ISANA

Katerina Gauntlett

Abstract: The Gulf States have identified educational sponsorship as one of the most powerful means of building a better qualified national work force, with a view to redressing the overrepresentation of expatriates in the private sector. Over the past five to seven years, this has created an opportunity for Australian education providers to enrol Gulf Nationals who have been identified as the elite of their high school graduating cohort and sponsored to obtain specialist qualifications overseas.

In general, it has been observed that the students’ academic performance has met neither the institution’s nor the sponsor’s expectations, nor indeed the students’ or their families’. The accepted explanations for the students’ difficulties include: outmoded pedagogical practice in their home countries; the challenges of learning in English; gaps between assumed knowledge and actual high school curriculum; and religious/cultural difference. However, these do not satisfactorily explain why these students’ experience of Australian education differs sodramatically from that of other international students.  This study in progress questions some of the assumptions held about Gulf Sponsored students, working on the premise that more productive support mechanisms may be employed once the students’ expectations are better understood.

Key words: Sponsored students, nationalisation policies, pathway programs, Gulf sponsored students, academic performance, academic expectations, adjustment

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