extend does the challenges encountered such as language barriers, visa problems, and cultural shock affect International Students in Australian Higher Educational Learning Institutions?
To what extent and in what ways do these factors affect the social and academic lifestyle of International Students in Australian Higher Educational Learning Institutions?
Research design
In order to find out the extent of the problem, an observation case study will be used to find out exactly how these international students undertaking different studies in Australian universities are affected by these challenges. The focus group shall be conducted by learners from particular schools so as to cater for students encountered with severe challenges. In addition, a focus group is the best approach as compared to semi-structured or structured interviews due to the need for various challenges to arise originally in group discussions. Otherwise, the use of interviews will limit individuals from pointing out these challenges due to the fear of fall backs. The purpose of focus is to help identify those challenges which international learners in Australian Universities and other learning institutions find more severe and unbearable (Son and Park, 2014)
Research participants
In this study, the research participants will involve the students from different nationalities who came to pursue higher education in Australian Higher Learning Institutions. The students vary widely in terms of age and years of study and will therefore form a good study group to evaluate based on the time spend in the Australian Higher Educational Learning Institutions. In addition, the learners experience the challenges first hand and can therefore outline these problems accurately.
The specific demographic information shall be obtained from the participants (international students) once they are recruited. This information will be obtained on the basis of sex, age, lowest and highest level of education, years of learning, religious belief, cultural background, nationality, and the percentage of those learners who agree in participating from within the institution of learning.
Population and sampling method
According to Taherdoost (2016), a population refers to the aggregate number of all units that possess certain specified features on which the sample required seeks to draw inference. In other words, a population involves the total number of units which forms the sample sizes of units to be drawn. The target population under study in this case involves international students in Australian Higher Educational Learning Institutions who are affected by various factors that influence their social and academic lifestyles. The study target will help establish some of the basic factor affecting foreign students in order to come up with better proposals and solutions to these problems (Kelly, 2003).
Stratified random sampling strategy will be adopted where the important strata (subgroups) will be identified. In this case, the students will be recruited voluntarily based on their respective schools after ethical approval and permission to conduct the process is obtained from the school president and other relevant bodies such as the student’s council.
Two groups with a sample size of 12 individuals will be selected from each school using purposeful sampling. This will involve the final years from the respective schools as they are in their final level of study and have had enough experience in the institution of learning. This exercise will take place on a free day such as the weekend to ensure less distractions and enough time to conduct the exercise. In addition foods stuffs and non-alcoholic flavored drinks will be provided to all in attendants in order to encourage participation from others.
Data collection method
Data collection method will be employed in this case due to size of the targeted population and the relevance of the data required.
In this case the use of questionnaires will be the appropriate data collection method to use due to the following reasons as suggested by Babonea and Voicu (2011). The target group which involves international students from different schools and level of study are diversified and therefore the use of face to face personal interview would be a time consuming and difficult method to conduct the data collection. On their hand, the use of questionnaires as a data collection will save more time for the researchers and the respondents involved. In addition, this procedure will also provide the different respondents involved with enough time to think and provide appropriate answers in the questionnaires at their own free time with minimum supervision, hence reducing cases of error. The questionnaires are also designed in large numbers and distributed over a huge target population allowing all participants to participate in the exercise which will be used in collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. Unlike other methods of data collection, questionnaires are considered the most suitable in this exercise due to its comparatively easier method to construct, plan, and administer. Additionally, questionnaires are more suitable in this exercise as it ensures and provides respondents with anonymity. With this procedure of data collection, participants are provided with greater confidence and freedom to express their views.
Ethical consideration
Under this section, the approval to carry out the study on the various factors affecting international students in Australian institutions of higher learning will be obtained from the school president or the principal and from the students who will be participating in the research. In a case where members of the student council are conducting the research, there might occur a power difference between the student council representative and the ordinary student sometimes making them uncomfortable and dishonest. In order to avoid this, ordinary students need to be provided with anonymity. Without possible guidelines such anonymity, any research will most likely fall due to negligible risks. The questions and topics are asked on a daily basis by students and hence cannot introduce any emotional risk and anxiety.
Plan/ logistics for data collection
The discussion for the target group will be supervised by the researcher who is also a student council representative. Despite being a student, the researcher will be able to participate in answering the questions to the discussion beyond moderation.
During the discussion great emphasis will be sited on the use of non-verbal communication, such as prosody and body language when responding to questions. The researcher will write down feelings, thoughts, and various impressions, and other important non-verbal communication during the target group in order to add depth and breadth to the analysis and help in interpreting the presented findings.
In this case, the target population will be semi-structured on the basis of the issues found in the literature review section for instance language barrier, cultural shock, and visa problems. Queries will be formulated in accordance with the level of study, experience, and belief in the availability of the issue.
For storage purpose, the target population’s discussions will be recorded using a voice based recording software which is transcribed to text code by the researcher word for word in order to provide an accurate timeline of events discussed on and off topic.
Plan for data analysis
During this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used when analyzing the data. In addition, the data will also be analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). This process will involve both inferential and descriptive analysis. The Descriptive analysis will help when dealing with categorical variables that will be described as percentages and frequencies. Additionally, discrete and continuous data, variation measures, and standard deviation will all be utilized in the analysis.
Flexibility will be allowed by the researcher in case of any inclusion of additional themes that emerges as the analysis is carried out. This will enable a better and more accurate analysis that well captures all the realities, of factors affecting international students in Australian higher educational institutions.
It is imperative to take into consideration some of the limitations of the document as having the inability to capture the vivid reactions in the meetings and everyday challenges these learners endure. These are as a result of failure in completion of taking notes and inconsistency in the program.
References
Andrade, M. S. (2006). International students in English-speaking universities: Adjustment
factors. Journal of Research in International education, 5(2), 131-154.
Babonea, A. M., & Voicu, M. C. (2011). Questionnaires pretesting in marketing research. Challenges of the Knowledge Society, 1, 1323-1330.
Bhardwaj, A. (2016). Importance of education in human life: A holistic approach. International
Journal of Science and Consciousness, 2(2), 23-28.
Kelly, B. T. (2003). Focus group interviews. Research in the college context: Approaches and
methods, 49-62.
Quinn, M. A., & Rubb, S. (2005). The importance of education-occupation matching in migration
decisions. Demography, 42(1), 153-167.
Son, J. B., & Park, S. S. (2014). Academic experiences of international PhD students in Australian
higher education: From an EAP program to a PhD program. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, 9(1), 26-37.
Taherdoost, H. (2016). Sampling methods in research methodology; how to choose a sampling
technique for research. How to Choose a Sampling Technique for Research (April 10, 2016).
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