The United States has been a very attractive destination for foreign science and engineering graduate students and postdoctoral scholars for a considerable period of time. Despite the important role of foreign doctoral students in the U.S, relatively little is known about the factors influencing their decision to attend an institution. One factor that is rarely explored is the effect of networks on institution selection. This study aims to provide both qualitative and quantitative information about the role networks play in foreign doctoral students institution selection. This three-part study utilizes different methodologies: (1) focus group interviews conducted with Turkish doctoral students at the Georgia Institute of Technology; (2) a web study of research laboratories in science and engineering; and (3) the estimation of Random Utility Model (RUM) of institution selection. Guided focus group interviews provide important qualitative information about the ways students, alumni, faculty and local community of same nationality influence institution choice. The web study of research laboratories provide evidence that labs that are directed by foreign-born faculty are more likely to be populated by students from the same country of origin than are labs that are directed by native (U.S. born) faculty. The results from RUM of institution selection provide strong and significant evidence for the relationship between the number of existing students from a country of origin at an institution and the probability of attending that institution for potential applicants from the same country of origin. Also, in some of the models there is evidence that the alumni and faculty from the same origin also play a role in student choice. The results of this study have several policy implications related to integration of foreign doctoral students, future enrollments, institutional mismatch , and the role foreign-born faculty play in U.S universities.

Increased competition for top students, reduced public funding, and comparative "shopping" by prospective students have resulted in universities taking a more market-oriented approach to improve student enrolment (Moore 2004). The outcomes of this market-oriented approach of universities are: First, students are increasingly seen as customers of knowledge by universities, and universities as suppliers of knowledge to these customers (Svensson & Wood ,2007). Second, students are being faced with an array of education choices and information (passively or actively gained). As with physical product consumption, the institution brand with its underlying appeals can function as a route map for students through this bewildering variety of choices/information. Despite the plethora of studies on education purchase, the impact of brands on students' choice of international tertiary education provider has not been fully explored. This is especially so within the context of brand image and brand trust. The purchase of an international tertiary education can be a risky (uncertain) venture because of the time and cost involved. Consumer's trust in a brand contributes to a reduction of uncertainty in consumer purchases (Garbarino & Mark 1999). However, the concept of brand trust is not explored in education. While the research on brand image within the context of education is not new, its definition and measurement varied or seldom explore in relation to country-of-origin, promotion channel and individual values in student's choice decisions. This thesis aims to address these research gaps. It explores the impact of two psychological associations with brand: brand image and brand trust (in relation to individual values, country of origin and promotion channel) on Chinese students' choice of international tertiary education provider, using the Bednall and Kanuk's (1997) decision-making model as the research's underlying framework. Since no existing measures or scales related to brand image and brand trust suitable for use in this thesis were identified from the literature, a two-stage research method to collect both qualitative (in-depth interviews) and quantitative data was used to develop measures for this thesis. The adopted research design is consistent with Anderson Churchill (1979) and Gerbing's (1988) guideline for scale development. Information gathered from 36 in-depth interviews, 416 pilot surveys in Singapore and Malaysia, and 287 surveys (post enrolment data) in New Zealand revealed that choice patterns for international tertiary education providers are focused on: i) A university's brand image, as reflected in the brand positioning messages of an institution competencies, course related issues, and brand identity (university values and missions statement); ii) Brand trust as reflected by the expressed opinion of friends and family members and students' positive experiences with university staff; iii) The social political image of a university's country of origin; iv) The perceived direct barriers to tertiary education (English language proficiency and course admission requirements); and v) High Context communications through education fairs, corporate sponsorships of scholarships/bursaries and international student exchange programs. In addition, a customer-centric approach to the student-university relationship helped improve the identity and brand image of a university. The presence of senior academic staff (professor level) at education fairs; good accessibility of academic staff on campus; having knowledgeable and culturally sensitive frontline staff (reception & marketing personnel); and small, customised tutorial classes would identify the university as customer-centric and contribute to a positive university life experience. These help projected an image that the university is concerned with their students' learning outcomes. Not only will positive university life experiences lead to improved learning outcomes for students, it helps strengthen future alumni-university relationships, resulting in alumni being willing to promote their alma mater to their children, friends and colleagues. This free publicity can help enhance the brand image and brand trust in a university, differentiating it from other universities. This thesis verified the findings of McMahon (1992) that superior economic development in the destination country is not an important 'pull' factor in student mobility. It complimented the findings of Gray, Fam and Llanes (2003) by showing the importance of customised strategy in international education offerings and illustrated the link between brand image and country image (socio-political) in the purchases of educational services, evidence that was absent in the study by Zhou, Lawley and Perry (2000). While pre-enrolment data from the in-depth interview and pilot survey indicated that Singapore and Malaysian Chinese students are value bound in their decision of New Zealand as their intended study destination, there is no evidence from the main survey (post-enrolment) that individual values had an influence on their choice decision. The in-depth interview indicated that Singapore and Malaysian Chinese students found New Zealand society appealing because of its low corruption and high level of honesty and fairness because these values help to reinforce group harmony, a prominent characteristic of Chinese society. Further research is recommended in this area. Overall, this thesis will contribute to the body of knowledge in students' decision-making and university branding.

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1998. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-205).

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1998. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-205).

Syfte med studien var att belysa skolsköterskors erfarenheter av hälsosamtal med nyanlända elever som kommit till Sverige tillsammans med sina familjer. En kvalitativ design med induktiv ansats och semistrukturerade intervjuer tillämpades. Totalt inkluderades sju skolsköterskor från olika skolor i Västernorrlands län och i Stockholms län. Intervjumaterialet bearbetades genom innehållsanalys. Resultatet av studien visade på ett tema "Att vara mer än bara skolsköterska" med tre huvudkategorier; "Att utmanas i sin yrkesroll som skolsköterska i hälsosamtalet" "Att berikas i sin yrkesprofession i samband med hälsosamtalet" "Att inte räcka till i hälsosamtalet som skolsköterska" Vidare bildades 14 stycken subkategorier. Samtliga skolsköterskor betonade att mötet med nyanlända elever i samband med hälsosamtal innebar att vara mer än bara skolsköterska, baserat på både positiva och negativa faktorer. Hälsosamtal med nyanlända elever innebar olika typer av utmaningar som ofta var relaterade till avsaknad av riktlinjer, kunskapsbrist, tidsbrist och resursbrist. Trots de utmaningar som framkom i studien uppgav skolsköterskorna att de hankade sig fram. Vidare uppgav skolsköterskorna att de berikades i sin yrkesroll i samband med hälsosamtalet vilket skapade en känsla av tillfredsställelse och ett engagemang av att vilja hjälpa och finnas där för dessa elever på ett djupare plan. De beskrev också en känsla av att inte räcka till i hälsosamtalet med eleven, vilket väckte känslor som osäkerhet, frustration och maktlöshet hos skolsköterskorna samt påverkade deras professionella förhållningssätt. Alla deltagare i studien var överens om att det saknades riktlinjer för bemötande av nyanlända elever på gymnasienivå och att det fanns kunskapsluckor hos skolsköterskorna gällande kulturella skillnader. Deltagarna efterfrågade också handledning i arbetet med nyanlända elever. / The aim of this study was to investigate and disclose the experiences that school nurses encounter, in regard to health consultations, with newly arrived foreign students. The study had a qualitative design and was composed of semi structured interviews with an applied inductive approach. In total, seven interviews were performed with separate school nurses from the counties of Västernorrland and Stockholm. The interview material was processed through a content analysis. The results from the study indicated a theme of " being more than a school nurse" was composed of three main constituents; "To be challenged in one´s profession as a school nurse in health consultations" "To be enriched in one's profession in regard to health consultations" "To be inadequate in the health consultations as a school nurse" Based on both positive and negative factors, all school nurses affirmed that the meeting with the newly arrived foreign students, in regard to health consultations, resulted in being more than a school nurse. Health consultations with the students involved different types of challenges that consisted of inadequate guidelines, knowledge, time and resources. In spite of the challenges posed by the findings in this report, the school nurses asserted that they inched forward. The school nurses argued that they were enriched in their role in relation to the health consultations, which resulted in a sense of satisfaction and a commitment of wanting to help and be there for these students on a deeper level. The nurses reported a feeling of being inadequate during the consultations with the students, which brought forth feelings of insecurity, frustration and helplessness with the nurses. They reported that even their professional disposition had been affected. All participants in this study agreed that current high school health consultation guidelines were inadequate and confirmed that they lacked some knowledge in regard to cultural differences. The participants also requested guidance in their work involving newly arrived foreign students.

This thesis deals with the communication between primary school representatives, foreign students and their parents. Our primary focus is the use of professional community interpreting and child language brokering for this purpose. In the theoretical part of our paper we firstly describe migration in the Czech Republic and then introduce the two main points of interest: community interpreting and child language brokering with a focus on the school setting. The empirical part of this study presents the results of our research, that was conveyed as a case study. Our aim was to analyze how certain primary schools in Prague communicate with students and parents who do not speak Czech; to what extent they use community interpreters and what is their opinion on the role of interpreter at school and on this service in general. We also asked the schools whether and how often they request the foreign students to act as interpreters and to what extent they feel this solution is acceptable in various situations. In order to obtain a comprehensive view, we conveyed a similar survey among community interpreters. We discovered that community interpreting is not a common solution in overcoming language barriers in the selected schools. Even though they perceive this service in a positive way, they struggle with...

The aim of this diploma work is to find out the effectiveness of providing free-of-charge tertiary education to citizens of the Slovak Republic at Czech public universities. In the theoretical part, I will focus on researching motives of Slovak citizens to study in the Czech Republic from the point of view of theory regarding the expansion of human capital and the return on investment into education, as well as utilizing a questionnaire to research the preference in selecting schools outside Slovakia. Furthermore, I focus on the system of financing public universities in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, students are provided with free-of-charge university education, if they complete the graduation examination from the Czech language or if they have another, officially verified, examination from the Czech language. As a result of the mutual agreement between both countries, citizens of the Slovak Republic have an exception negotiated in law 111/1998 Coll. about universities. The practical part focuses on calculating the costs to the public budget for the study of Slovak citizens as well as calculating the benefits, if they decide to work in the Czech Republic. The analysis arises from data of the MŠMT (Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Education) and the ČSÚ (Czech Statistics Bureau) regarding the number of foreigners at universities as well as the system of financing universities from the statistics of the largest Czech universities, which I have obtained. From the collected data, I find out the representation of Slovak citizens in the individual years. I also attempt to calculate and generalize the approximate number of students, who completed their studies. I calculate the costs based on the individual years, where every student has a fixed sum in the given year, which the public budget incurs for him. I use these cohorts to calculate the benefits, which are divided based on the years and by means of the wage discount method, I find out the approximate amount of tax paid for the time period in which the Slovak citizens work in the Czech Republic.

This study concerns the difficulties encountered by Nigerian students in pursuing graduate degrees in the North Texas area of the United States. The purposes of this study were: (a) to determine the extent to which the perceived difficulties are a result of financial difficulties, (b) to determine the extent to which language is perceived as an inhibiting factor during their period of study, (c) to determine the extent to which family problems contributed to the difficulties, (d) to determine the extent to which normal pressures in graduate school contributed to the difficulties, (e) to determine the extent to which time management contributed to the difficulties, (f) to determine the extent to which changes of schools/colleges within the United States contributed to the difficulties, (g) to determine the extent to which lack of advisement contributed to the difficulties, (h) to determine the extent to which health problems contributed to the difficulties, and (i) to determine the extent to which employment contributed to the difficulties.

All international students have specific motivations and expectations when learning English as a Second Language (ESL) in the United States, and recognizing the diversity of those motivations and expectations is the first step toward providing successful second language instruction. This study was designed to elicit the attitudes, expectations and motivations of two unique groups of students studying in the same classes in an ESL summer session at Portland State University (PSU), the preconception of the instructors, and the impressions and evaluations of the program upon its completion by the students, instructors, coordinators and administrators. A successful curriculum can only be adapted to fit the needs and expectations of those students who share the same needs and hold the same expectations. When the learners fall into disparate groups, with distinct, and perhaps contrary needs, a given curriculum can be only a compromise at best, and a failure for some at the worst. During the summer session at PSU, the Department of Applied Linguistics offers a full range of intensive ESL courses for visiting international students. In the year of this study there were two distinct groups of students enrolled in the Reading/Writing ESL classes. One group was the traditional eclectic mix of international students who for the most part were on an academic track toward eventual enrollment in regular programs at PSU. The other was a group of Japanese students studying at PSU from Otemae College. These two groups of students entered the program with different motivations for studying English and different expectations from the summer program at PSU. Because the general academic focus of the program was established in advance of the enrollment of most of these students, it was designed to fit the more traditional students' expectations and motivations. The specific expectations and motivations of the Otemae students were not explicitly considered, leaving the real potential for a negative experience. This is a serious consideration for those designing the curriculum for the summer sessions, for the instructors who are given the task of teaching these distinct groups of students, and for the coordinators of the short term programs who must convince their clients of their effectiveness so they will choose PSU again in the future. Using a semantic-differential survey to assess the students' attitudes, motivations, and expectations, and comparing the results with general demographic data, it was found that the students did indeed separate into two distinct groups with clear differences in motivations and expectations. The Otemae students also formed a large demographic block within the classes which could not be discounted in the lesson plans. Even though the Otemae students had been integrated into the reading and writing classes, these skills were less important to them in the needs analysis portion of the attitude survey than were conversational and pronunciation skills. Reading and writing skills were also rated lower overall by the Otemae students than they were by the traditional students. These and other factors lend support to the contention that the two groups of students had needs and expectations that were not wholly compatible, which put a strain on the teacher/student relationships as well as on the individual instructors' intended goals. This strain was further verified in instructor interviews, student interviews and in a departmental evaluation at the end of the summer term. If expectations are not met, or attitudes are not compatible between students and instructors, or motivations are at odds between groups of students, learning can be obstructed, and the experience can be less positive for all concerned. Although the summer session, with Otemae students integrated into the regular classes, went well in the estimation of some, there is convincing evidence that there is need for improvement. Recommendations for improvement include integrating the Otemae students into speaking and listening classes instead of reading and writing classes, having a curriculum designed with both groups in mind that instructors would have available before the summer term begins, conducting a term by term needs analysis, providing introductory sessions on American classroom style, and attempting to reduce the percentage of Otemae students in any given class by actively recruiting more international ESL students to PSU.

[pt] Esta pesquisa, de abordagem quanti-qualitativa, visa compreender efeitos da inserção de estudantes estrangeiros no sistema educacional brasileiro considerando resultados educacionais e interação escolar desses estudantes e suas famílias com agentes escolares, tendo os elementos território e fronteira como a base da discussão. No estudo quantitativo, foram descritos os efeitos nacionalidade e fronteira sobre os resultados da Prova Brasil de municípios e escolas brasileiras nas edições de 2011, 2013 e 2015. A partir das análises de correlações e regressões múltiplas realizadas, foi evidenciada a associação entre as taxas relativas de matrículas com nacionalidade estrangeira por município e escola brasileira e as suas respectivas proficiências e o efeito negativo que a variável geográfica cidades-gêmeas atribuiu às proficiências registradas. Esses achados nortearam o segundo estudo da pesquisa, com o intuito de verificar efeitos da inserção de estudantes estrangeiros em uma perspectiva qualitativa de pesquisa, diretamente na escola. Foram realizadas observações e entrevistas com agentes de duas escolas com altas taxas relativas de matrículas com nacionalidade estrangeira na cidade-gêmea de Corumbá-MS. Sob a perspectiva de estabelecidos e outsiders de Norbert Elias e John Scotson (2000), evidenciou-se que as territorialidades de fronteiriços brasileiros e estrangeiros em cidade-gêmea ditam as negociações sobre as nacionalidades documentais, identidades étnicas e direitos sobre o espaço fronteiriço e que acabam adentrando às escolas por meio das opiniões de brasileiros estabelecidos sobre estudantes estrangeiros e as suas famílias outsiders. / [en] This quantitative-qualitative research targets at understanding the insertion of foreign students in the Brazilian educational system and its effects, considering educational results and school interaction of these students and their families with school agents, the territory and borderland elements as the basis of the discussion. In the quantitative study, the nationality and borderland effects were described on the results of Prova Brasil regarding Brazilian schools and counties in its 2011, 2013 and 2015 editions. The analysis of multiple correlations and regressions evidenced the association between the relative rates of enrollments by foreign nationality students in the counties, the Brazilian school, their respective proficiencies and the negative effect that the geographical variable twin-cities attributed to the registered proficiencies. These findings directed the research s second study, in order to verify the effects of the foreign students insertion in a qualitative perspective of research, directly in the school. Observations and interviews were conducted with agents from two schools with high relative foreign nationality enrollment rates in the twin-city of Corumbá-MS. From the perspective established Brazilians and foreigner outsiders from Norbert Elias and John Scotson (2000), it became evident that the territorialities of frontier Brazilians and foreigners in the twin-city dictate negotiations about documental nationalities, ethnical identities and rights over the borderland space. This ends up entering the schools through the opinions of established Brazilians about foreign students and their outsider families.