Academics’ perspectives of international students in UK higher education

ABSTRACT

UK Higher Education (HE) is going through a process of unprecedented change, where large numbers of its student body now come from internationally diverse contexts. These students come from different cultures, backgrounds and educational systems which influence the way they interact, learn and engage with UK HE. Key participants in this engagement and interaction are UK HE academics, who play a significant role in the development of the international student teaching and learning experience. This paper aims to investigate this role and investigate the academic expectations and perceptions of 22 academic tutors across 3 UK HE Business Schools. Within this context the paper will explore how academic knowledge and understanding of international students influence their pedagogical approaches; the participants in the research each had a minimum of three years’ teaching experience. Data were analysed using template analysis through the lens of an interpretive approach. The findings indicate that more needs to be done to support the integration of international students in UK HE.

KEYWORDS:

• Internationalisation
• intercultural education
• higher education
• teaching and learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abdul Jabbar

Dr Abdul Jabbar is the Director of Learning Development at the University of Huddersfield and a senior lecturer in digital transformation and analytics. He has professional experience in working with students in supporting their teaching and learning and has worked as an academic for the last 10 years. I have a passion for teaching learning, he has been instrumental in driving forward and contributing to a programme of University wide strategic development.

Wilma Teviotdale

Wilma Teviotdale is an independent researcher following senior manager roles at the University of Huddersfield and has extensive experience of leading teams of academic staff teaching diverse student groups. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now part of Advance HE) and has led Departmental, School and University-wide teaching and learning projects, setting up a Learning Development Group in the Business School to provide cross-discipline support for a diverse body of student groups. Her current research interest is researching teaching-learning interactions using Symbolic Interactionism and EduSemiotics.

Mohammed Mirza

Mohammed Mirza is a Principal Lecture in Marketing and has extensive expertise in marketing, communications, customer care, sports marketing and the student experience. Mohammed has 20 years of teaching students in Higher Education and was responsible for initiating a series of international student support initiatives in the Business School at the University of Huddersfield which were subsequently adopted university-wide. Beginning his career in the private sector, Mohammed later entered the training sector from where he went on to teaching and learning in the higher education sector.

Walter Mswaka

Dr Walter Mswaka is a Senior Lecturer in Business Strategy at the University of Huddersfield Business School. He holds a PhD in Social Enterprise Legal Structures from the University of Huddersfield. Prior to joining the University, Walter acquired considerable experience in providing on-going business advice, counselling and mentoring to a wide range of communities and organisations within the social enterprise sector in the UK and abroad. His research interests lie in social enterprise, governance and SME development. He is currently undertaking research on social enterprises in Brazil, Ethiopia and Zambia, particularly focussing on their business models and collaboration with the private sector.