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In response to the economic pressures of globalisation, the Japanese government has sought to internationalise its universities while at the same time attempting to protect Japan's culture. To achieve its goals, namely the increase in the number of international students and the development of human resources, it has initiated a number of top-down, quantitative policies which promote the Internationalisation of Higher Education (IoHE) through an increase in the provision of English Medium Instruction (EMI) courses. This paper provides a critical analysis of the government's approach and how the policies have been implemented by universities. The paper contends that the government's approach has enabled universities, which do not wish to make substantive changes to their curricula, to peripheralise EMI courses. The consequence of this is that the government's current approach of promoting EMI to internationalise Japanese universities is unlikely to achieve its goals.

Chinese has a rich and diverse vocabulary of terms, especially verbs, expressing power relationships. This paper selected 25 power relationship terms from the Chinese Proficiency Scale for International Chinese Education, and used a true-false format to test the differences in acquisition between international students from Confucian cultural circles and those from non-Confucian cultural circles. The study found that: (1) The acquisition levels of both groups are generally behind that of ordinary vocabulary; (2) There is a significant difference in the acquisition levels between the two groups, with the former performing better than the latter; and (3) There is a significant difference in the acquisition of these terms in administrative and family settings between the two groups, with the former performing better than the latter, but there is no significant difference in the acquisition of terms in other settings such as education. In response to these findings, the paper used interview data to provide mutual confirmation, and applied theories related to learning input, language transfer, and cultural circles to analyze and interpret the results. Finally, the paper made targeted suggestions for the teaching of power relationship terms.

This paper discusses the type of professional learning that international academic mobility makes possible during a PhD program. The conceptual approach used Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, which allows analyzing PhD students as 'newcomer' members who bet on mobility under the idea of "illusio." The methodology used was qualitative. The information was obtained through semi-structured interviews with twenty-four new researchers who studied in four prestigious PhD programs in education and history in Mexico. The findings demonstrate that mobility fosters relationships with peers abroad, makes it easier to learn to do research, favors the reconversion of capital within the scientific field, and offers practical knowledge related to the need to publish results in order to achieve international recognition.

The present study examined the validity of the paper-and-pencil Implicit Association Test (IAT), and whether implicit preferences for English, as assessed by the paper-and-pencil IAT, can predict engagement, which indicates the degree of involvement and performance in English. Participants included university students (N = 322) who responded to the paper-and-pencil IAT and a self-report questionnaire assessing explicit preference, that is, the degree to which they perceive that they like learning English. The results indicated a small but significant correlation between implicit and explicit preferences. Female participants showed a more positive implicit preference for English than male participants. Additionally, students majoring in foreign languages showed a more positive implicit preference for English than non-foreign language majors. These results demonstrate the validity of the paper-and-pencil IAT. They also show that implicit preferences influence actual English test performance and that this relationship is mediated by engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lexical bundles are recurrent multiword combinations and often function as discourse building blocks. Lexical bundles have been analysed in university students' writing to detect linguistic errors, measure writing competence, and investigate the divergence between L1 and L2 writing. Few studies, however, have focused on the high-stakes genre of PhD thesis and investigated the bundle productions of the same genre within the same level and discipline. This paper compares sentence initial lexical bundles in the corpora of English theses written by Chinese and New Zealand PhD students in the discipline of General and Applied Linguistics. Forty-six bundles from a Chinese corpus and forty-two bundles from a New Zealand corpus were generated. Among them, 94% of sentence initial bundles were identified as metadiscursive bundles. Chinese and New Zealand doctoral students showed considerably different preferences in their bundle selection. The paper examines the possible impact of these preferences and suggests there is a need to extend the metadiscourse knowledge of doctoral students in terms of lexical bundles.

Purpose: The global landscape of higher education has witnessed a steady increase in the mobility of international students, as more individuals seek diverse academic experiences and cross-cultural learning opportunities. This paper conducts a systematic literature review to investigate trends, research directions and key themes in the literature. By utilising the push-pull factor model the aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing international students' choices to pursue higher education and future career opportunities abroad. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review approach was applied. The selection was made using PRISMA framework-based inclusion and exclusion criteria. The review includes 43 publications from 2010 to 2022. Findings: The review results revealed five themes of scholarly conversations labelled as (1) betterment of life, (2) policy of the host country, (3) role of institutions, (4) return to home country and (5) social, economic, environmental, individual and cultural factors. The findings emphasise on the significance of factors such as the quality of education, visa requirements, academic reputation, tuition fees, availability of scholarships, job opportunities, social, economic, environmental, individual and cultural factors. The paper also identifies language barriers, visa policies and social integration difficulties as major barriers to international students' stay in the host country after graduation. Originality/value: This research enhances the current body of literature by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the empirical evidence available in literature that investigates the mobility of international students. The outcomes of this study will make a valuable contribution towards developing a more profound comprehension of the primary factors that influence international students' decision to pursue their education abroad.

This paper explores international students' engagement with educational technology for self-regulated English learning at an Australian university. Despite the increased use of automated feedback systems (AFSs) for language assessment, students' critical engagement with them for independent learning remains under-researched. The study primarily employed a qualitative approach to understand the students' preferred AFS tools and critical engagement throughout their personalised learning journeys but it also included a small-scale quantitative component. Data were gathered from seven students' e-portfolios, focus group interviews as well as a survey among 32 participants. Results highlight positive perceptions and successful use of AFSs, with students leveraging these tools to identify improvement areas, track progress and gain confidence. The study emphasises the importance of course structure, teacher guidance and a combination of human and automated feedback, in fostering learner autonomy and emotional self-regulation. The paper underscores the potential for sustained use of AFSs beyond the cours, and the significance of guiding learners to critically use these tools for ongoing learning and growth rather than dependence. These findings have significant implications, as readily available artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT hold great pedagogical potential for self-regulated learning within and beyond the language learning field.

This paper focuses on the epistemic inequality of international students as a "new" inequality that is under-represented in the current debates about decolonisation (albeit shaped by colonial discourses depicting international students as in deficit and incapable of meeting the standards of (colonial) universities). In this theoretical context, the paper reflects on a multi-modal digital methodology used in a research project that aimed to understand how international students deploy their epistemological resources to learn the curriculum. The paper describes selected artefacts submitted by the students around which their epistemic frames were expressed, suggesting where these may be concealed by epistemological situatedness of the lecturers. Based on the analysis of these artefacts, the paper develops and interrogates an epistemology for support towards interrogating the role of our own epistemological binaries in adversely affecting students' epistemic frames in the curriculum. As such, it contributes to a gap in the literature around decolonial pedagogy, and its role in tackling educational inequalities.

Despite the potential for mutual learning, improvement of service provision, and the advancement of policy, research on first-generation migrant students and research on international students have remained stubbornly separate. This paper makes the case that education research would benefit from leveraging data on international students and that internationalization research and practice should more often include first-generation migrant students. To explore the benefits of this proposition, this article explores differences in the experiences of Irish-born domestic students, first-generation migrant students, and international students at Irish higher education institutions, using Eurostudent VI data collected in 2016. These comparisons show that first-generation migrant students report lower levels of preparation for the domestic labor market than both Irish-born domestic students and international students. International students are faring well on other indicators too, as they report higher levels of academic satisfaction and feeling more prepared for the international labor market than both first-generation migrant students and domestic students. Results also suggest that the academic satisfaction of the three groups of students is shaped by both common as well as divergent factors, indicating that interventions aimed to support each group may require additional tailoring. However, limitations of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to documenting the experiences of international students need to be considered as findings from this study and similar studies are used. By comparing the experiences of the three groups of students, this paper highlights the experience of first-generation migrant students, often overlooked in international higher education studies.

This paper focuses on the tension between two political rationalities coordinating Danish higher education (HE) -- a nativist politics of belonging and that of status competition and its technologies of university rankings, citation indexes, and performance management, explored historically drawing on Gramscian conjunctural analysis. The paper argues that Danish academics were invited into a performative culture of world-class research, university rankings and citation indexes, and the dominance of English as the valued scientific language. Simultaneously a political consensus has developed around restricting international student access to Danish HE and reducing English-medium education in a context of hostility towards migrants generally. Consequently, Danish HE has been constituted as a nationalist public good with neoliberal characteristics.

Transnational routes such as direct-entry have become a more attractive option for Chinese students, due to the pandemic-imposed travel restrictions in China. The rise of Chinese direct-entry students can potentially lead to a significant increase in demand for academic and non-academic support not only after their arrival, but also before their departure from China. By applying Schlossberg's transition theory, this paper seeks to develop a good understanding of the academic and social belonging of Chinese direct-entry students in the UK through re-analysing the portraits (written narratives) of a previous research project. The findings indicate that these students were feeling disconnected from the academic and social communities. The factors affecting their sense of belonging are described using the 4S framework, namely self, strategies, situation and support. The paper ends with recommendations to key university stakeholders on how the partner institutions in China and the UK can help enhance a sense of academic and social belongingness of Chinese direct-entry students.

This paper reports on a study that examined the process of two international doctoral students' academic socialisation in Chinese universities. Drawing on the concept of academic socialisation and social network analysis, we analysed multiple types of data, including study-abroad social network questionnaires, concentric circles interviews, reflective journals, and observational field notes over six months. The analysis of findings revealed that doctoral supervisors acted as the most influential agents in guiding the participants' academic socialisation. The participants also enacted agency to engage in a self-directed socialisation process during which they strategically appropriated resources to cope with various challenges. By unpacking the multi-layered relationships in the participants' networks, this study provides insights into the dynamic and intricate processes of international research students' academic socialisation. Implications are briefly addressed to support international students' experiences in postgraduate research programmes for successful academic socialisation.

In recent years, the emerging trend of mobile learning (hereinafter "m-learning") has obtained increasing attention from educators and higher popularity among students worldwide. Partly due to its short history, there seems to be a lack of comprehensive and in-depth understanding on the distinctiveness of m-learning. It is maintained in this paper that m-learning should be described and researched in three intertwined aspects: the mobility of devices, learners and materials. The multi-faceted mobility may help achieve highly portable and genuinely personal learning, which distinguishes m-learning from other forms of technology-enhanced education. This paper also reports an empirical study on m-learning for academic English. With a total of 60 participants (and six in the pilot study) over three progressive phases, the data obtained from mixed methods of automatic logging, questionnaire and interview were used to assess multidimensional learner engagement in the self-directed process of m-learning. The triangulated data can reflect and highlight some known features of m-learning, and they may also imply learners' expectations towards m-learning. Based on the literature review and data analysis, this paper aims to contribute to the (re)conceptualisation of "m-learning" and also provide some technical and pedagogical implications on future and further development of m-learning.

This paper focuses on Vietnamese PhD students' imaginative geographies of their destination countries. Using the data collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 Vietnamese PhD students, the study examines the participants' preparation for their sojourn before their departure, as well as their first multi-sensory experiences of the study countries on the first days of arrival, which then revealed how their imaginative geographies had been constructed and how they perceived the contrast between their imaginative geographies and reality. The findings of the study suggest that when the students chose to study overseas, they had diverse imaginations of the destinations that had been constructed over long periods of time thanks to the influences of movies, newspapers, media, and experiences of those in their social networks. Furthermore, the paper also highlights the collective imagination about countries in the West and the imagination of the collective West among Vietnamese students.

Chinese students studying abroad have been increasing rapidly in the past decades and become a significant financial contribution to receiving countries. Accordingly, understanding their enrollment choice is essential to facilitate college marketing and admission strategies. Though the decision process is believed to be different from domestic students, empirical analysis of Chinese students' enrollment choices is still lacking. This paper fills the void by examining the influential factors of Chinese students' enrollment choice with novel student-level data. We find that in addition to factors domestic students typically consider, such as financial aid and academic quality, Chinese students particularly emphasize college ranking, reputation, and location in their decision process. Furthermore, unlike domestic students who usually prefer colleges with proximity to home, Chinese students' location preference is linked to job prosperity. We also find that the impact of the factors varies for students from different regions of China, which can be attributable to uneven economic development within the country.

In this paper, we, two transnational doctoral students and language educators of color, engage in a reflexive dialogic conversation focusing on the positionality of our identities. Utilizing duoethnography research methodology, we explored our academic and professional journeys in post-secondary education in our home countries and an Anglophone context. A discussion on negotiating our positionalities in our immediate academic, professional, and sociocultural contexts is provided. We argued that unveiling one's positionality requires a prolonged reflexive engagement that assists in establishing quality in qualitative research and exploring fluidity in positionality. We closed with implications and invitations to use duoethnography as a path to self-exploration, solidarity, and allyship.

During COVID-19, international students were faced with the decision of remaining in their country of study or returning to their home countries, with little knowledge of when they would next be able to return or leave. Both choices left the students vulnerable to feelings of loneliness and social isolation. This paper examines how international students at a Scottish university experienced and navigated leaving or staying "home" and how loneliness and social isolation characterised these experiences. We further contextualise these experiences through Holbraad et al.'s (2019) prism of "rupture." The data were generated between February-July 2021 through semi-structured focus groups and qualitative questionnaire comments and were analysed through Thematic Analysis. We discuss three themes: 1) Liminal Friends and Strangers, 2) Sense of Home and Family, and 3) Staying or Leaving the Country. The study contributes to the expanding body of research on experiences of loneliness and social isolation amongst international students.

Equity-seeking groups of students participating in work-integrated learning (WIL) face disparities in access, retention, and future employment, reflecting challenges and barriers associated with their intersectional identities and dimensions of diversity. These disparities include international students facing cultural discrimination, students with disabilities facing bullying, and 2SLGBTQIA+ and female students facing discriminatory attitudes and underrepresentation within WIL placement. Through the lens of the social model of disability, where limitations are viewed as barriers in the environment rather than personal deficits, designing for equity is essential. This paper offers guidance to WIL employers and educators wrestling with expanding diversity and improving equity. Practical strategies for enhancing WIL access, inclusion, and equity are described for five identified design factors: context, timing, level of independence, degree of scaffolding (support), and connection with theory.

This paper aims to assess the impact of the reciprocal teaching strategy on the academic performance of student-teachers enrolled in the Higher Professional Diploma (HDE) program at Ajman University, United Arab Emirates. The study adopts a quasi-experimental design, employing pre- and post-tests and a control-experimental group configuration. The sample comprises 80 student-teachers selected from Ajman University during the second semester of the academic year 2022-2023. An academic achievement test in a multiple-choice format serves as the research instrument. The study's outcomes reveal noteworthy differences, indicating significant mean variations in the post-test scores between the experimental and control groups, favoring the control group in the context of the Reciprocal Teaching strategy. These results hold implications for international students, prompting considerations about the transferability and generalizability of teaching strategies across diverse cultural and educational settings. The findings suggest the broad effectiveness of the reciprocal teaching method, emphasizing the necessity of aligning teaching strategies with international students' specific needs and preferences. The research underscores the importance of tailoring teaching approaches to meet the unique requirements of a diverse cohort of global learners. It suggests that reciprocal teaching demonstrates efficacy across varied groups of international students, emphasizing the importance for instructors to select instructional methods that cater to the distinct needs of their diverse international student body.

Scholarship on international students shows that despite university policies designed to create a welcoming atmosphere, international students still face social challenges. This paper applies the capabilities approach to reveal mechanisms that facilitate or constrain the social inclusion of married international graduate students. For married international graduate students, the personal factors (their level of study and marital status) bring with structural factors (e.g., visa policies, healthcare policies, cultural and linguistic barriers), which in combination lead to social exclusion. With one university case study, including original survey and interview data, we unpack these intertwined processes and find that married graduate students' social relation and network patterns significantly differ from single graduate students and undergraduate students. They are less likely to attend campus events, interact with their colleagues, and interact with friends from other countries. As such, we challenge the conventional wisdom that access to higher education alone leads to social inclusion.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are newly impacting the governance of international students, a temporary resident category significant for both direct economic contributions and the formation of a "pool" of potential future immigrants in many immigrant-dependent countries. This paper focuses on tensions within Canada's education-migration ("edugration") system as new technologies intersect with migration regimes, which in turn relate to broader issues of security, administrative burdens, migration governance, and border imperialism. Using an Accidental Ethnography (AccE) approach drawing from practitioner-based legal research, we discuss three themes: (1) "bots at the gate" and the guise of AI's objectivity; (2) a murky international edu-tech industry; and (3) the administrative burdens of digitalized application systems. We suggest that researchers, particularly in education, can benefit from the insights of immigration practitioners who often become aware of potential trends before those less embedded in the everyday negotiation of migration governance.

There is an increasing trend toward regionalization as higher education adapts to openness and globalization. In response, East African countries formed networks and partnerships that strengthened business, higher education, student and staff mobility, and research. This is because regionalization is embedded in East Africa's economy, politics, culture, and social norms. In addition, regionalization is influenced by internationalization and globalization. It promises development opportunities, although challenges are inevitable. This paper examines the contributions of regional student mobility to East Africa's development. We use neoliberal and world systems theories to illuminate the advantages and disadvantages of regionalizing higher education and explain how partner states can maximize opportunities and minimize challenges. Data was collected through convenience sampling of two hundred international students and two staff members in international students' offices. Data analysis revealed that the regionalization of East African higher education reflects historical power relations; it has benefits though founded on inequalities.

Implicit prejudice can be simply understood as any negative feelings or beliefs people hold towards a particular outgroup without being aware of it. One such form is microaggression, which can be defined as everyday verbal or nonverbal subtle, unconscious putdowns, slights, or negative remarks towards members of an outgroup. One of the most common and harmful forms is gender-based microaggression. Gender microaggression is defined as subtle, unconscious, everyday putdowns, slights, remarks, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, directed at a particular gender, notably women. Despite a plethora of literature and research on gender microaggression, the focus has predominantly been on understanding microaggressions faced by women in various domains, largely neglecting the experiences of men as victims of microaggression. One such overlooked experience is that of Afghan male students studying in universities in Delhi. Each year, thousands of students from Afghanistan travel to Delhi to pursue higher education, often unaware of the prejudices they may encounter due to associations with terms like 'terrorism' or 'terrorist.' Therefore, this paper aims to understand and study the microaggression faced by Afghan male students by employing the Gender Implicit Association Test on a sample of 103 Indian students studying in universities in Delhi, selected using a snowball sampling technique. This study adapts and modifies the Weapon-based Implicit Association Test. The goal is to uncover the implicit biases of Indian students towards Afghan male students by examining the association (reaction time) between images of weapons and harmless objects, in conjunction with adjectives related to Afghan males and Afghan females. In other words, words or images that are congruent in our minds should result in shorter reaction times and fewer errors compared to words and images that are incongruent. The results indicate that Indian students were quicker in associating weapon images with Afghan male adjectives (D = -0.64) compared to Afghan female adjectives (D = 0.89).

Drawing on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 15 Chinese queer international students from New Zealand's tertiary institutions, this paper explores their motivations to pursue higher education transnationally and unpacks the interconnected power structures underpinning their experiences. We find that despite the imagination and initial perception of New Zealand as one of the most queer-friendly higher education destinations, Chinese queer international students are confronted by the 'ethnic closet'--a heteronormative power structure simultaneously disciplining racial/ethnic and sexual identities. The interplay between these two key aspects of students' identity has meant that Chinese queer international students, as migrants who occupy disadvantaged positions in local racial power relations, frequently experience heteronormative microaggressions on campus. These students' ethnic identity, which lies in the heart of their social support system, has also become a hindrance in their queer identity development. Our findings challenge the perceived dichotomy between China as homophobic and 'the West' as queer-friendly, and reveal the need for a more nuanced understanding of queer international students' experiences, in order to better support them in a higher education setting.

Purpose: This paper aims to provide an overview of a peer-supported writing and wellbeing pilot program for higher degree by research (HDR) students in Australia. It proposes a six-month program is a beneficial service to HDR students that improves not only their productivity and writing confidence but assists with their perceived mental wellbeing as well. Design/methodology/approach: This paper offers a perspective of the piloted writing and wellbeing program for HDR students during the recovery period during the COVID-19 global pandemic. It includes generalized reflections of participation, content, and structure alongside future directions and further implementation. Findings: This research includes generalized, anonymous data regarding the success of the writing and wellbeing pilot program for HDR students and components to improve upon. It suggests that the overwhelming response from participants was positive, especially during various COVID-19 related lockdowns and travel restriction measures. Research limitations/implications: As this paper involves a small cohort of preliminary impressions from the pilot study, results will lack generalizability. Therefore, it is acknowledged that further research will ensue to examine the program further. Practical implications: The success, measured by adherence and wellbeing improvements, of the Write Smarter: Feel Better program can influence the way in which universities address and protect mental wellbeing of their HDR students. Originality/value: This paper fulfills an identified and growing need for mental wellbeing to be strengthened among HDR students.

This paper examines new forms of study-abroad expertise on social media and their role in mediating Indian student mobility to Germany. Firstly, it explores how mutual-support Facebook and WhatsApp groups—used by prospective international students in India to support each other through the process of applying to German universities—have contributed to the emergence of new forms of education consultancy, offered by Indian students or graduates of German universities, whom I call 'Student Guides'. In addition, it shows how some Indians studying in Germany have started 'Study in Germany' YouTube channels, aimed at aspirant student migrants, and have become important 'study-abroad influencers'. The paper analyses how these new forms of study-abroad expertise offer prospective international students social and cultural capital important for successful student migration, apart from shaping their imaginative geographies of Germany, and embedding them in cultures of mobility. Furthermore, the paper highlights how these new forms of study-abroad expertise intersect with, and critique, a more 'traditional' study-abroad expert: the professional education consultant. The paper draws on a digital ethnography of 'Study in Germany' Facebook and WhatsApp groups and YouTube channels, as well as interviews with the YouTubers, Student Guides, and Indian students in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the burgeoning doctoral mobility scholarship, inhabiting an entwined international and doctoral student status has been argued to render the PhD enterprise peculiarly challenging for candidates. Nonetheless, recognizing that this academic population has a relatively higher level of maturity and sophistication, research has increasingly turned attention to their agency exercised in navigating the international PhD experience. Notwithstanding the surge of research adopting this agential lens, a clear and integrated knowledge of what precisely constitutes agency has yet to surface. To address this concern, we systematically reviewed 28 papers wherein references to the agency of international doctoral students have been explicitly present. The results reveal that agency has more often appeared as an epiphenomenal phenomenon than being prioritized as a focal research object across the literature. For this reason, the characterization of agency as a static human property has been found to take dominance and evidence to the varying individual and structural influences over students' agentic actions are largely bereft of theoretical underpinnings. Furthermore, while enacting agency has been substantively cited to induce individuals' development and change, there are few testimonies to the difference it makes on social and cultural structures that have commonly transpired as constraints. Informed by the findings, we outline a research agenda serving to promote the central empirical investigation and the fluid conceptualization of student agency in the international academic mobility context.

Higher education (HE) institutions in Europe are ascribing greater importance to internationalisation as adding value to the entire institution, whereby the most important benefit identified is improved quality of teaching and learning. Notwithstanding, students' perceptions of the extent to which quality of education is associated with internationalisation is under-explored. This paper addresses this gap and employs a digital ethno-methodological approach, drawing on 126 h of teaching and learning observation, and 38 semi-structured interviews with Danish and international students enrolled in 8 Masters of Science (MSc) programmes in Denmark. Nuanced aspects of perceptions of quality, relevance and learning were mostly related to two instruments of internationalisation: international staff and an international student body. Results show that "diversity" is a keyword in students' discourses, whereby quality often equals internationalisation. However, there is a disconnect between discourses and actual practices of internationalisation, with implications for policies and practices in internationalised HE contexts.

This paper examines the influence of COVID-19 on social inequality in higher education. In particular, we focus on the study duration of international students compared to domestic ones in Germany. We assume that the pandemic has increased or decreased existing differences between both groups, affecting their study delay. The multilevel analyses with data "Studying in Germany in Corona Times" (2020) confirm most of our theoretical assumptions: on the one hand, international students expect a longer study duration due to their worsening financial situation. On the other hand, domestic students expect a longer study duration due to greater learning issues, which are provoked by a lower level of interaction in online teaching. Our results propose a more differentiated picture of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social inequality: not only do financially poor international students get poorer but educationally advantaged domestic students lose, too.

Purpose: Self-initiated international placements by students have been largely ignored in the literature on outward mobility in higher education. The support given to self-initiated international placement students, if any, has received even less attention. This study aims to address this lacuna. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on insights from global mobility literature, we conducted a survey of UK university students who engaged in self-initiated international placements to various countries such as France, China, Brazil and Ghana. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis. Findings: Findings reveal that these "voluntary" placements can improve language fluency, increase self-confidence, renew stress management abilities and enhance cross-cultural competencies and intercultural sensitivity. The study problematises the lack of support given to these students particularly in terms of career development. Originality/value: Our paper is one of the first to bring this under-studied population to the attention of career guidance scholars. We propose that scholarly attention should be directed toward the agency of self-initiated international placement students and that targeted career guidance must be provided through more inclusive career services.

Muslims may not experience integration or assimilation in European countries, as they have certain values regarding hijab, eating restrictions, and lifestyle. They may therefore face more challenges than other migrants. With the insight that religiosity may have an impact on migrants' national and/or ethnic identities, we look at the role of religion in acculturation. The study investigated emerging patterns and challenges in sociocultural adaptation processes, including host-community interactions with (Iranian) migrants and Iranian international PhD students' future intentions. Positive evaluations of the attitudes of Spaniards towards Iranians are thought to improve the drive to seek out intergroup contact and facilitate integration or assimilation in Spain. The paper's key finding is that religion has an impact on Iranian international students. It is possible to imagine religion as a unifying factor that binds many migrant populations under a single ethnic identity. When regarded as a threat to the migrants' ethnic identity, it also appears to create social distance between the migrants and the local population. The results of this study can be used to address factors that threaten successful acculturation and boost those that encourage sociocultural adaptation and learning the local language.

This paper presents data derived from a larger study related to the expectations and experiences of international students from the People's Republic of China with regard to studying in Australian secondary schools. The study involved 116 international students, and data were collected in two phases using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that English language experiences are a key concern and students do not always develop English language skills as expected during their period of study in Australia. To reduce dissonance between expectations and experiences of English language learning in Australia, it is recommended that substantial, ongoing English language support is embedded within the core curriculum for international students in Australian secondary schools.

Current student development theories are mostly grounded in the experiences of domestic students in North America. The increasing portion of the international students in the post-secondary student population has created a glaring gap for a unique theory of international student development. A unique theory for international student development, with a focus on their intercultural learning experiences, will serve as a necessary theoretical foundation for international student programmes and services that are offered in most hosting universities of international students as an overlay on top of general student services. Through a critical review of existing literature, this paper endeavours to develop a coherent theory of international student development that endorses a critical and post-structural approach to the key issues of intercultural identity, intercultural competence and intercultural adaptation for international students.

Community colleges across the United States are increasingly linguistically diverse, with populations that often include immigrant students who have grown up with a language other than English but have spent a significant part of their childhood in the U.S. and as such received a substantial part of their -K-12 education there. In this paper, we analyze perceived second language (L2) effects in essays written by multilingual "resident," i.e., immigrant, students enrolled in pre-credit bearing developmental and ESL writing courses. Focusing on a predominant set of grammatical patterns identified in previous research, this study compares the writings of L2 resident students to those of monolingual and international L2 students. Findings reveal that the age of arrival to the U.S. impacts grammatical patterns, with L2 resident students arriving after age 12 displaying residual grammatical L2 acquisition effects, as contrasted with earlier arrivals, whose writings resemble monolingual students' more closely. As familiarity with "standard" English patterns is unfortunately often viewed by community college instructors as indicative of "academic" writing ability, we argue that these findings indicate a need for community colleges to consider students' linguistic histories and their effects in order to interpret resident L2 students' writing skills correctly and to provide appropriate linguistic support for resident L2 students across the curriculum. Professional development that emphasizes critical language awareness is needed so that instructors can better understand and support linguistic diversity in their classrooms.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the significance of videoconferencing in blended learning, using the technology acceptance model to investigate students' perceptions and its impact on course engagement, student satisfaction and future technology use intention. In addition, it examines the role of teacher support in fostering interactive virtual learning experiences. Design/methodology/approach: This study focuses on a cohort of international students regarding blended courses amid the COVID-19 pandemic when the conventional face-to-face components were substituted with virtual classrooms through videoconferencing. It aims to investigate how to facilitate connectivity between Southeast Asian students and their professors located in a Southern state in the USA. Findings: This study reveals that the perceived usefulness of videoconferencing predicts future intention to use, emphasizing the vital role of teacher support in engaging students in virtual classrooms and contributing to student satisfaction. Research limitations/implications: The small sample of international students in blended courses with an American university during the COVID-19 pandemic may limit the generalization of the findings. Practical implications: Videoconferencing can be a valuable tool to enhance connectedness in digital learning post pandemic. Social implications: Videoconferencing in blended learning can bridge geographical barriers and provide access to diverse learners who might otherwise have limited educational opportunities. Originality/value: This study supports the integration of videoconferencing as a mechanism for providing high-quality digital learning experiences.

This paper explores the ways in which apology functions as a stance act at public speech events. Rather than focusing on speakers' intentions, in this study I pay attention to indexical meanings associated with apologies in a specific context. The study primarily analyses apology sequences that involve code-switching, which were drawn from ethnographic data gathered in a Korean university where English has been adopted as its official language (EOL). Data analysis shows that the use of apology allows speakers to take a stance towards their language choice and the institutional language policy. Both apology and speakers' metalinguistic articulations prior to code-switching reflect and reinforce the two language ideologies: (1) the language policy is intended to serve for international members of the university, and (2), Korean can be used when needed. A closer look at the way in which apology is used in specific contexts suggests that speakers' main purpose of apology is self-presentation in a public event. Apology functions to index speaker's defiance of an institution's language policy while avoiding their responsibility for the action. The sociolinguistic concept of stance allows us to better understand speakers' positioning with respect to norms and expectations informed by institutional language policy.

This paper explores eight Kazakhstani postgraduate students' reflections of their international educational experiences in the UK after their immediate re-entry into Kazakhstan. Special focus was on their language identity development after their one-year stay in the UK. It was informed by Benson et al.'s ([2013]. "Second Language Identity in Narratives of Study Abroad." London: Palgrave Macmillan) three-dimensional model of L2 identity: (a) identity-related aspects of L2 proficiency, (b) linguistic self-concept, and (c) L2-mediated aspects of personal development. The qualitative data collected from a written narrative and three subsequent rounds of individual semi-structured interviews suggest that most participants had lofty goals in the first period of their study abroad. They gradually became aware that full immersion in the host country could take a long time, and accordingly, they set concrete goals. The analysis of the data also revealed that the participants exercised their agency in displaying their development of sociopragmatic competence and a global citizenship identity, by respecting different opinions and accepting cultural differences. Nevertheless, some of them experienced racism based on their usage of English and presumed ethnicity. This study underlines the significance of introducing pedagogical interventions in all phases of study abroad to avoid student sojourners' unrealistic or impractical goals and empower their language identities.

Purpose: This study aims to explore how student recruitment practitioners at regional Australian universities strategise student recruitment efforts in Thailand. There is scarce research addressing regional universities, with prior studies focusing on metropolitan universities. Similarly, most prior studies have focused on high-volume markets, with little research exploring emerging markets such as Thailand. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with student recruitment practitioners from regional universities that were responsible for recruiting Thai students. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify key themes. Findings: Regional universities lack strategic ambidexterity in their approach to recruiting international students. They viewed Thailand as requiring longer term investment and were unwilling to dedicate their limited resources towards developing this market at the expense of other markets that would yield enrolments to contribute towards short-term targets. Practical implications: Implications are provided with relevance to the student recruitment practitioner, with strategic ambidexterity discussed. Originality/value: The paper fills a gap in the research by exploring international student recruitment and contextualising both regional universities and Thailand as a recruitment market. This study provides useful considerations that may be relevant to other emerging markets.

In an increasing context of internationalisation, the European Commission announced in 2019 the creation of the first seventeen 'European Universities' (EUnis), a Pan-European consortium of higher education institutions designed to promote European values, cooperation and identity. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to examine the ways in which these newly created EUnis construct their views of linguistic diversity and multilingualism. The research used as a case study the example of UNA EUROPA, an alliance of eight leading universities with eight different languages. Drawing mainly on content analysis combined with a discourse analysis approach, three data sources - the project proposal for the EU Commission, the UNA EUROPA website documents, and a research interview with one of its representatives - were examined to look into the ways in which languages and multilingualism are conceptualised. Findings reveal that linguistic diversity and multilingualism are given different degrees of visibility in the three sets of data examined and that utilitarian objectives seem to predominate over identity ones. It is expected that these findings will help unveil the ways in which language issues are problematised or not in the agenda of these newly created transnational universities.

Purpose: This research paper aimed to investigate the affordances of using virtual reality (VR) in teaching culture among in-service teachers of teaching Persian to speakers of other languages (TPSOL) in Iran. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative case study, conducted at two Iranian universities, used purposeful sampling to select 34 eligible in-service Persian teachers from a pool of 73. Data collection used an open-ended questionnaire and interviews. Findings: Before the TPSOL in-service training workshop, teachers expressed their reservations regarding the use of VR to teach culture in TPSOL courses. The emerged themes were "skepticism toward effectiveness," "practicality concerns," "limited awareness of VR applications," "technological apprehension" and "prevalence of traditional teaching paradigms." During the post-workshop interview, it was discovered that the teachers' perceptions of VR in teaching culture had undergone a positive shift. The workshop generated emergent themes that reflected positive perceptions and affordances for using VR to teach culture in TPSOL, including "enhanced cultural immersion," "increased student engagement," "simulation of authentic cultural experiences," and "facilitation of interactive learning environments." Research limitations/implications: One primary limitation is the lack of prior experience with VR for teaching practices in real-world classrooms among the participants. While the study aimed to explore the potential of VR in enhancing pedagogical approaches, the absence of participants with prior exposure to VR in educational contexts may impact the generalizability of the findings to a broader population. Additionally, the study faced practical constraints, such as the unavailability of sufficient facilities in the workshop. As a result, the instructor had to project the VR cont7ent on a monitor, potentially diverging from the immersive nature of true VR experiences. These limitations offer opportunities for future research to refine methodologies and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the implications of integrating VR into teaching practices. Originality/value: Extensive research has been conducted on the effectiveness of VR in language education. However, there is a significant gap in research on TPSOL, which is considered a less commonly taught language. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the use of VR in the TPSOL through the lenses of in-service teachers. As part of a larger investigation, this qualitative inquiry focuses on the perceptions of in-service teachers about VR, with a particular emphasis on the cultural understanding of the Persian language.

PhD (non-)completion rates have been considered important criteria with which to evaluate the effectiveness of doctoral programmes and of universities' performance. To date, there has been a lack of qualitative studies on the voices and experiences of funded international students who discontinue doctoral research degrees. This paper uses qualitative methods and six themes of a life course perspective to uncover the 'hidden' experience of international Vietnamese students who dropped out of funded doctoral programmes in social sciences and humanities. Its findings suggest that linked/independent lives and the timing of live themes helped to understand reasons for international doctoral students to drop out, which underline their engagement with research networks, academic identity and familial responsibilities. Meanwhile, the consequences of dropout illustrate the intersections of five themes: linked/independent lives, development risk and projects, the timing of lives/interplay of human lives and historical times, and diversity in life courses. The five themes capture diverse life trajectories and forms of agency developed by PhD non-completers while negotiating social pressures and institutional politics in their home institution as well as their perceptions of well-being and life priorities. Their life trajectories and forms of agency are gendered and culturally specific, with female non-completers being more active in searching for and building back their 'agentic orientations' through learning new skills, entering motherhood or leaving academic institutions. These findings are useful for reflecting on the current supporting structures, especially mental health support, for international doctoral students and supervisor training.

The Story Makers Press is a university-based publisher who focus on making and publishing hybrid stories with children who are under-represented in literature. This article explores the embodied drama processes used in the co-creation of our third book called 'Zalfa Emir is Warrior' with eighteen 10 - 11-year-old girls from second generation Pakistani heritage. Utilising practitioner inquiry, the paper examines the ways in which the girls used Drama Worldbuilding as a form of counter storytelling and belonging. The project raises critical questions about the value of pedagogies which create 'brave spaces' to reflect the realities of our culturally diverse classrooms.

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of the impact of tuition fee increases in England on the full-degree mobility of undergraduate students from the European Union. First, we investigated whether the increase in tuition fees reduced the number of EU students in English higher education institutions. Our analysis shows that, on average, English universities suffered a sudden drop in EU enrolments in 2012/13 but recovered and then expanded their pre-2012 enrolment levels in subsequent academic years. We observe that those English universities regarded as less prestigious experienced the sharpest decline and took longer to recover their pre-2012 numbers. Second, we examined how changes in enrolment are associated with EU countries' macro-level characteristics, using the push-pull model framework. While there was a significant decrease in the number of students from Northern and Western European countries attending English universities after 2012, the tuition fee increase did not impact the number of students coming from Southern Europe. We found an association between EU countries' youth employment rates and higher education system characteristics with changes in enrolment in English universities. By examining the effect of changes in the tuition fee policy on international student mobility, our research provides new evidence on how tuition fee policies might change the behaviour of students.

On the one hand, studies of African international students in China document their instrumental role in "telling China's story and spreading China's voice" while, on the other hand, this research indicates how their lived experiences are shaped by racialisation and exclusionary practices in social life. However, there remains surprisingly little scholarship exploring ways of reducing inter-group stereotypes and racial divides so as to further Sino-African diplomatic relations over the long term. Drawing primarily upon an in-depth interview with Alex - a 23-year-old Burundian international student in China, this paper employs Freire's central concepts of dialogic practices and critical consciousness to examine how he established dialogues with villagers in rural areas in an effort to alter relations between two ethnic groups. The case study of Alex and his daily racial encounters highlights how African students are agentic in disrupting racial discourses. We further argue that dialogue, as a method to read the world in a Freirean sense, can contribute to increased tolerance and understanding.

Informed by a combined framework of 'translanguaging' and 'epistemic injustice', this paper examines how a group of teachers and students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds negotiated their knowledge participation through translanguaging in an English medium instruction (EMI) degree program at a Chinese university. Data were collected over a 12-month classroom ethnography, including lesson recordings, stimulated recalls, and reflexive journals. A thematic analysis of the data reveals that transnational teachers and students actively employed translanguaging to challenge the prevailing hegemony of Western thinking and knowing in the EMI environment. We identified three key translanguaging capacities that facilitated transformative knowledge negotiation: (1) counteracting testimonial injustice; (2) providing hermeneutical resources; and (3) enhancing the sensitivity of trans-epistemic practices. Our study attests to the value of translanguaging as a transformative strategy to generate epistemic access for transnational students engaged in EMI learning, informing efforts to foster educational equity in the internationalization of higher education and to empower transnational teachers and students to reclaim their epistemic contribution capacities in the EMI context.

Since the 2010s, Portugal has experienced a considerable growth in the number of Chinese international students, who have been attracted by the country's image of tolerance and openness for diversity. However, as it was reported in other contexts, throughout the health crisis, these students were blatantly confronted with racial microaggressions in their daily routines inside and outside their higher education institutions' facilities. Drawing on evidence from 30 in-depth interviews conducted with Chinese international students in Portugal and following a thematic analysis approach, this paper analyses how they frame and perceive their encounters with racism in their daily lives during the pandemic. We argue that Chinese international students resort on distinct discursive strategies to negotiate their encounters with racism during their sojourns in Portugal throughout the health crisis and to negate their "otherness" as a racial minority in the country.

Situated on the broad landscape of international education and informed by theories of language, culture, and identity trajectory, this longitudinal narrative study unravels an Asian international doctoral student's story of living and learning in the United States. Using narrative as the research method and form of representation, the paper unfolds her early struggles, agency, and professional growth in her doctoral journey of examining and reexamining language and culture in her life and research. It illustrates how this former EFL teacher constantly negotiates her inner conflicts concerning language and culture and gradually considers herself a legitimate English speaker and an emerging scholar in international education. The discussion highlights the importance of personal agency and collective identity in an international doctoral student's professional identity construction. It also emphasizes the significance of embracing cultural and linguistic diversity in international education.

In this paper, the intercultural experience of two Mexican students who made a credit mobility during a scholar semester at a foreign university was analyzed. The analysis was based on semi-structured interviews and reflective reports. A qualitative phenomenological approach was used to analyze the intercultural experience. The experience of the participants was followed in three moments: before traveling, during their stay and on their return to their home university. The results indicated that previous intercultural experience helps to lessen the symptoms of acculturative stress, but the personal attitude influenced the way the students faced their life abroad.

As the press for services at university counseling centers increases, so does the need to provide optimal therapeutic services. Ethnic glossing in previous research has combined rather disaggregated the mental health treatment experiences of American Latinx (AL) students and International Latinx (IL) students. The purpose of this paper was to examine potential differences in (1) the number of attended sessions, (2) symptom severity, and (3) treatment improvement rates. We used a nationwide dataset including 13,156 AL students and 911 IL students. Results indicated that (1) there was no significant difference in attendance rates, (2) AL students had significantly worse initial symptom severity (d = 0.24), and (3) there were no significant differences in improvement rates. We discuss the importance of understanding the different clinical presentations of AL and IL students, as well as the importance of addressing ethnic glossing in future research and clinical work.

Although motivation is an extensively discussed topic, minor languages deserve more research attention. This qualitative multiple case study explores motivation to learn Czech as a second language in Beginners' Czech language courses for Erasmus students in the Czech Republic through the lens of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), searching for the critical motivation sources in this type of setting. The data were collected in language learning journals, two semistructured interviews, and a final questionnaire. Five cases were chosen to demonstrate the key sources of motivation. In the profiles, the ideal L2 self, closely tied to the sojourn in the country, and the L2 learning experience in the language course were the most prominent components of the L2MSS. The data also suggested a possible role of the multilingual self. Finally, the paper presents pedagogical implications suitable for this type of course and broader instructional contexts.