An International Student, a Researcher, or a Work-Ready Graduate? Exploring the Self-formation of International Students in Coursework Master's Programmes

Providing research pathways for coursework master's programme (CMP) students is a feature in the Australian higher education system. While a burgeoning number of international students in Australian CMPs participate in research units, it is constraining to rigidly categorise international students as belonging to either research or coursework streams. Acknowledging that, this chapter explores the detailed experiences of international students who have recently completed the research pathway in their CMP. Combining the concepts of self-formation and positioning theory, it investigates international students' interactions with social actors, negotiations with the self and external rules, such as social codes and educational structures. Through collaborative autoethnography, this chapter identifies four stages of self-formation, namely pre-positioning, positioning, performing, and transformation, and highlights the influences of COVID-19 on these four stages. This chapter suggests that collective efforts on an institutional level are required to improve the wellbeing of international students in four main areas, namely developing agency, resolving career anxiety, addressing financial difficulties, and handling mental issues. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Research and Teaching in a Pandemic World: The Challenges of Establishing Academic Identities During Times of Crisis

This book adopts collaborative autoethnography as its methodology, and presents the collective witnessing of experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic within the higher education sector. Through the presentation of staff and student experiences and what was learnt from them, the authors examine the global phenomenon that is the COVID-19 pandemic through the purposeful exploration of their own experiences. This book presents an overall argument about the state of higher education in the middle of the pandemic and highlights academic issues and region-specific challenges. The reflections presented in this book offer insights for other staff and students, as well as academic policy-makers, regarding the pandemic experiences of those within academia. It also offers practical suggestions as to how we as a global community can move forward post-pandemic. © The Editor(s)(if applicable)and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Negotiating the temporal and spatial complexities: Chinese international students' learning experience at home during the COVID-19

Many Chinese international students had to or chose to leave their host universities, receiving online international higher education (HE) at ‘homes' during the COVID-19. Inspired by the ‘glonacal' mode of thought, this qualitative study interviewed 16 Chinese international students at ‘homes' to explore the potential complexities of spatiality and temporality regarding their online international HE experiences during COVID-19. Physically separating from host universities, our participants lost the sense of belongingness to the campus and felt disconnected with their academic communities. Their stories revealed a different ‘money' value between gaining and losing regarding online international HE experiences at ‘homes', and the disadvantages they experienced at host countries/universities. Our participants experienced temporal flexibility, temporal conflicts and temporal asymmetry simultaneously. Such spatial and temporal complexities intertwined with each other, making international student experience (ISE) during the COVID-19 unique. This article contributes to understanding of ISE and internationalisation of HE for a post-pandemic era. © 2023 HERDSA.

"It's Doable": International Graduate Students' Perceptions of Online Learning in the U.S. During the Pandemic.

This study aims to understand the learning experiences and challenges of international students enrolled in Master's and PhD programs in various institutions who were forced to transition to online learning during the pandemic. In particular, the study explores the experiences and perceptions of seven non-native English-speaking international graduate students who came from six different countries and studied at different schools of education through phenomenological interviews. Analysis yields insight into these students' online learning experiences and identifies factors which contributed to the mixed quality of these learning experiences. Overall, students tried to adapt to the "new normal," while enduring learning and emotional challenges due to the harsh conditions of the pandemic in the United States and their home countries. Instructors' readiness for online teaching as well as the extra support provided to help students cope with the sudden transition in the learning environment were particularly important factors affecting the students' learning experiences. Our findings lead us to several recommendations for practice within graduate-level online learning environments and suggestions for further research, as well as broader considerations of what broader implications the case suggests for international education in light of digitalization.