Pre-departure academic preparation: international students’ experiences of disciplinary study on 2 + 2 joint programmes

ABSTRACT

Despite a large number of Sino-foreign joint education programmes, little research has examined the pre-departure academic preparations of students on these programmes. This study aims to fill the research gap by interviewing 22 Chinese students on 2 + 2 programmes studying at an Australian host university. Findings show that while more than half of the participants acknowledged the preparing effort made by their home institutions, more participants pinpointed areas for improvements: little study pressure at home, the general and theoretical nature of the foundation disciplinary courses, and the disconnection between English and Chinese business terminologies. The implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese international students
• Sino-Australian 2 + 2 joint programmes
• qualitative interviews
• pre-departure preparation
• foundation disciplinary courses

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Women in Research Grant Scheme of Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia (2017).