Overseas Postgraduate Education: Motivations and Outcomes (OPEMO)

Exploring the Perceptions of International Postgraduate Pharmacists and Physiotherapists.

Introduction

Universities have a unique and critical role in helping to address the challenge of climate change. The environmental impact of international travel is well known. As London’s Global University, 53% of UCL students are international students. Therefore, going green seems contradictory to the pursuits for on-campus international student recruitment.

Sustainability in internationalisation can be measured in economic, environmental, and sociocultural terms. Sustainable internationalisation requires that all students enjoy the benefits that an international education brings. There are suggestions that international education produces graduates that migrate to developed countries to pursue ‘ideal’ practice due to lack of opportunities and/or support in their home countries (Grafton and Gordon, 2015). Migration and mobility of health workers can result in inequitable access to health care (WHO, 2016). The motivations and outcomes of participating in overseas postgraduate education by healthcare professionals, pharmacists and physiotherapists in particular, is limited. It is therefore worthwhile to explore international postgraduate pharmacy and physiotherapy students’ perception of their international study.

This presentation shares some findings from an ongoing doctoral research project ‘Overseas Postgraduate Education Motivations and Outcomes (OPEMO)’, a study on the experiences of pharmacy and physiotherapy international students. It presents sustainable internationalisation from the perspective of students’ translation of their international education in their home settings and invites all to broader discussions around sustainable internationalisation of education.

Aim & Objectives

The exploratory study was to develop an understanding of motives for UK postgraduate education by overseas pharmacists and physiotherapists. Some key objectives were:

1. To evaluate reasons why pharmacists and physiotherapists choose overseas postgraduate education: the UK and UCL as destinations.
2. To determine the perceived influence of UK postgraduate education on personal and professional practice.
3. To determine the level of preparedness to work in their home /source countries during and after their course of study.

Method

The study used a mixed-methods approach with online questionnaire and semi-structured qualitative interviews. Participants were current and past postgraduate students from two healthcare disciplines: Pharmacy (MSc Clinical Pharmacy, International Practice and Policy) and Physiotherapy (MSc Physiotherapy Studies) at University College London (UCL). Interim analysis presented used descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

Results and Discussion

Fifty-nine alumni responded to all the survey questions and 12 participants contributed to the interviews. The top reason for international study was for international/global experience (n=49) and the fifth top reason was the lack of postgraduate programmes in the specific discipline in their home countries (n=34). Most survey participants (n=50) chose UCL for its academic reputation while the interviews suggested the uniqueness of the programmes was key.

Developing critical thinking skills was rated the most useful aspect of the MSc (n=55, 19.7% share of options) with the interviews alluding to a transformative learning experience. Participants felt equally well prepared by their MSc programmes to work in their home countries, in the UK, or anywhere in the world. The fact that all the respondents considered their UCL postgraduate education to have prepared them well for practice in their home countries is an indicator that both MSc programmes include sustainable education practices, equipping the practitioners with skills to apply on return to practice in their home settings. Apart from transferable clinical and practical skills gained during the period of study, the hands on experience of conducting research, intercultural competence and the practitioners training others to optimise the workforce in their home countries allude to sustainable education practices within these MSc programmes.

More discussion of these results can be found in the video recordings and PowerPoint slides.

Summary

Sustainability in international education should be holistic, embracing social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. More balanced discussions and research is needed to better contextualise sustainable education practices in relation to international education and student recruitment.