The Massey Kiwi Friend Programme

Abstract

Like many institutions, Massey University has experienced growth in enrolments of international students. Increasing numbers of international students has led to frustrations for international and domestic students, and for staff. This paper describes an innovative programme designed to help with the orientation of international students. Domestic students (Kiwi Friends) run workshops for small groups of international students as part of a course on Cross‐cultural Management. Key issues in designing the programme include the content of the workshops, development of the facilitation skills of Kiwi Friends, extending the programme to include supplementary activities that are attractive to international students, organisation of how students sign‐up for the programme, and assessment of Kiwi Friends in ways that do not interfere with their performance as workshop facilitators.