Providing a Positive Learning Experience for International Students Studying at a UK University: a Literature Review

Much of the current literature relating to international students at university level tends to highlight their experiences from a deficit perspective and in some cases even problematises the experience for the student and university. Other studies tend to focus on recruitment and motivation rather than the lived experiences of the student, thereby providing little assistance to guide the student, academic and host university in their preparation for, and working with, the international student. International students choose to study in the United Kingdom for a variety of positive reasons. However, these factors have the potential to become stressors as the student makes the transition to studying in a foreign country. Rather than viewing these stressors from a negative perspective, this literature review identifies how, with planning, support and understanding, universities can provide and develop a positive experience for all concerned.

A DST-based Approach for Construction Project Risk Analysis

Despite its huge potential in risk analysis, the Dempster–Shafer Theory of Evidence (DST) has not received enough attention in construction management. This paper presents a DST-based approach for structuring personal experience and professional judgment when assessing construction project risk. DST was innovatively used to tackle the problem of lacking sufficient information through enabling analysts to provide incomplete assessments. Risk cost is used as a common scale for measuring risk impact on the various project objectives, and the Evidential Reasoning algorithm is suggested as a novel alternative for aggregating individual assessments. A spreadsheet-based decision support system (DSS) was devised to facilitate the proposed approach. Four case studies were conducted to examine the approach's viability. Senior managers in four British construction companies tried the DSS and gave very promising feedback. The paper concludes that the proposed methodology may contribute to bridging the gap between theory and practice of construction risk assessment.