Initial Findings for International Students in SHS

During the summer, we had a small amount of funding to explore the digital experiences of international students. We thought that this was particularly important. It is easy to make assumptions about the experiences of students, but we rarely take into account how their cultural backgrounds or prior experiences affect their engagement with their online environments. This is the case for all students who may not have the kinds of access we assume they have but in the case for international students, we treat them as a homogeneous group, although they are, of course very different depending on which countries they are from.

Our initial project, funded by the Faculty through the EDI fund, set about to identify the kinds of issues that might arise. We worked in partnership with these students to identify a series of challenges and they came up with ideas for further projects around international students digital experiences.

The outcome of the initial project was shared with the faculty.  The project team were successful in extending their funding through Central EDI funds to explore further the issues for SHS students and we are currently running surveys followed by focus groups to get a broader range of views.  We are waiting to hear if our next round of funding is successful as we are hoping to buuild on this work to develop a couple of initiatives.

SHS International Students Digital Experiences (MS Word version)

If you would like to know more, please get in touch (Fiona Harvey email) of DM in Teams.