International Students’ Sense of Belonging and Connectedness with US Students: A Qualitative Inquiry

Hale, Katherine; Rivas, Julia; Burke, Monica Galloway

doi:10.1007/978-981-15-2399-1_19

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, those who are mature, or those who are first generation, experience similar financial and social challenges when integrating to university life, which are independent of their international/home student status (Taylor & Scurry, 2011). It is expected, however, that ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences around notions of "belonging" and "fitting in" can add a further layer of complexity to international students' transition to HE (Cena et al, 2021;Hale et al, 2020). Informed by the extensive widening participation research, we argue that it is particularly important to explore student support in the Covid-19 context since the closure of physical campuses has required students to engage with online studies from their "home" environments, thus disrupting the traditional campus experience.…”

Section: Non-traditional Student Experiences Of Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Student support as social network: exploring non-traditional student experiences of academic and wellbeing support during the Covid-19 pandemic

2021

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The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis in higher education, affecting all aspects of university work and practices. This article focuses on student experiences, in particular by problematising academic and wellbeing support available to non-traditional students. This article proposes an original approach to student support as comprising social networks that are dynamic, reciprocal and involving a variety of formal/informal actors. We draw on interviews with 10 non-traditional students from a UK university to explore the nature of their student support. Our findings suggest that support networks for non-traditional students tend to exclude formal support services and centre primarily around family (wellbeing support) and fellow students (academic/wellbeing support). While these findings problematise the lack of institutional support in student networks which is likely to further disadvantage these students, it questions the dominant deficit views of non-traditional students. In particular, the interviews highlight the resourcefulness of close interactions and emphasise the importance of approaching student support as a dynamic network of informal and formal actors when responding to crisis situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Section: Non-traditional Student Experiences Of Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%