Through the Looking Glass: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed International Branch Campuses’ Academic Experience and Home Campus Relationship

This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the academic experience at international branch campuses (IBCs) and has changed the relationship between the IBC and the home campus. Semi-structured interviews with 26 leaders, academic staff, and students at seven IBCs in Malaysia revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the experience at IBCs in unique ways, including collaboration and communication with the home campus; increasing campus-specific resources for student wellbeing; and playing a larger role in student enrollment, recruitment, and mobility initiatives. Findings provide useful insights for higher education institutions (HEIs) engaged in transnational education (TNE).

Unpacking Transnational Social Capital and its Effects: Insights from an International Study Experience in Belgium

This paper studies (trans)national social capital gained through an international study experience in Belgium. Drawing upon a multi-method alumni study, we explore different types of (inter)national networks of male and female graduates, the extent to which different networks remained after graduation as well as effects on personal and professional development and organizational performance. Findings show that graduates have particularly gained networks with non-co-nationals which evolve from bridging relations at the outset to bonding relations while particularly networks with the host population remain limited. After returning home, bonding social interaction relations remain most important, irrespective of the nationality of the graduates, whereas information sharing and collaboration networks survive better among co-nationals, particularly when these are triggered through national alumni chapters. Our study finds network effects on individual's intercultural skills, knowledge and attitudes, their professional career and organizational performance, with intercultural gains being particularly high for networks with non-co-nationals from other continents.

The Student Experiences of Teaching and Learning in Transnational Higher Education: A Phenomenographic Study from a British-Qatari Partnership

Transnational higher education (TNHE) of UK universities has been noticeably expanding during the last two decades in the Arab Gulf region, but few studies investigated qualitatively the different ways in which students in that region experience both teaching and learning. The aim of this study is to understand the ways that students conceptualise their learning and educational experiences at a British TNHE in Qatar. Employing a phenomenographic approach, we interviewed forty students in a TNHE UK programme within a Qatari higher education institution (HEI). The outcomes of our interviews generated three hierarchically related categories as follows: developing academic skills, acquiring self-learning skills, and acquiring employability skills. Our findings also suggest themes of interdependence in learning and transferability of skills developed by students. This study offers HEIs a better understanding and insight into the design of TNHE programmes that would respond to the students’ learning experiences and educational development.

Intercultural Competence Development Through Co-Curricular and Extracurricular At-Home Programs in Japan

The rapid development of international education has occurred alongside a growing demand for higher education institutions to educate globally competent graduates. Yet, mobility remains a distant opportunity for most students, and Japanese undergraduate students often cite financial, safety, and job-hunting concerns as obstacles to studying abroad. Internationalisation-at-home has emerged as a viable alternative to mobility in Japan through government-funded internationalisation programs. This article will discuss the impact of co-curricular and extracurricular programs on the development of intercultural competence among 164 first-year Japanese students at two Top Global universities in Japan. Results from a one-year longitudinal, mixed methods study reveal that while formal programs positively affect intercultural competence development, informal intercultural contact on campus negatively affects students’ intercultural attitudes. Findings also indicate that student perceptions of intercultural competence at the pre-intervention stage affect engagement with intercultural opportunities on campus, suggesting the importance of introducing interventions prior to higher education.

From the Semi-Periphery with Love. A Dream of a Democratic Social Science: A Margin Lever

The article highlights a set of specific solutions for international journals - “The Margin Lever”. The proposed solutions relate to changes in publishing policies and methods of reviewing texts that may contribute to overcoming the hegemony of scientists coming from the richest, top-rated, perfectly adapted universities. These universities are usually located in the richest and most developed countries - we call them the core, or the center of the scholarly world. The margin lever is designed, not to make competition with them equitable, but rather to contribute to the development of democratic networks, and support global and local efforts within committed social research.

Basic Need Satisfaction Intervention for Mainland Chinese International Students’ Adjustment to College

With an increasing number of students pursuing their tertiary studies overseas, ways to improve their adaptation into a new environment become of the utmost importance. By applying self-determination theory, the current research investigated the extent that a basic psychological need intervention can increase need-satisfying experiences and promote the adjustment of Mainland Chinese international students to college. In total, 55 participants were randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition. They completed questionnaires on basic need satisfaction and college adjustment before the start of the study, right after the completion of the intervention, and after a 5-week follow-up. Participants who received the intervention had significantly higher need satisfaction and adjustment to college than those in the control condition. The intervention effect was maintained after a 5-week delay. In addition, the results showed that the increases in psychological need satisfaction after the intervention predicted higher levels of students’ adjustment to college. Theoretical implications for the universality of basic need satisfaction to students’ well-being and practical implications for international education are discussed.

“It's Doable”: International Graduate Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning in the U.S. During the Pandemic

This study aims to understand the learning experiences and challenges of international students enrolled in Master's and PhD programs in various institutions who were forced to transition to online learning during the pandemic. In particular, the study explores the experiences and perceptions of seven non-native English-speaking international graduate students who came from six different countries and studied at different schools of education through phenomenological interviews. Analysis yields insight into these students’ online learning experiences and identifies factors which contributed to the mixed quality of these learning experiences. Overall, students tried to adapt to the “new normal,” while enduring learning and emotional challenges due to the harsh conditions of the pandemic in the United States and their home countries. Instructors’ readiness for online teaching as well as the extra support provided to help students cope with the sudden transition in the learning environment were particularly important factors affecting the students’ learning experiences. Our findings lead us to several recommendations for practice within graduate-level online learning environments and suggestions for further research, as well as broader considerations of what broader implications the case suggests for international education in light of digitalization.

Precarity Before and During the Pandemic: International Student Employment and Personal Finances in Australia

There is mounting evidence of increased international student financial and work precarity over the last decade in Australia. Yet, there has been a little scholarly analysis of which students are most affected by precarity and its sources. Drawing on two surveys of international students in Australia's two largest cities, conducted before and during the pandemic, we investigate the financial and work vulnerabilities of international students. We demonstrate that vulnerability is related to characteristics which describe particular cohorts of students: being from low-income countries, working class families, seeking a low-level qualification, enrolled in a non-university institution, and being without a scholarship. The concepts of “noncitizenship” and “work precarity” are used to explain how the mechanisms of each characteristic heighten vulnerability, thereby contributing to a broader evidence-base about the causality of international student precarity.

Framing in International Student Recruitment: A Cross-Country Comparison of the Online Corporate Identity of Universities

The global mobility of students is on the rise and the recruitment of international students is high on the agenda of institutions in higher education. By communicating a distinctive corporate identity on their websites, universities can distinguish themselves from competitors and generate a positive image to attract talented international students. In this study, the online corporate identity of top universities in 12 countries is compared by semantic network analyses. This cross-country comparison demonstrates that universities in different countries create a distinctive online corporate identity by using different (combinations of) frames within four identified themes: internal characteristics, student resources, external position and affairs, and corporate citizenship. These insights are useful in the development of communication strategies by universities and national governments.

From Digital Shock to Miniaturised Mobility: International Students’ Digital Journey in China

As Asia's largest host country of international students, China's digitial placemaking is impacting on international students’ experience whilst studying and living in the country. This rqualitative study addresses the issue of international students’ transition to the digital environment in China. It draws on the theoretical perspectives of international students’ digital journeys and miniaturised mobilities to inform thematic analysis of artefact-mediated student interviews and social media posts. Findings show that international students’ digital journeys in China are characterised by three modes of digital adaptation including digital shock, digital border crossing and digital approachability. We argue that engaging in these modes of digital adaptation has reconstituted international students’ subjectivity through empowering miniaturised mobility, but also a sense of digital in-betweenness as they operate between two different virtual worlds.