3.1 Project Framework
As articulated in the overview of the project in Section 1, the aim of the project was to identify a set of factors influencing the success of CALD, international, HDR students in engineering & information technology disciplines in order to improve practice in successful supervision. The project looked at identifying the particular factors related to the needs and supervisory issues that CALD international HDR students and their supervisors face in the engineering and IT disciplines.
While linguistic and cultural (both social and academic) challenges are apparent in the supervision of CALD international students, individual and institutional factors also play a role in their success. Individual factors include attributes and motivations embodied in learning styles. Institutional factors pertain to beliefs around how students succeed, which in turn are contained in the processes of selection, enrolment, progression and examination, as well as factors such as students-to-supervisor ratios. Since HDR students operate on visa and sponsorship timelines they are also constantly under higher pressure to complete studies in a timely manner compared with domestic students. Given the high level of technical and discipline specific knowledge required to commence and execute projects in these disciplines, it is most desirable that students are well prepared for an intensive study program that involves working in a demanding and advanced technical environment. The study was undertaken to identify factors that influence the performance of international and CALD, HDR students in engineering and IT at Australian universities. The main aims of the project were:
• To identify factors that provide effective support to CALD/international students in the engineering and IT disciplines to help them do well in their studies,
• To identify factors that will help improve and provide effective support for HDR supervisors in the supervision of CALD/international students in engineering and IT disciplines,
• To help improve the supervision of CALD/International HDR students through the encouragement of a more open, accepting, and supportive attitude towards students from diverse socio-ethnic backgrounds, as well as greater recognition of their potential contributions to the research agenda of universities.
3.2 The 5-fold Approach
To fulfil the aforementioned aims, a 5-fold approach to the project was undertaken. The five phases consisted of Focus Groups, Student Survey, Supervisor Survey, a comparison of support services across the three participating universities and critical incident interviews with HDR supervisors of the three same universities.
A mixed method approach was taken to data collection. Initial workshops and focus groups conducted at the three universities provided the material for two online questionnaire surveys; one student and the other supervisor. These were conducted between April 2011 and January 2012. Ethics approval was obtained from the three universities prior to the online survey data collection and amended later to include critical incident interviews.
18 Critical incident interviews with 12 supervisors were conducted from May to July 2012. In addition to these, institutional data on international HDR numbers, completions times, and information on countries of origin and support services for HDR students were collected from September 2011 to October 2012. The sections below discuss the data collection and analyses in detail.
3.2.1 Focus Groups
Focus Groups were conducted at UWA and Curtin and included a total of 12 academic staff. Initial data was collected through a pilot study conducted at QUT and UWA. The pilot study involved focus group discussions and a pilot test of the student survey. The inputs from this pilot study and an analysis of informal conversations with academic staff and students on HDR supervision led to a series of formal staff and student workshops in Curtin University and UWA. These workshops then provided the basic material that was used to develop the student and supervisor surveys.
3.2.2 Student Survey
The purpose of the student survey was to establish students’ demography, perceived obligations and success and supervision.
An online survey was conducted at QUT, UWA, and Curtin. The survey was completed by international and/or CALD graduate students studying in the areas of engineering Systems and Information Technology at these universities.
The students came from different countries with most being males. A minority had studied in Australia from before. The largest group had resided in Australia for less than 2 years. Most of the students were supervised by a team of supervisors while a minority was supervised by a single supervisor. Most of these had very high scores on the IELTS test. (A detailed analyses on student composition is available in Chapter 4)
3.2.3 Supervisor Survey
The supervisor survey was undertaken to establish the supervisors’ demography, perceived student obligation and success factors, styles of supervision and influences on their
supervision skills.
An online survey was conducted with supervisors in the areas of Engineering and
Information Technology at QUT, UWA, and Curtin. The majority of supervisors were mostly Australian. The pool of supervisors also included those who had studied in Australia and in foreign countries but with some significant Australian experience. The set of supervisors contained both native and learned English speakers. The supervisors came from different fields that included engineering, IT and the sciences (A detailed analyses on supervisor data and its collection is available in Chapter 4).
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3.2.4 Comparison of HDR and CALD Support Services
The emphasis of this study was to identify support services that contributed to academic success of the students. Services that were not exclusively HDR related but served to enhance their academic success were also recorded.
Key academics with HDR supervision roles within the three universities UWA, QUT and Curtin were interviewed against a preliminary checklist of HDR support services offered at the three universities. They were consulted with regards to the availability, location and accessibility of these services. A service was considered available, if it was offered directly by the university or indirectly through a university affiliated agency such as a student club. Services were recorded with regards to their location by considering where they were housed, whether at the university, faculty or school levels or located altogether separately. The accessibility of these support services considered who among HDR students these services were accessible to; general students, international students, faculty students, supervisors. A comparative table was developed and the support services were categorised into the following 5 categories; academic, administrative, social and settlement language and miscellaneous support.
3.2.5 Critical Interviews
A total of 12 interviews were conducted across the three participating universities in the last phase of data collection completed in June 2012. HDR supervisors in engineering and
Technology disciplines were interviewed individually. A questionnaire was circulated to the participants before the interview and those who were not available for a face to face interview, provided their responses via email. While the aim of these interviews was to provide information on critical incidents that supervisors may face in their supervisory roles, the robust content also provided details of the complexity and context of the supervisory relationship.
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