What are the factors that contribute to postgraduate international students’ academic success? A Malaysian qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a large body of Western literature exploring adjustment experiences of international students, limited research has been conducted to understand the connections between factors and academic success particularly concerning postgraduate international students. This paper fills this gap in the literature from a non-Western perspective, investigating key factors of academic success. It thus seeks to contribute to scholarship on international student development. It adopts a qualitative approach and is based on 55 semi-structured interviews, analysed thematically. Good supervision mechanisms, provision of student adjustment programmes, workshops and financial services by the Postgraduate Student Office, library services and individual characteristics of postgraduate international students were revealed as factors that contribute to academic success.

KEYWORDS:

• Postgraduate international students
• factors of academic success
• Malaysia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Jasvir Kaur Nachatar Singh http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1388-4656