During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple measures were established that influenced international students’ academic, financial, and social activities. Focusing on international students who studied in ...Finland, we collected quantitative data with an online survey (n = 192) to increase our knowledge of the students’ experiences and to compare the students’ responses based on their level of study. The results indicated that financial difficulties varied significantly between the groups of students, whereas academically and socially, they were more similar. The financial situations of bachelor’s and master’s degree students were more severely affected than were those of exchange students and doctoral researchers. These findings illustrate variations between different groups of international students, even though they are often presented as one single group. Although both heterogeneity and homogeneity were observed between the groups of international students, all displayed academic resilience, in spite of the stress and challenges they experienced.
This phenomenographic study explores international master’s degree students’ ways of experiencing support in Finnish higher education. The study draws on Schlossberg’s Transition Model and the ...Culturally Engaging Campus Environments Model as a conceptual framework. The phenomenographic analysis of 17 interviews with international master’s degree students identified four ways of experiencing support as: (a) study system adjustment, (b) learning enhancement, (c) personal growth, and (d) autonomy development. The findings identified participants’ experiencing support in relationships, use of information, communication, services, the flexibility of studies, learning and study environments. The presence of two indicators, Humanizing Educational Environments and Availability of Holistic Support suggested that the campus environment was culturally responsive to academic and personal support of international degree students. The findings contribute to the understanding of support for international degree students in higher education and may be used to develop services to support international degree students’ social, cultural, and career integration into host communities.
This study reports on an interview-based study of thesis supervisors' attitudes on initiating discussions on students' expectations and prior thesis writing experiences in international master's ...degree programmes. One aim of this study is to identify the various practices which supervisors implement and the reasoning they use to foster a supportive environment for their students during the students' studies and master's thesis process. This paper contributes to existing research on English-medium master's degree programmes in non-English speaking countries. Twenty interviews were conducted with thesis supervisors from five Finnish universities. Two main attitudes were observed regarding initiating discussions concerning students' expectations and previous thesis writing experience: diagnosing and adjusting supervision, and resisting and relying on students' initiative. Supervisors' responsiveness varies in intercultural supervision contexts, and more opportunities for reflection and collaboration between supervisors should be provided.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In educational research, scales are often presented as the ontological reality of a study. This study problematises this starting point and suggests approaching scales as experienced and ...epistemically used. Thus, this study asks how international students studying at Finnish universities during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic negotiated their experiences using scales and scaling. The analysis was based on the responses (n = 84) to an open-ended question in an online survey. The survey was distributed in the spring of 2020 to international students studying in universities across Finland. We conducted an abductive analysis of how the international students employed scales in their reflections on their lives during the pandemic. Theoretically, we draw from the conceptualisation of scales, which we suggest provides an analytical lens for understanding subjective experiences, and rescaling, which students used in making sense of their experiences. We argue that international students made sense of their everyday lives during the pandemic through scales and rescaling, contributing to their sense of belonging and sense of (in)equality.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple measures were established that influenced international students’ academic, financial, and social activities. Focusing on international students who studied in ...Finland, we collected quantitative data with an online survey (n = 192) to increase our knowledge of the students’ experiences and to compare the students’ responses based on their level of study. The results indicated that financial difficulties varied significantly between the groups of students, whereas academically and socially, they were more similar. The financial situations of bachelor’s and master’s degree students were more severely affected than were those of exchange students and doctoral researchers. These findings illustrate variations between different groups of international students, even though they are often presented as one single group. Although both heterogeneity and homogeneity were observed between the groups of international students, all displayed academic resilience, in spite of the stress and challenges they experienced.
This study analyzes students' academic self-efficacy while studying in international master's degree programs in Finland. The primary aim is to determine if students' self-efficacy varies depending ...on their field of study and nationality. This study contributes to the research on students' self-efficacy in an international academic context with a special focus on social and course performance tasks. The results indicate some variations in students' self-efficacy, particularly in students from different fields of study. Recommendations for activities supporting students' self-efficacy are provided based on the results of the analysis. Implications for future research, as well as limitations of the study, are discussed.
This article investigates a five-day residential retreat for seven women from one academic institution and examines writing retreats through the analysis of texts written by the participants. The ...aims of this paper are 1) to develop more knowledge about the experiences of what constitutes good conditions for writing in a writing retreat context, and 2) to identify elements of a meaningful writing retreat. The experiences and reflections of the participants are examined and concludes to four conditions that shaped the meaningfulness of the retreat: transition, space, time, and community.
Tässä artikkelissa tarkastelemme kansainvälisten yliopisto-opiskelijoiden kokemuksia opiskeluarjen rakentumisesta yliopistotilojen sulkeuduttua covid-19-pandemian myötä keväällä 2020. Koronapandemian ...alkuajan opiskeluarkea lähestytään sosiomateriaalisesta näkökulmasta tarkastellen opiskeluarjen kietoumia. Tutkimuksen aineistona oli keväällä 2020 tuotetut (n=33) suomalaisissa yliopistoissa opiskelevien kansainvälisten maisterivaiheen opiskelijoiden haastattelut, joita analysoitiin käsitekarttoja hyödyntämällä. Opiskeluarjessa painottui arjen ajallisuuden, materiaalisuuden ja tilallisuuden muutokset, jotka yhdessä muovasivat uudenlaisia opiskelun tila-aikakietoumia. Opiskeluarjen muutokset johtivat opiskelijoiden vastuun ja vapauden lisääntymiseen omien opintojen etenemisestä ja opiskeluarjesta. Koronapandemia toi esiin opiskeluarjen moninaiset ajalliset ja tilalliset todellisuudet.
This paper provides insights into thesis supervisors' perceptions of the supervisory relationship and process in English-medium international master's degree programmes (IMDPs). It contributes to the ...field of supervisory pedagogy in a master's level education by examining how supervisors perceive their supervisory practices and what they consider to be the most important features for successful supervision. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with thesis supervisors employed in five different Finnish universities. Qualitative content analysis was conducted. The results revealed that most of the interviewees perceive supervision as an asymmetric relationship in the context of a teaching model similar to Dysthe's (
2002
). Trust, topic selection, supervisors' support and the initial stage of supervision were regarded as the most important features during supervision. The article concludes with the recommendation that supervisors should have more opportunities to reflect on their supervisory practices.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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