Disabled international students in British higher education. Experiences and expectations

An often forgotten dimension of inclusion is travel, particularly international travel. The intersection of disability, access and international mobility usually fails to be explored, discussed or researched, and the experiences of higher education students in this respect are even more notably ignored (Tevis and Griffen 2014). With significant hurdles still present in daily access to most campus experiences, the situation is often so complex on a personal scale that it seems taken for granted that students with disabilities will remain static, in a home institution, for the duration of their post-secondary trajectory. This is far from being the case and the juncture of international mobility, disability and higher education is an under-researched but complex, dynamic and rich field of study.

Disabled International Students in British Higher Education sets a distinctive precedent within the paucity of in-depth research on this topic, and stands as both a significant contribution to the field and an indispensable work of reference. There are three reasons for this, and they will be examined below: the volume offers a ground-breaking wealth of description and analysis on the process of inclusion for international students on British higher education campuses; the book adopts ethnographic processes and is revolutionary in examining intersectionality from the student perspective and discourse; and although it aims for an academic tone and a scientific approach, and will appeal to both practitioners and researchers, the volume offers such wealth of details that it can literally serve as a pocket handbook for the international student on arrival in the United Kingdom.

The book’s first strength is that it is undoubtedly the most comprehensive look yet at higher education and disability from the perspective of international students. It includes a broad review of literature, a detailed examination of provisions and policies within the United Kingdom, as well as an all-encompassing overview of these students’ experiences that begins with admission and works its way to social life and extracurricular activities. Importantly, the book, early on, situates its focus squarely within the arena of intersectionality, and this is an act of rare boldness and acumen in a field where practitioners and service providers rarely give the concept enough thought: ‘Disadvantages appeared to be so intertwined, intersectional and simultaneous that sometimes the identification of a single contributory fact to their marginalisation was difficult’ (7).

The second powerful feature of this textbook is its authentic student perspective. What makes the insight offered so detailed and comprehensive indeed is the fact that it does not limit itself to reviewing literature and theoretical issues. The main body of the text is focused on ethnographic work carried out amongst 30 international students with disabilities. The textbook in fact integrates most of Soorenian’s (2011) doctoral thesis and its data collection. This provides an ethnographic richness and authenticity which is exceptional in academic volumes. Ethnographic work is still sadly rare in the exploration of the barriers experienced by higher education students; it is all the more surprising and refreshing to see this process applied to international students in post-secondary education. This methodological perspective allows the author to offer a broad, ecological insight into her subject matter, one that innovatively includes psycho-social well-being and networks (155–166).

The rich qualitative nature of the doctoral work integrated into this volume also allows the author to go beyond the conventional research concerns and tap into exciting and complex innovative issues: do foreign students necessarily have the cultural ease to describe their impairments according to our pre-existing categories (121)? Are personal assistants culturally congenial for international students requiring support (118–119)? If Soorenian stops short of perhaps one crucial qualitative question – is disability service provision itself ethnocentric? – she certainly lays the ground for future researchers to explore the issue further.

The author reviews, in detail, classroom delivery and barriers in the teaching format (128–134), as well as the cultural expectations that are perhaps not always met or grasped by UK lecturers (142–146). She stays shy of visiting the notions of power and privilege or micro-aggressions in the interactions of lecturers – something perhaps a little surprising in a text so explicitly focused on intersectionality. Soorenian at least offers us a platform where these concerns will now undoubtedly be more readily examined by future research. There is indeed emerging scholarship on these phenomena, and they surely represent issues that are doubly relevant for international students with disabilities (Clark et al. 2014).

Cultural discrepancies in evaluation methods in examinations, between the home country and the United Kingdom, are discussed in detail (141–142), but Soorenian does not touch on the cultural appropriateness and sensitivity of psychometric testing itself. This will become an area rife with tension and confusion, as international students are increasingly asked, by host institutions, to undergo evaluation or re-evaluation on arrival in order to meet national policies and legal requirements (Gopaul-McNicol and Armour-Thomas 2002). The author touches on ‘inconsistencies in understandings’ (169); such concerns around psychometric definitions, testing and cultural biases will now need to be fully unpacked by future research.

The third distinctive strength of this book is its user-friendliness. Because it is so solidly rooted in an ethnographic, student-centered perspective and aims to be broad in scope – from UCAS application to graduation, literally – the volume can adequately also serve as a sort of guide or handbook for future students with disabilities considering the United Kingdom for higher education. It is practical and detailed enough to answer almost any question that might arise as part of their relocation and university trajectory. Rare is the academic textbook that can serve this dual pragmatic function, but this equilibrium is achieved here and this will considerably widen the potential readership.

There are only two critical comments that can really be addressed at this excellent text. On the one hand, it would have been interesting to see the author go beyond the recorded frustrations with current provisions in British higher education institutions and explore systemic solutions that are beginning to emerge globally in the post-secondary sector around the world. Universal Design for Learning, in particular, is tangibly becoming an alternative to accommodation-style retrofitting for many North American campuses (Rose et al. 2006), yet it only receives a one-line mention: ‘[Studies] advocate the philosophy of “universal design” within assessment in HE [higher education], suitable for diverse learners regardless of labels’ (37). It would have been stimulating to have the author explore such viable systemic options from the lens of international student with disabilities.

The second regret is that the author has limited her scope to the perspective of students with disabilities entering the United Kingdom for higher education. Global mobility means that there is now also a significant number of students with disabilities leaving the United Kingdom for higher education experiences elsewhere: year or semester abroad, exchanges, internships, and so forth. There would have been rich grounds here for the exploration of topics such as barriers in eligibility to such overseas opportunities for students with disabilities, barriers in funding, cultural issues surrounding disability and foreign academic travel or field work, campus awareness around these hurdles, participant expectations, and so forth. The issue of intersectionality is equally potent when one considers the reverse trajectory; it is intricately woven in the experiences of not just those who arrive but also those who leave – or wish to leave.

Disabled International Students in British Higher Education is a significant contribution to the field of Disability Studies, one that addresses a pressing gap in the literature, and it is hoped that its publication will now lead to the emergence of dynamic scholarship on the topic of the multiple barriers experienced by international students with disabilities. The book is also a very powerful theoretical exploration of intersectionality, disability and mobility in higher education. Lastly, it is a subtle, elegantly written and powerful testimony of the usefulness and impact of student-centered, ethnographic methods in higher education research.

Frederic Fovet
La Trobe University
[email protected]
© 2016 Frederic Fovet
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10.1080/09687599.2016.1152015