There are two purposes of this study: to examine the institutional strategies that two Canadian universities have developed in attracting international undergraduate students to study on campus, and to gain an understanding of the factors that influence undergraduate students to choose Canada as a destiny for education, and their views on the institutional marketing and recruitment strategies. This study employed a marketing model and institutional theory as key conceptual frameworks. The data collected for the two case study universities include interviews with university leaders and international students, and an on-line survey with international students. Institutional initiatives for international student recruitment have been influenced by various factors, such as provincial government policies, institutional leadership, university traditions and organizational structure, financial status, the capacity of institution, and the provincial higher education system. While one of the case study universities adopted a decentralized and the other adopted a centralized approach to international student recruitment, the different organization structure does not make a great difference since international student enrolment increased at a similar pace in the last decade. The two case study universities shared similarities in marketing and recruitment strategies, which was to influence international students’ university choice by providing information through diversified means and interacting with students at different stages in their university selection process. The major marketing activities, which are designed to present information and convince students to apply, can be categorized into three groups: (1) outreach activities, which include school visits, post-offer events and attending fairs; (2) intermediate activities, which include attending and holding professional conferences to influence high school counsellors; (3) on-campus events, which include a visitors’ center, on-line chat and video conferences, and maintaining a university website to provide up-to-date information to students. The study showed that most international students chose a university based on its reputation and program quality, followed by the recognition of the degree in their home country, tuition and expenses, and the quick response of the university. Therefore, the academic pull factor is core and dominant, followed by the recognition factor, the financial factor, and the administrator factor. Degree being recognized by home country and the advice of family members remain the two dominant push factors. International students sought university information from over six sources on average. The information sources provided by the universities are rated more important than public information sources, and are exactly what most students seek information from. Therefore, the marketing and recruitment strategies of the two Canadian universities are congruent with the process of international students’ university choice.

Thesis advisor: Audrey A. Friedman / Despite the inherent obstacles posed by increasingly diverse student populations, school leaders worldwide are under mounting pressure to raise student achievement. This study utilizes hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to investigate the relationship between principal priorities and student achievement in reading literacy on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in sixty-four jurisdictions worldwide. Disaggregating the sixty-four systems into three performance levels, the research aims to equip principals across the global landscape with insights into current performance patterns of diverse learners and the leadership behaviors that associate with student achievement. The diverse groups of interest include boys, immigrants, language learners, socio-economically disadvantaged students, and rural pupils. Three conditions of effective leadership organize the priorities of investigation: defining a mission, managing instruction, and developing a climate (Hallinger and Murphy, 1985). The results reveal that across performance levels, diverse learners are underachieving but specific subgroups are faring better than others in some jurisdictions. Commonalities emerge from these jurisdictions and set a roadmap for interpreting the achievement of diverse learners worldwide. The leadership priorities that most frequently associate with student achievement when controlling for background factors vary across systems and across performance levels. The priorities under `defining the school mission' are most frequently statistically significantly associated to student achievement in promising systems and the priorities under `managing the instructional programming' and `developing school climate' are most frequent among high- performers. Overall, however, the associations are weak and ultimately open the possibility of a fourth condition of effective leadership: establishing a community connection. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

As international education continues to expand, countries providing such opportunities not only benefit but also face challenges. For traditional destinations, including the United States and the United Kingdom, the number of international students has been falling. At the same time emerging economies, such as China, are witnessing a rapid increase in the number of international students enrolled in their universities. China is, therefore, beginning to play an important role in the competitive global market for higher education. This thesis analyses and compares the experiences of international students in the UK and China using Transformative Learning theory. While there is an extensive literature on both international higher education and also Transformative Learning theory there are three important contributions that this thesis makes. First, this research applies the theory to two international student groups: UK students in Chinese universities and Chinese students in UK universities. Second, this study includes a focus on the intercultural learning of Chinese doctoral students in the UK filling a gap in current research. Finally, this investigation has extended the very limited number of current research projects on UK students in China. It is generally acknowledged that international students will experience various challenges when they are in a culturally different context. Little research has focused on how and why learners are transformed through exposure to their new environment and, also, why sometimes they are not. This study applies Transformative Learning theory to address two research questions: first, do UK international students in Chinese universities and Chinese international students in UK universities experience transformational learning in/during their overseas studies? Second, what factors foster or impede international students' experience of transformative learning? To answer the above questions semi-structured interviews were used to investigate international students' academic and social experiences. Based on the insights provided by Mezirow, Taylor, and previous studies on international students, I argue that international students' intercultural experience is a complex process. Transformation can occur in various ways and social and personal perspectives underpin the transformative learning of the students. Contributing factors include culture shock, educational conventions, the student's motivation, expectations, personality, gender and previous work experience. The results reflect the significance of differences in teaching styles in the UK and China and the impact this can have on the student teaching and learning process when they move to a new university.

As the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is often used as a determiner for university admissions, this study observes the effect on the international student population at a large private university through the examination of the international student admissions data including TOEFL and first-year GPA from 2005-2015. With the anonymous data of 9,837 students, researchers analyzed the result of a cut-score change at the university. Results indicated that the number of international students decreased at the university. As expected, the TOEFL data revealed a normal distribution for the overall (combined) score and subsection scores, while the GPA data did not. The ANOVA for the TOEFL revealed that the change in cut-scores was not completely implemented in 2010. The GPA results from the ANOVA did not appear to be increasing. Correlation analysis reflected a decrease in the correlation coefficient when comparing results from before and after the cut-score change. Correlations of the subsection TOEFL score presented interesting findings. Multiple regression analysis indicated similar conclusions.

A educação é concebida como um processo fortemente impregnado pelas visões culturais, tendendo a veicular a transmissão de ontologias. É dada ênfase ao caso do ensino da ciEncia, que é encarada como correspondendo a uma versão actual e metropolizada da visão Ocidental do mundo. As fricções de aprendizagem sentidas no seio dos grupos sociais ruralizados, proletarizados e estrangeiros são estudadas como resultando de um predomínio de uma percepção e expressão associadas a fases culturais (quando da mesma cultura) ou culturas não inteiramente comunicantes com a ontologia prescrita pelo ensino. É estudada e avançada a hipótese de uma pedagogia de carácter poético que gere momentos críticos de aprendizagem a partir de traduções entre redes simbólico-materiais. A influência do estabelecimento resiliente de identidades e de processos de estereotipificação de classe/género/etnia são também objecto de pesquisa. São analisados dados dos resultados a ciências dos alunos portugueses no estudo PISA 2006 através de um modelo hierárquico e é efectuado um estudo etnológico numa escola do ensino básico. O caso dos alunos africanos é analisado com particular detalhe.

Suicide among Asian college students becomes a major challenge for campus administrators and mental health professionals. The author contends that it is important to understand different and similar characteristics between Asian American and Asian international college students regarding suicide risk factors and protective factors in order to prevent them from committing suicide. The author provides a review of suicidal risk factors and protective factors and implications for campus mental health professionals and recommendations for future research. / text

There are two purposes of this study: to examine the institutional strategies that two Canadian universities have developed in attracting international undergraduate students to study on campus, and to gain an understanding of the factors that influence undergraduate students to choose Canada as a destiny for education, and their views on the institutional marketing and recruitment strategies. This study employed a marketing model and institutional theory as key conceptual frameworks. The data collected for the two case study universities include interviews with university leaders and international students, and an on-line survey with international students. Institutional initiatives for international student recruitment have been influenced by various factors, such as provincial government policies, institutional leadership, university traditions and organizational structure, financial status, the capacity of institution, and the provincial higher education system. While one of the case study universities adopted a decentralized and the other adopted a centralized approach to international student recruitment, the different organization structure does not make a great difference since international student enrolment increased at a similar pace in the last decade. The two case study universities shared similarities in marketing and recruitment strategies, which was to influence international students’ university choice by providing information through diversified means and interacting with students at different stages in their university selection process. The major marketing activities, which are designed to present information and convince students to apply, can be categorized into three groups: (1) outreach activities, which include school visits, post-offer events and attending fairs; (2) intermediate activities, which include attending and holding professional conferences to influence high school counsellors; (3) on-campus events, which include a visitors’ center, on-line chat and video conferences, and maintaining a university website to provide up-to-date information to students. The study showed that most international students chose a university based on its reputation and program quality, followed by the recognition of the degree in their home country, tuition and expenses, and the quick response of the university. Therefore, the academic pull factor is core and dominant, followed by the recognition factor, the financial factor, and the administrator factor. Degree being recognized by home country and the advice of family members remain the two dominant push factors. International students sought university information from over six sources on average. The information sources provided by the universities are rated more important than public information sources, and are exactly what most students seek information from. Therefore, the marketing and recruitment strategies of the two Canadian universities are congruent with the process of international students’ university choice.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / African foreign nationals face many challenges when attempting integration into South African society. Perceived discrimination is one of the major challenges faced by immigrant populations. African international students form a large contingent of the international student population in tertiary education in South Africa. However, no comprehensive profile exists. The present study aimed to establish a comprehensive demographic profile on the African international student population in Community and Health Sciences (CHS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), as well as to establish the relationship between demographic variables, perceived discrimination, and perceived stress. The sampling frame comprised of a list of all international students from the African continent who were registered in the CHS faculty. A survey design was adopted and a response rate of 21% was achieved resulting in the final sample of 68.

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