Enhancing international student experience: pre-support support services provided to postgraduate international students in a Malaysian research university

ABSTRACT

The literature on international students predominantly emanates from the Western perspective and offers rich insights into international students’ adaptation experiences. While university services improve these experiences, limited studies have investigated the role of pre-support assistance prior to students’ arrival. This paper fills that gap from a non-Anglophone perspective, using 31 semi-structured, thematically analysed interviews with postgraduate international students in a Malaysian university. As country-specific research, this paper highlights practices of pre-support services for incoming international students in order to improve their experiences at a Malaysian research university. Pre-assistance provided includes the Student Ambassador Program (SAP), pre-information provided by friends and colleagues, and academics building rapport with students prior to arrival. This has a positive impact on levels of such students’ engagement, satisfaction, motivation and sense of belonging to the institution.

KEYWORDS:

• Pre-support services
• postgraduate international students
• Malaysia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jasvir Kaur Nachatar Singh

Dr Jasvir Kaur Nachatar Singh is an award-winning Lecturer at the Department of Management, Sport and Tourism, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Australia. In 2020, Dr Singh received an international teaching recognition from Advance HE, UK as a Fellow (FHEA). In 2018, Dr Singh received two La Trobe University Teaching Awards and Best Presenter Award at the Global Higher Education Forum, Malaysia. Dr Singh’s research expertise is in higher education with a particular interest in exploring international students’ lived experiences of academic success, employability, career aspirations and learning experiences in a blended learning environment. Dr Singh also explores lived experiences of international academics with leadership positions. Dr Singh has published numerous articles in high impact journals and has presented at various national and international higher education conferences.