Real or imagined women? Staff representations of international women postgraduate students

In Australia's globalising universities many support staff and teaching staff now work with international women postgraduate students. But are they aware of the issues facing these women, and is their understanding of them adequate? Indeed, how do they represent them? In this paper we draw on a small-scale pilot study involving key university personnel. We argue that the ways in which such staff represent this group of students is problematic. Focusing primarily on academic issues and on the literature on learning styles, we analyse these staff members' representations of international women postgraduate students from a postcolonial perspective. We explore the extent to which such representations, and the learning styles literature that reflects and informs them, are what Edward Said calls 'Orientalist'. In so doing, we point to both the constitution of the international woman student as postcolonial female subject and show how this situates her in relation to the prevalent learning styles discourse. Further we argue that such representations of the students differ in crucial ways from the students' self-representations, suggesting that in certain subtle ways such staff members are engaging with 'imagined' rather than 'real' women.

Self-representations of international women postgraduate students in the global university 'Contact Zone'

This article explores some aspects of the role of race and gender in shaping women postgraduate students' experience of intercultural study. It focuses on various social and cultural aspects of their sojourn. These were suggested by data from two small pilot research projects investigating the experiences of two cohorts of international women postgraduate students, the one studying in an Australian university and the other, a Canadian. The authors focus particularly on the intersections between the students' representation of themselves as women and the way they see themselves represented by their host cultures. In other words, they are interested in the students' understandings of themselves as 'other', and how this impacts on their representations of 'self'. The authors suggest that these representations reflect a process of negotiation of identity that occurs in what they call the globalising university 'contact zone'. The concept of contact zones derives from post-colonial theory. A further goal of this article, then, is to examine how such data appear when viewed from a post-colonial perspective.

Reflective practice in postgraduate midwifery education

The literature is abundant with the benefits of reflective practice in midwifery education and other disciplines. At Deakin University, Victoria, Australia,  students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery have embraced reflective practices by means of computer mediated learning applications. Students enrolled in this course reside in metropolitan, regional and rural areas of Victoria and had previously experienced issues of ‘distance’ and ‘isolation’ from peers  and academics. Since 2007 two computer modalities, Elluminate Live and  Deakin Studies Online have been incorporated into the lecture timetables for the  Graduate Diploma of Midwifery to allow students to participate in online  discourse and maintain an online reflective journal space. This innovation for the  promotion of reflective practices supports and upholds the oral tradition midwives are renowned for by increasing cohesion of each student course cohort,  collaboration between peers and access to midwifery academics.

A model of student satisfaction : international postgraduate students from Asia

The internationalisation of higher education remains one of the major challenges faced by universities with the increasing mobility and rising expectations of a highly diversified student community worldwide. With the competitiveness of the industry, universities will need to focus on factors influencing student satisfaction to improve service quality where required. This paper draws on the theory of cognitive dissonance dealining with disconformation of expectations that results in customer satisfaction and using structural equation modelling, investigates factors that influence satisfaction of international postgraduate students from Asian countries studying in Australia and concludes with strategic implications for universities.

Building a connected community of learners : the postgraduate peer mentor program

Student peer mentor programs are recognised as a valid component of a multi-faceted strategy to improve student engagement within higher education. This paper reports some preliminary results from research investigating how such programs help support diverse student needs in a multicultural environment. Our results are from a study of a pilot postgraduate student peer mentoring program set up to support new students in the Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University, Australia. The postgraduate student body at Deakin is quite diverse and includes a large proportion of international students. We present examples to show how a peer mentoring program can improve the social engagement of students, help overcome cross-cultural communication barriers and contribute to the development of academic skills.

Post choice satisfaction among international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Victorian universities

As a study destination Australian universities operate in a competitive international market for full fee paying international students. In order to be successful it is vital that universities, like any other business, address issues of customer satisfaction. Using the expectations/perceptions paradigm this study examines the gap between pre-choice expectations and post-choice perceptions and the resulting satisfaction levels of international postgraduate students from four Asian countries studying in Victorian universities. The study concludes that although the students, in general, appear to be relatively satisfied with the university as a study destination, students' perceptions remained far below expectations across all factors and variables investigated. The study also found that there were significant variances in the expectations and perceptions among students from different countries, suggesting that the impact of culture on the decision-making behaviour of students requires further investigation.

An analysis of factors of importance to international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Victorian universities

Student satisfaction is a key strategic variable in maintaining a competitive position in the international education market by Australian universities. The universities are facing the challenge of rising student expectations of quality, service and value for money, and the need to increase the satisfaction level of their students to retain and improve international student numbers. This process requires universities to carefully analyse the key factors contributing to student satisfaction.

Using logistic regression analysis with factor scores and aggregated satisfaction scores, this study examines the relative importance of factors and their impact on the satisfaction levels of international postgraduate students from four Asian countries studying at Victorian universities. The study concludes that the dominant factors that impact on student satisfaction include the quality of education, student facilities, reputation of the institutions, the marketability of their degrees for better career prospects, and the overall customer value provided by the universities.

Dancing between diversity and consistency: refining assessment in postgraduate degrees in dance

Guidelines for best practice in Australian Doctoral and Masters by Research Examination, encompassing the two primary modes of investigation, written and multi-modal theses, their distinctiveness and their potential interplay.