Liang H' Chen, BA, MSEd', MBA, PhD, CGA

1
Recognizing International Students Aspirations,
Expectations and Satisfaction in a Diverse
Learning Environment

• Presented by
• Liang H. Chen, BA, MSEd., MBA, PhD, CGA
• March 26, 2008

2
Agenda

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Methodology
• Findings (Survey Interviews)
• Recommendations from Students
• Conclusions

3
Introduction

• This study was supported by SIG 2006.
• This study builds on my research interests
  related to international students choice and
  learning experience.
• Over the past four decades, our learning
  environment has become more diverse
•  

4
Objectives

• To identify international students learning
  experiences, successes, and challenges in an
  academic setting
• To assess their level of satisfaction with their
  education
• To glean insights on how we can help
  international students adjust to their new
  learning environment and achieve their academic
  goals.

5
Literature Review

• Uehara and Hicks (1989) found that finances, lack
  of friendships, loneliness, educational
  communication, and language acquisition were the
  great concerns of international students.
• Chen (1990) and Fradd and Weismantel (1989)
  identified that English ability was one of the
  most significant factors affecting the social and
  academic satisfaction of international students.
• Grayson (2005) found that international ESL
  students had considerable difficulty with
  English, and therefore, had lower GPAs than
  domestic and international English speaking
  students.
• Chen, G. (1990). Intercultural communication
  competence Some perspectives of research. Paper
  presented at the Annual meeting of the Eastern
  Communication Association.
• Fradd, S. H., Weismantel, M. J. (Eds.). (1989).
  Meeting the needs of culturally and
  linguistically different students a handbook for
  educators Boston College-Hill Press.
• Grayson, P., Stowe, S. (2005). Language
  Problems of International and Domestic ESL
  Students at UBC, York, McGill and Dalhousie, and
  Academic Achievement Electronic Version from
  http//www.canises.com/.
• Uehara, A., Hicks, J. (1989). Institutional
  responses to socio-cultural adjustment Problems
  of foreign students in Japan. In K. Ebuchi (Ed.),
  Foreign students and internationalization of
  higher education. Hiroshima Research Institute
  for Higher Education, Hiroshima University.

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Methodology

• Who?
• Non-English speaking international students
  enrolled in the 2006-07 academic year
• 183 students (37) participated in the on-line
  survey
• (from 36 countries, with majority of East Asian
  and South Asian students, and enrolled in 7
  depts)
• 25 students participated in the in-depth
  interviews
• (from 9 countries, with majority (40) of Chinese
  students, 56 of female and 44 male students)
• The number of survey respondents and interviewees
  mirrored the total populations in terms of
  country of origin, gender, and department
  enrolled
• How?
• Quantitative Method - Questionnaire based on
  CANISES (2004-2006)
• Qualitative Method - Format semi-structured,
  small groups

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Methodology (continued)

• Research Questions?
• What are the non-English speaking international
  students aspirations and motivations for
  pursuing a foreign degree?
• What are the successes and challenges in their
  learning experience?
• How well do their learning experiences meet their
  expectations?
• What is their level of satisfaction in their
  current programs?
• What more can they and their school
  administrators and instructors do to enhance
  their learning experiences and help them achieve
  their academic goals?

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Findings - Survey

• Study Abroad Decision
• International Students were encouraged by their
  family to pursue a foreign degree and were
  motivated by a desire to acquire foreign language
  skills.
• Preparation
• Students reported that they were emotionally and
  academically prepared for university, as well as
  in terms of their English language skills.
• Learning Experience, Goals Outcomes
• Students strongly agreed with the following
  statements
• Leaving marks aside, my knowledge of a
  particular subject matter has increased this
  year.
• I have developed intellectually (judgment,
  critical thinking, etc.) over the past academic
  year.
• I can easily understand the lectures, follow the
  class discussion, and read the exam with no
  problem.
• I worked up to my talent and potential and will
  achieve my academic goal this year.
• I intend to continue with my program of study.

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Findings - Survey (continued)

• Interaction/Integration Challenges
• In general, international students found
  interaction/integration a challenge.
• They reported that it was easier to integrate
  into students groups formed with domestic
  students from their own cultural/ethnic
  background, or even with international students
  from other countries.
• East-Asian international students found it harder
  than other international students to form study
  groups and work in group projects.
• Teaching
• Students agreed with the following statements
• My professors know their subject matter well, and
  use good teaching techniques
• My professors are available and responsive to the
  class, and are approachable and care about
  students in the class
• However, they agreed less with the statement my
  professors understand my learning challenges.
  (2.96 out of 5.00 in the Likert Scale)

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Findings - Survey (continued)

• Satisfaction
• Students ranked their satisfaction level the
  highest (3.95/5.00) in terms of Value for my
  education.
• Their satisfaction level was high in terms of
  the content and material that I am learning ,
  and my program of study meets my expectations.
• In general, they were satisfied with issues such
  as the way courses were taught and course
  registration, co-op placement, and work-study.
• However, they were less satisfied with their
  academic performance and social activities.
• Future Plans
• Students showed a strong indication that
• They would like to work in an international
  environment.
• They would like to stay in Canada for a short
  period of time after graduation.
• However, there was no strong agreement with go
  to a graduate school in another country, go to
  a Canadian graduate school, or going home as
  their future plan.

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Findings - Interviews

• Transitional/Adjustment
• Not an issue the majority (18/25) of
  interviewees spent at least a year in a Canadian
  high school or college before attending UTSC.
• Half of the interviewees mentioned that they had
  family, relatives or friends here
• Social/Integration
• Very competitive learning environment
• They will link up with you if they have
  something to gain out of it.
• Difficult to integrate in domestic student
  groups
• I had so many friends before I came to Toronto.
  I came here and no one was talking to me . I feel
  lonely.
• Language is a major barrier
• I think the major barrier between international
  students and local students is still the
  language ability If you know their language, you
  can find that they are really humorous, clever
  and attractive. But in the English-speaking
  environment, they cant express themselves that
  good and people would say that this person is not
  cool and he is silent all the time. Probably he
  does not have good marks, why should I talk to
  him?

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Findings Interviews (continued)

• Different treatment for international students
• In general ,No people (students faculty)
  were not aware of their legal status
• Being seen as rich or from rich family
• If I am treated differently, the only thing is
  they are rich. I was like no, my parents put
  every bit of their saving on my education.
• Specially the minute you mention you are from
  Saudi Arabia, because you studied there. They go
  like Oh my God! Oil! you must be really rich!
  Thats not true though.
• Wow, you are an international student? You must
  be like so rich.
• Not eligible for financial assistance, and job
  application
• For us, you cant get any scholarship from
  others. We dont get any work opportunities
  either. I dont really care about money but I
  care about the experience.
• When it comes to getting a job! They do
  discriminate if you are international or not.
  Even if you want to work in a small job, in a
  cafe, they do check your status and if youre
  international, they give you less preference.

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Findings Interviews (continued)

• The Best Academic Experience
• Performed well in certain courses
• I also enjoy labs, chemistry labs. I enjoy it.
  Being taught stuff and then being able to apply
  it or do it by myself, being able to say, yeah,
  I did it! I enjoy that.
• Found potential/interest in a certain
  area/courses
• I discovered my numerical potential which
  means I can easily deal with numbers!
• The communication course I took was my greatest
  positive experience. I mean I learned so much
  without being worried about the grade. The
  professor told us at the beginning that dont
  worry about the mark, every one gets B or B in
  this course. It really helped because it teaches
  how to improve communication skills, how do you
  talk, how do you project your voice. It was a
  great learning experience.
• Found professors were nice and approachable,
  teaching styles
• I think the nicest thing is the professor here.
  The Prof I know, they dont mind how many
  questions you asked. Like even after office hours
  you go there, they will answer questions. Some
  professors are really nice. I feel like so
  comfortable. I can call my professors name, it
  is so cool Some professors are so great, they
  not only teach, they also talk about their lives
  and stuff so I feel like oh its so good here.
• Positive co-op work experience
• My work term, because I can relax a little bit.
  The thing is you can actually experience what is
  going on in the market place. You get to know
  some other friends as well.

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Findings Interviews (continued)

• The Biggest Academic Challenge
• Majority of interviewees found that the academic
  work was harder than they expected, mainly due to
  language and time management issues
• Language barrier reading speed, communication
  skills (oral and writing), group work
• We are international students and people dont
  know our language barrier and our culture and all
  things. You go to class, you want to do
  assignment you are not competent enough to
  participate in a study group just because of your
  English problem. And people are not that open to
  you. You suddenly dont know how to set up here,
  you feel a big gap.
• I think the biggest challenge for me is to be a
  public speaking. I think its the difference in
  cultures. I see a lot of domestic students have
  the initiative to speak in front of class. But
  for me Im kind of shy and not really into public
  speaking in front of the class. But I am
  learning.
• Reading and the projects . Like honestly I hate
  researching But I like group work, you get to
  meet people and you now be friends. Biggest
  challenge for me is lots of reading.
• The course material for me is kind of hard but I
  think whats harder is time management and
  organizing because its different from Taiwan
  right. There is no teacher telling you, today
  your homework is blah blah blah. You have to
  figure out yourself so time management is
  definitely very challenging for me... As long as
  you take the time you can figure out. And the
  professor quality is good. You can always ask
  questions. They are very happy to answer your
  question.
• I went to the Writing Centre to ask them to
  proofread my essay, I feel so depressed after
  that, you know. They keep on crossing, crossing,
  its not right, I was crying. They were like how
  can you make this kind of mistake. I feel that
  because English is not my first language. But
  they cant seem to understand that. They say if
  you have the ability to come to this university
  you shouldnt have that kind of problem... Maybe
  she was in a bad mood, but it made me feel really
  bad that day.

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Recommendations from Students

• Language Preparation, Financial Aid, and Other
  Services
• The university can offer us some English
  programs. Event though that theres Writing
  Centre and International Students Centre, there
  can be more programs. For example, you can sign
  up for one hour for English program, and your
  tutor will talk to you for one hour. For the
  Writing Centre, I think there are too many people
  go to Writing Centre so that the time for each
  student is reduced, only 30-40 minutes...
  Another thing the university can do is arranging
  a language program, for example, if one student
  want to learn Spanish and one want to know
  mandarin, they can arrange a fixed time and
  everyone get what they want to know. I even
  would like to pay for the a program like that,
  because it is just so helpful and effective.
• If you are talking about the university as a
  whole, definitely there is something they can do
  to support international students. They can open
  more financial sources to international students.
  I mean people come to study overseas is probably
  the biggest issue of their family unless they are
  millionaires. From the global educational
  perspective, the top destination is US and people
  will go there if they can afford it. Canada can
  provide a relatively good education with a
  cheaper cost. However, even its relatively
  cheaper, its still very expensive. So school can
  just merely open some sources of aid for visa
  international students would be good enough.
• I think we havent received the, lets say,
  service because of the expenses that we are
  paying, tuition and stuff, and I always believed
  that from the nature of consumers side, I think
  we should get extra attention especially for
  international students, we really need extra
  assistance and help to get familiar with, lets
  say, understand the academic work and get
  familiar with the social community. But I dont
  think I see the effort has been made, like
  creating extra care for this certain group,
  international students. Like as for now, there is
  ISC, International Students Centre, but its
  actually just a small place over there, at the
  corner of the student centre. Some people just
  pass by, they dont even know thats the place
  you can get help. As I know that international
  students numbers keep going up, I think the
  university may want to try creating a special
  place to taking care of international student,
  let say expanding the impact of ISC.
• Yeah, food can be a problem, because we are
  Muslims we have to eat a specific kind of food,
  Halal food, slaughtered in a specific way...
  Except Subway's tuna sandwich, which I have been
  eating for like a year! Lower the prices on
  campus or have more variety because you get sick
  of it.

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Conclusions

• International students reported that they were
  satisfied with their learning experiences and
  that they met their learning objectives. The
  findings are similar to those of the NSSE
  (National Survey of Student Engagement).
• They reported that the best academic experiences
  included finding their potential in certain
  areas, performing well in certain courses, co-op
  experience, good interaction with their
  professors.
• They reported that the greatest challenges
  included the language barrier, in both the
  academic setting and social interaction, time
  management, burden of high tuition fees and not
  performing well academically.
• They recommended that the university could
  provide more language preparation programs
  specifically for international students,
  financial aid, and better promotion of the
  services provided by the International Student
  Centre.
• Residence experience is important for social,
  integration, and academic adjustments.
• This study confirms previous studies on
  international students' main concerns related to
  financials, loneliness, and language acquisition
  . As well, it proves that English ability is one
  of the most significant factors affecting the
  social and academic integration of international
  students.