Increasing International Student Numbers: Impact on Teaching and Learning
...ational students and teaching staff regarding high number of international students. • To suggest possible strategies/methods for all parties so as to maintain and improve teaching and learning quality. • To use the findings of the pilot study was used for a larger scale survey at Wintec. Method Four focus group meetings were held in May 2004 with one teaching staff group, one domestic student group and two international student groups. A structured questionnaire was used and Excel spreadsheet was used for data storage and analysis. Findings Background information Student respondents were mainly from Business and Administration followed by Tourism, Nursing and Information Technology departments. Most of them were doing their first year studies at Wintec and about two-thirds of them were in classes with over fifty percent students from overseas. The average class size was between twenty one and forty students. Results Students’ views 1. Feeling Most domestic students and half of the international students did not feel comfortable with high number of international students in class. Less than half of the domestic students felt comfortable to assist international students but more than half of the latter believed that they had received good support from domestic students. All domestic students did not believe the high number of international students could enrich their studies but instead had a negative effect. Half of the domestic students felt they had learned about different cultures from international students. Both domestic and international students preferred to have more Kiwi students in class. 2. Class interaction Almost all domestic students worked mainly with domestic students whereas international students worked with international students indicating there was limited interaction between the two groups. All domestic students said it was difficult to understand and work with international students and half of the international students found it difficult to understand domestic students’ comments in class. None of the surveyed domestic students had made friends with international students and only one-third of the international students had Kiwi friends. The majority of the international students received good support from other international students and became friends afterwards. 3. Support Over half of the domestic students believed their lecturers had provided enough support to all students but that departments and Wintec, as a whole had not. The majority of the international students knew their lecturers well and the teaching style suited them but they believed they need more tutorial support (additional time). Teaching staff’s view Of the seven teaching staff, three were from Business and Administration, two from Applied Communication, one each from Information Technology and Nursing departments. Most staff had more than half of their students from overseas. One-way communication and group discussion methods were most commonly used. Most of them believed they needed to change their teaching process but further training was not necessary. Some staff said they needed to learn how to interact with students from other cultures. None of them believed course content should be changed. Most staff identified the need for more support both from departments and Wintec. Suggestions Staff suggested it was necessary to maintain minimum entry standards, in particular an English language requireme...