Abstract: Each year, the University of Queensland opens its doors to thousands of new international students.
Although Student Support Services at the University of Queensland introduce international students to some essential safety issues relating to their new environment within the first few days after arrival, it has become apparent that given the number of avoidable critical accidents over the past few years, more specific information was needed to ensure students are made sufficiently aware of the dangers and hazards of their new surroundings. This practice based paper aims to describe the design and implementation of the ‘Safety and International Students’ session at the University of Queensland, and the measures taken to ensure that the information provided caters to the needs of international students. Further, this session is designed to introduce, reinforce and equip international students with a greater knowledge base of safety issues that is imperative to maximise their safe stay and reduce behaviour induced and therefore preventable critical accidents. The safety session is a compulsory one hour component of Orientation Week and is repeated twice to allow for maximum attendance. This study is a result of two years of reflective practice initiated by the International Student Advisers at the University of Queensland. Six hundred and fifty-three student evaluations were collated over the two years and feedback provided was very positive. This Safety Session was also presented at the Queensland ISANA Branch Meeting in March 2006 and was extremely well received.
Keywords: Safety, International Students, Critical Incidents, Duty of Care, Risk minimisation
Abstract: This paper reports on the development of a problem based learning (PBL) approach to lectures in a large first-year subject in an undergraduate business degree. The PBL approach was adopted as a means of encouraging students to engage with the formal discourse of the subject discipline and to ground the theories presented in the subject in an authentic simulation of business practice. The first-year undergraduate subject Management and Organisation Behaviour (M&OB) is one of eight in a compulsory common core for all Bachelor of Business degrees offered by Victoria University in Melbourne.The subject is taught across three campuses in Melbourne, and at offshore partner institutions. The subject normally has about 900 students in Melbourne and around 300 students offshore each semester. Students in M&OB come from a diverse range of business degree specialisations. Assessment, central in forming students’ perceptions of learning, has been designed using Biggs’ concept of constructive alignment.
The diversity of degree specialisations for students taking M&OB often results in some them not seeing the relevance of the subject to their degree or their career goals. This has lead to students disengaging from the subject, not attending lectures that they see as ‘boring’ and subsequently failing.
In an attempt to capture students’ interest lectures have been written as a semester-long story centred on a fictional organisation. The characters in the organisation are used to present management theory in the context of authentic business situations. Students are able to participate in the decision making processes of the organisation. Questions about issues faced by the organisation are put to the students during the lecture and they respond using wireless “clicker” devices. Their responses are recorded automatically and can be immediately projected onscreen during the lecture.
Student feedback has been positive and tutors are reporting an improvement in the quality of tutorial participation. Any impact on pass rates is as yet inconclusive, evidence points to an enrichment of the overall student learning experience. However, the lectures rely on the ability of the lecturer to be a convincing ‘raconteur’ and the effects of student participation on the unfolding ‘story’ of the fictional business raises difficult questions regarding the consistent delivery of the subject across multiple campuses with different lecturers. It also meets with problems when lecturers have limited industry experience; student perception of the authenticity of the PBL scenarios may be diminished due to this (Savin-Baden, 2000, p.1). The experiential learning model conflicts with the traditional didactic form of lecture delivery.
Key Words: Problem Based Learning, Constructive Alignment, Undergraduate, Business Degree, experiential learning
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.
Abstract: The presentation takes participants through the content of our newly launched website “Keep it Safe: A Guide for International Women Students” . The website content is simple and accessible and provides comprehensive, relevant information that's easy to understand and navigate, with a positive spin on safety for women. Developed from conversations with International women students over a period of 12 months, the 9 sections together take a wholistic focus on women’s safety and women’s experiences as an international student, from eating and exercising, to nightclubbing, to sharehousing, studying, sexual harassment, race discrimination to choices about sex, and we’ve tried to be as culturally sensitive and relevant as possible.
The web information encourages women to make the most of their experience as an international student, explore the world and themselves; rather than frighten, or insight apprehension or blame. Each section includes a brief explanation, some practical advice to avoid unsafe situations, and a comprehensive contact directory for getting more support and assistance. The sections covered are:
· Safety and You: Making friends and staying healthy
· Safety and Housing: Your rights and the rights of your landlord, keeping a good relationship with housemates
· Safety and Studying: Sexual Harassment on campus, complaints process, assertiveness vs. rudeness
· Safety and Work: understanding basic workrights, sexual harassment and race discrimination at work, OHS, sexwork, visa issues
· Safety and Getting Around: Travelling safely in different forms of transport during the day and night
· Safety and Nightlife/Partying: Common party drugs, drink spiking, sexual assault
· Safety, Dating and Relationships: What is dating, starting a new relationship in a new country
· Safety, Sex and the Law: Safe sex, contraception, STI’s, pregnancy, same-sex relationships, sexual assault
· Safety, Reporting to Police and Your Visa: What does and doesn’t affect you visa, the role of police when reporting sexual assault
Abstract: This presentation bases on a PHD research project, which is a detailed case study with the focus on exploring the academic adaptation experiences of a group of Chinese coursework postgraduate students studying in a faculty which is a popular choice of international students at one Australian university.
In twenty years, international education has become Australia’s fourth-highest export earner and the second largest service export industry (Australian Trade Commission, 2006). International students not only bring substantial revenue to Australian universities, but also bring challenges to their overseas study and their host universities. International students from the People’s Republic of China play a significant role in this market with a 25% share of the market (Australian Government Australian Education International, 2006). For Chinese students and their families, coming to study in Australia is possibly the most significant academic investment in the students’ life. Thus, there is high expectation for successful academic achievement.
Due to different educational background and culture, Chinese students have a different perception of their academic role and tasks than do Australian staff and students. Therefore, there is a very important and urgent problem: adjustment to the new educational environment. It is very clear that Chinese students have encountered challenges in their adjustment to studying in Australian universities, which have a great impact on the success of their academic achievement in Australia. The purpose of the presentation is: What can Australian universities and lecturers, as well as Chinese students themselves, do to smooth the adjustment experience?
The presentation includes three parts: 1. general background and relevant literature review of the project; 2. some results from the interviews with the lecturers, academic study support staff and Chinese students in the project, results on their understanding of the academic adaptation process; 3. discussions and suggestions for what can be done to improve the academic adaptation process.
Key Words: international students, Chinese coursework postgraduate students, academic adaptation
