- Title
- Exploring the challenges for expatriate student adjustment
- Creator
- Jones, Gary R.
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2014
- Description
- Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
- Description
- With a background of increased globalisation of education services, this thesis examines the adjustment experiences of Chinese student's sojourn to Australia to undertake postgraduate studies. This study has brought together existing literature on expatriate managers and international education and used these to form a suitable framework and reference points for this study to answer the research question - What are the critical challenges for expatriate student adjustment? The purpose of this study was to explore the adjustment of sojourn Chinese international students in Australia, to further assist in the understanding of student perceptions and adjustment processes when attending a university in Australia. A qualitative study was undertaken using basic pattern analysis across interviews with descriptive coding of responses and the data was interpreted based on aggregate analysis. This study has provided reference points of culture including language, cultures of learning and the dimensions of culture to develop an understanding of the students' adjustment processes. The preparedness and adjustment processes of the students were analysed, using a timeline basis, comparing the students’ anticipatory adjustments (accurate expectations based on acquired knowledge and may include training) against their students' initial experience upon arrival and ongoing adjustment experiences in the areas of Interaction/socio-cultural adjustment, learning adjustment and general adjustment. The important findings of the study included that a lack of anticipatory adjustments contributed to culture shock; this included an overestimation by the students of their language proficiency and the students had little knowledge of the different culture of learning in Australia, which compounded their culture shock. Culture shock was evident in the early stages of the students' studies and was placated as their English proficiency grew (through language classes held at the university and daily usage) and understanding of different learning requirements of the university compared to those in China. The students clustered (lived, associated and studied together) as a reaction to culture shock and to minimise adjustment problems. There was poor utilization of the adjustment assistance services offered by the university, other than the language classes and services, a major reason given was their cultural background (low level of Assertiveness and In-Group Collectivism). This exploratory study will assist the management of universities in an understanding of their client base and their quest for educational excellence, by giving rare insights into their customers’ perspectives on critical adjustment challenges.
- Subject
- expatriate students; U curve; anticipatory adjustments; culture shock; sojourning international students; globalisation of education; cultural adjustment; culture of learning adjustment; socio-cultural adjustment; clustering
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1049223
- Identifier
- uon:15010
- Rights
- Copyright 2014 Gary R. Jones
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Abstract | 139 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Thesis | 984 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |