Australian universities’, and indeed most higher education institutions in other countries with well-developed higher education sector, dependence on income from international students continues to increase, and even with some re-adjustments in this ‘market’, this trend is unlikely to change in any significant way. Even though I am uncomfortable in using such language, one would argue that Australian higher education institutions are reaping the benefits of investments in higher education over a number of years.
This trend will continue due to the reduction in higher education funding from governments, and as a result for universities to revamp their international marketing campaigns to attract fee paying international students. Competition between universities in Australia, and internationally, is also at an all-time high, significantly due to the various surveys and ratings that pitch universities against each other, not just in teaching and research outputs as well. So universities are trying to provide ‘the most bang for their buck’. Another aspect that is fueling the international student trend is the ability for more and more families around the world to be able to afford international education for their children. Yes there are still many families of international students who struggle, and sacrifice to provide a world class education for their children, even the thought of this endeavor would not have been possible if not for their own aspirations and recognition of the value of international education. At the same time, more and more effort and resource is being put towards the widening participation from domestic students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and rightly so! As educators, are we ready to provide the rich learning experiences to the increasingly diverse cohort of students in our classrooms, both online and offline? I would argue that the vast majority of educators are not prepared, and more dangerously, are not willing to adjust their teaching and learning practices… ‘This is how we’ve done things for a long time’…. Just perusing the media, certainly in Australia, you can see a lot of myths about international students, and the problem according to many educators rests with the international students, when in fact most educators have not considered the learning needs and approaches of different students. This unsurprisingly leads to a number of issues. Understanding the learning approaches of students goes beyond learning to pronounce their names correctly, it a lot more than that.
2 Comments
Amy
11/9/2019 09:01:07 pm
Having been an international student and now being an educator, I have reflected a lot on my experience. I agree that the educators had no idea of the learning needs of international students. I believe that the issue at heart here was that majority of the lecturers were sessionals and, the institute had not invested enough to train these staff to adapt their teaching style to suit international students. Considering the revenue generated by international students it is disappointing to see that not sufficient investment was done in enhancing their learning experience.
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pranit
16/9/2019 09:44:53 pm
Totally agree with you Amy. As Australian higher education will continue to attract significant numbers of international students we need to really start to ensure we are ready to support international student, in fact diverse students, effectively. But also, by doing that we will continue to make our education more relevant
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December 2019
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