Complexities in the student experience

The third issue of the year brings together articles from across the world focusing on the student experience. From student mobility to supporting refugees, they explore the multitude of higher education journeys that students take and how we, as a higher education community, can improve their experience.

The first article in this issue by Jessica Schueller and Betül Bulut Şahin considers virtual student mobility as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Their results and findings show that some virtual student mobility programmes were perceived as a concrete challenge, disappointing, and an inadequate learning experience for Erasmus students. The results also challenge the purported inclusiveness of virtual student mobility programmes. The paper concludes with the need to reconsider virtual student mobility as inclusive internationalisation, and offers implications for policy, practice, and research.

The second paper comes from Pakistan where Kamal ud Din, Muqaddas Abbas and Nauman A. Abdullah investigate the factors affecting students’ motivation for undertaking a research thesis in both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The research findings reveal significant problems persist. Despite the measures taken to satisfy students, it was found that students faced personal and supervisory problems more than academic and institutional problems. They conclude the paper with recommendations for practice to further support future students.

Juhar Abamosa’s article explores the need for academic leaders to create a genuinely inclusive environment for the social inclusion of minorities, including refugees. He offers several ways of devising and implementing measures aimed at facilitating the social inclusion of refugees into higher education and implores university leaders to empower refugees to become agents of themselves, advocate for other minorities, and make a difference to their student experience.

The final article in this issue focuses on Chinese students who choose the UK to continue their postgraduate education. Cheryl Yu, Wei Liu and Stephanie Waller take a comparative approach to this study using data from Chinese students who graduated in both 2000 and 2020 from UK universities to explore the perceptions and changes during this time. Their findings indicate the declining weight of the UK’s higher education reputation should be concerning and advocate for slowing the neoliberal expansion of international recruitment and strengthening the desirable Socratic approach to teaching and learning.

The issue concludes with David Law’s review of the recently published book ‘Leading a Business School’ by Julie Davies, Howard Thomas, Eric Cornuel and Rolf D. Cremer (2023).

The editorial team would also like to thank Jean Grier for her time as Associate Editor of the journal as she steps down to explore other opportunities. Jean has been part of the Perspectives team for many years and her contributions have been invaluable. We would like to welcome Dr Christine O’Dea to the editorial team. Christine will take up the post of Associate Editor from May 2023.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joanne Caldwell

Dr Joanne Caldwell is Joint-Editor for Perspectives and is the Centre for Doctoral Training Manager at the University of Salford. She completed her EdD in 2021 with a thesis focusing on professional services staff identity and their relationships with academic staff.

Charlotte Verney

Dr Charlotte Verney is Joint Editor for Perspectives and is Head of Assessment at the University of Bristol. She has worked in higher education for over 15 years, held management posts in several UK universities and last year completed her EdD with a thesis examining the changing nature of higher education administrative work.