Abstract
A qualitative inquiry into the presence of international students in an Indian Technical University, through the voices of the faculty, who are appointed as international students’ counselors. A case study methodology was employed with document analysis and interviews to perceive how technical faculty managed students from varying cultural backgrounds. International students were admitted by the Center for International Affairs, a body in the university, in the three categories, namely, foreign nationals (FN), children of nonresident Indians (NRI), and children of Indian workers in Gulf countries (CWIGC). The focus of counseling turned out to be largely on academic performance and related parameters like class attendance. Besides this, the majority of the international student population were the culturally similar students of Indian origin, with nonresident-Indian parents or relatives, living and working in Western and Middle East countries. These factors were the prime reasons that the faculty perceived themselves as well prepared to handle the role of international-students’ counselors. A limitation of the study was the low volume of international students and fact that the majority of international student population turned out to be the culturally similar students of Indian origin. Although cultural differences were few in such a case, there were inherent differences between the Indian education system and the educational systems of the origin countries, which provided the necessary focus. Perspectives on the impact of travel abroad, the reasons of internationalization in Indian universities, and the various problems international students face in a different education system were explored. The faculty counselors expressed their view that the university needed many preparatory reforms before it could confidently welcome a large number of international students from various countries.
Keywords
India has been considered the land of learning from ancient times. The Nalanda University functioning from the 5th-century CE to the 12th-century CE had the distinction of being “the most global university of its time,” attracting scholars from as far as Japan and Turkey (Garten, 2006). Ironically, with the advent of colonization and Western education, the status of India as a knowledge center, received a setback, with severe brain drain in the past century. The government of India aims to reverse this status and establish India as a knowledge hub, especially in the fields of technical and management education.
A study by Professor Dayanand Dongaonkar and Dr. Usha Rai Negi for the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) reveals that more than 130 countries sent more than 20,000 students to study in India in 2007-2008 (Dongaonkar, 2008). This clearly indicates that India is rising to be one of the favorable countries for obtaining an international education. Neelakantan (2009), at the same time, highlights the fact that, in spite of the vast potential of India, being an English-speaking country, it is only making slow progress in enhancing the experience of international students as well as attracting future generations of international students into the country. This is illustrated by the fact that India, with it’s inherent linguistic advantage, attracted only 9% of the U.S. international student population, as against China’s 46% and Japan’s 19% in the year 2008-2009 (IIE, 2011). In analyzing the reasons for this, there arises an immediate and complementary need for supplementing the process of enrolling international students with efficient guidance facilities, in order to help them adjust to educational and cultural differences.
To address the challenges faced by international students and so that they “go back with a pleasant memory of the country,” the government had formed an interministerial committee headed by Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Research (ICCR), Pavan Varma to analyze and recommend solutions for the problems faced by international students (Vishnoi, 2008). As a direct consequence of the above consultations, UGC, the higher education regulatory body in India, sent across suggestions to improve the provision of services for international students such as orientation programs to initiate the students on the culture, language, and facilities in the city of study; websites to provide relevant information to international students; establishment of international student centers, linking the international students and other stakeholders, as well as helping in the smooth settlement of the international students (UGC, 2009). It is in compliance with these guidelines that many universities have established Centers for International Affairs. One of the important measures taken by these Centers is to appoint counselors from among the faculty members to guide international students, in adjusting to life and the educational system in the new country.
Stohl (2007) highlights the underlying fact that the success of higher-level policies, of any government, which are consequently adopted by the institutions, such as internationalization, rests heavily on the shoulders of the implementers of policy, and in this case, the faculty members of the institutions. This brings to the fore the need for encouraging the faculty members to embrace internationalization, broadly defined as the process of admitting international students to an erstwhile local university, as this is inherently advantageous to their learning and development. Dolby and Rahman (2008) indicate that it is only in recent decades the focus of research in internationalization has shifted to the academic side, focusing primarily on the experiences of international students and marginally on the faculty involvement in international education.
One detailed study, focusing on the experiences of faculty, was conducted in four academic departments of a mid-Western U.S. university by Trice (2005). The author set out to conduct a qualitative research study to determine the perceptions of faculty toward the presence of a large number of international students in their departments. In another study, Adrian-Taylor, Noels, and Tischler (2007) have studied the conflicts between faculty supervisors and students belonging to different nationalities. The study brings to the foreground the realization that conflicts are common in the interactions of faculty and students from varying cultural backgrounds.
Altbach and Knight (2007) in their discussion on internationalization of education conclude that though globalization is inevitable, there are many choices in internationalization and the success is ensured only if the services are public oriented and not merely provided for profit. This conclusion leads to the following questions with regard to the implementation of the internationalization policies: Are the universities sufficiently focusing on the altruistic realms of internationalization, such as exploring knowledge horizons from an international perspective and for the promotion of understanding amidst people of different origins or are they being simply revenue driven? What are the perceptions of the ground-level implementers, that is, faculty counselors, with respect to the reasons for internationalization in Indian Universities?
Andrade (2006) stresses important concerns in the international student experience such as adjustment challenges, varying levels of support, gradual process of adjustment, and faculty misinterpretation of student behaviors. These specific concepts provide the background in evaluating the student support services in the management of international students. Different studies also identify “travel abroad” as a significant factor worthy of analysis in the discussion of faculty preparedness in international student counseling. Cushner and Mahon (2002), on the above topic, give personal accounts of how student teachers’ study abroad affected their teaching experience. Sandgren, Elig, Hovde, Krejci, and Rice (1999) also present qualitative evidence on the relationship between faculty travel abroad and their global awareness.
Most of these studies are from the perspective of an international student, mostly from the Eastern world arriving in Western shores for their education. The studies, where the roles are reversed, are very few in number and, in an Indian context, largely from a quantitative paradigm. For instance, Ganguli (1975) has done extensive quantitative analysis, presenting the various statistics pertinent to the understanding of student mobility and the range of perceptions of the students belonging to various nationalities. This was one of the pioneering studies to understand the experiences of international students from various nationalities on a wide spectrum of issues in India.
Powar (2003) strongly advocates research in universities to understand the problems of international students in the Indian scenario, to further obtain a grounded understanding of the internationalization process and to ensure continuous improvements in the same. Johnson and Inoue (2003) insist that qualitative approaches, by the use of ethnographic studies and interviews, must be employed to give greater situational understanding of the factors involved in faculty and international students interaction. Schuerholz-Lehr (2007) also highlights the need for further in-depth and cross-verifiable qualitative studies to give a complete idea of the concept of faculty preparedness. These studies enthused the author to choose the least travelled path to explore the area from a qualitative and in-depth angle. The twin exploration of the preparedness and perspectives of these faculty counselors, pertaining to the internationalization in Indian universities, form the crux of the inquiries of the research study.
Field and Methodology
The faculty, in the case of engineering colleges, come from a science or engineering background and their exposure to theoretical knowledge in the humanities domain of counseling is limited in scope. How do engineering faculty members handle the management of international students, differing in their cultural outlook? What are their perspectives to the presence of international students and the benefits and risks this brings in to the Indian education system? To study the various aspects of this area, the researcher has identified the international students’ counselor program of a top South Indian University, as the case to be explored. This is a public university, providing higher education in Technology, Management, and Allied Sciences.
The university has established a Center for International Affairs and admits international students to the university through various international collaborations, exchange programs, and inquiries from Indians working in other countries. The Center for International Affairs has established a counselor program for the students through it’s office. The counselors are faculty members who work in the various departments that these international students are admitted to. They provide assistance to three categories of students admitted through the office of international affairs and they are as follows:
Foreign Nationals (FN): Students coming from other nationalities, with educational background in an entirely different country
Nonresident Indians (NRI): Students who are children or relatives of nonresident Indians. Some may have had their entire education in another country, while some may have spent a portion of their education abroad and others, who have had their complete education in India
Children of Indian Workers in Gulf Countries (CIWGC): Students who are children of Indians in Gulf countries. Like the NRI students, their education may be based in a foreign country or in India or a mixture of both
The counselor program in this university, to manage these various international students has been established in 2009. The total number of students admitted under the Foreign Nationals category in the year 2010-2011 was 45 and some of the origin countries were the United States, Canada, France, Korea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, and Kazakhstan. The total number of students in the children of nonresident Indians category and Children of Indian Workers in Gulf Countries, for the same year, were 110 and 44, respectively. However, this counseling program does not cover the students who come under the short-term exchange programs, for a period of a couple of months. As this program is a relatively new development, with new and unresolved problems, this can be considered a fertile ground to explore the various dimensions of the preparedness and perspectives of the counselors. An additional significance in considering this university is that the faculty members are mostly from a science and engineering background and have minimum theoretical exposure to the domain of social and cultural studies. The counselors’ knowledge on human adjustment must purely arise from their personal observations and experience. Having approached education and students from their paradigm of quantitative theories, vastly prevalent in science and engineering studies, a question arises as to how they would manage qualitative human resources. It must also be mentioned that the reason for choosing this specific institution was the ease of access, in terms of both social connections and geographic vicinity.
As the study aims at collecting in-depth information about a particular phenomenon, the methodology of the study was based on a pure qualitative approach. Among the qualitative approaches, the research questions warranted a case study methodology employing the use of documentary analysis and interviews. Initially, a background study was conducted at the Center for International Affairs by consulting with the officials there. The permission of the office to conduct the study was requested. The full approval was given orally and the Center promised to help with the research study. They also provided information about the most active counselors, whom they defined as “counselors frequently reporting the status of international students” and in regular correspondence with the office.
The researcher requested to read any available document that showed the activity of the counselors in their role of managing international students. The staff at the Center for International Affairs obliged by providing the collection of all official documents from the various department heads and staff on the issues pertaining to international students. These documents were correspondences by the counselors of different departments and contained details about the minutes of meeting between the counselors and the international students and further attached documents showing the students’ academic progress.
The researcher undertook a detailed reading of these documents to understand the background of the counselor program. The crucial passages were underscored, and user-generated codes were written by the side of relevant passages, to explain the thought process and establish the reasons for the direction of the research. The usage of codes was useful in identifying both the most frequent themes and boundary themes of the study. The most repeated codes brought forth the prevalent attitudes and practices in the management of international students, whereas certain illustrative and specific codes brought to light the variety of concepts involved and the specific experiences related to the case.
Interviews are fundamental components of most qualitative research methods, and this tool was used optimally to provide the desired results. The population of the study was the entire population of the counselors appointed by the Center for International Affairs in the management of international students, admitted through the office. The population comprised of 36 faculty members from the various departments of the university, to which international students have been enrolled through the Center for International Affairs. The population was heterogeneous with both male and female members of the faculty and at varying levels of academic positions.
In order to maximize the information gathered from the qualitative study, a purposive sampling technique was chosen. This sample was then provided by the office of the Center for International Affairs, as the list of most active counselors. The activity level of these counselors was assessed by the Center for International Affairs by the frequent reports and correspondences sent to the office, on the various matters pertaining to the management of international students. About 50% of the sample was identified by the method of purposive sampling, ensuring greater detail and cooperation because of their active engagement with the international student population. The faculty members were then approached for their consent for the study. About one third of the total population, 12 faculty counselors from the various departments of the university, participated in the study.
In the next phase of the data collection process, interviews were taken face to face by the researcher. A flexible interview guide was used throughout the interview process. The interview format contained both open and closed questions, varied with the natural flow of the interview. The researcher established a rapport with the participants by free-flowing conversations on their experience and slowly moved on to the questions that depicted the focus of the research study. Clarifications on the answers were sought throughout the process to ensure that the researcher absorbed the right meaning.
The researcher requested the permission of the counselors to audiotape the interview. Based on their consent, a mobile audio recording device was used to store all their responses. Of the 12 participants, 8 accepted audio recording. For the four participants who refused audio recording for personal reasons, brief notes were taken throughout the interview. At the end of the interview, the researcher immediately expanded the notes from the fresh memory of the conversation and the pointers in the brief notes. As an ancillary inference, the researcher also found that some of the counselors who refused recordings were relaxed and more forthcoming with specific interesting facets on their experience with managing international students in the university. Data reduction was applied by compiling the recorded and unrecorded interviews into transcript summaries. The transcript summaries were approached from multiple perspectives to gain a complete understanding of the entire scenario.
The data analysis was logical, arising from the categories identified in the preliminary sections of the data collection. In an iterative process, the data were analyzed by using structured analysis initially and then allowing additional categories to emerge. Data display was done in the form of tables listing the various themes developed in the study and presenting the viewpoints of the different counselors. The displayed data on the tables lead the researcher to identify the themes of the case that would present an overall understanding of the information gathered, based on the perspectives of the counselors on their role and experience in managing the international students in their respective departments.
Results
Document Analysis
Most of the official documents, which were minutes of the meetings conducted by the counselors for the international students in their department, highlighted the fact that the primary involvement of the counselors was in the academic performance of the students (AC), which comprised of attendance (AT) and examination results. This theme repeated in every single document and in all minutes of the meetings of all the departments. The counselors were heavily focused on marks, percentages, and academic improvements of the students.
The academic performance (AC) theme came in the form of talking to students about their marks, advising them on ways of improving the same such as reference books, and developing charts and records to maintain the marks of these international students, which were specifically collected from the staff of the various departments. In the same theme of academic performance (AC) there was a highlighted importance on a subtheme, which was the attendance of the students (AT). This theme emerged in the form of increased emphasis given to making sure the students had 75% attendance, which was mandatory in the university to take up their exams.
Another theme that evolved was the classroom disparity between the various categories of students (Class). This revealed the fact that there were internal differences in the cultures of different countries, and some international students were offended when asked to rise in class when answering questions. There was also a theme around Educational differences (Edu) between the students’ countries of origin and India, such as “a problem in understanding basic Engineering subjects, as a different mode of study was followed in their schooling abroad.” This highlights the fact that different models of education are employed in other countries and help was required to bridge the gaps. Another often repeated consideration was the preoccupation of the counselors in reporting the academic progress and any student problems to the parents of the international students (Parents).
Besides these themes, there was also focus on the infrastructure (Infra) issues that the international students faced during their stay and study in the campus. These problems revolved around the availability and quality of infrastructure, such as laboratory facilities and Internet access. Most of these documents mentioned that the students found these satisfactory. The final theme was a brief focus on specific student problems (StuProb) that portrayed certain issues, which cannot be generalized. This theme portrayed the attitude and approach of the counselors in addressing these specific problems.
At the end of the document analysis stage, questions that arose out of the perusal of related literature were supplemented with additional areas of exploration such as classroom differences, notifying parents and handling of student problems. These questions set the backdrop for the interviews with the counselors, in understanding their preparedness and perspectives in the management of international students.
Interview Analysis
The counselors interviewed were a mixture of both male and female members of the faculty, with various experience levels ranging from 20 years to 1.5 years in the same university. Most members have served as counselors for the entire 2-year period since the start of the counselor program by the Center for International Affairs. The counselors have been in all cases selected by the head of the department, for their knowledge, aptitudes, and capabilities. Some have served as hostel wardens and student advisors and were expected to draw upon this student–teacher interaction in their role of counselors.
Focus of Counseling
The primary duties of the counselor, in the management of the international students, were the conduct of the monthly or fortnightly meetings with the international students in their respective departments. When asking one of the international student counselors questions on what they perceived as their responsibilities, the response was,
I conduct meetings with students, once a month, normally. If exams are there, twice a month. Inform them of attendance requirements. Tell them it’s very crucial. Else, they cannot sit for exams here. In the meetings, discussion about how they are progressing. Before exams, we talk about attendance and after exams, we talk about performance. Student reps & teachers make it a point to inform me about the attendance details. (Female, Refused Audio Recording)
One counselor had developed a detailed template for recording the progress of the students in their attendance and assessments. There also seemed to be some focus on reporting results and progress of the students to their parents, mainly when they fall under the nonresident Indians (NRI) category, who demand to know the academic progress of their children, as a counselor described, “After admission, student list is sent from international affairs. Parents’ details and personal details are obtained. Once in 15 days, difficulties are shared” (Male, Refused Audio Recording). It was understood that although it isn’t a governmental or even institutional policy, the rationale for reporting the students’ progress to their parents arises out of a culturally implicit rule in India, that the parents would be interested in the specifics of their children’s academic progress, even at a higher education level. In the case of local students, such information is available on the department notice boards for the parents to see, if they wish to. In order to make the same accessible to parents of international students, who do not have the facility of frequently visiting the campus, these reports are sent across through email.
View on training
The faculty have been briefed on the rules and regulations of the university to be followed in their role as international student counselors. They consider these to be sufficient information for their counseling process. Thus, they don’t recognize the need of any specific training, and they draw upon their years of interacting with students.
Being a teacher, for the past 25 years. Students everywhere are the same. I think a certain amount of sensitivity helps. I don’t know, I have my gut feeling that women maybe slightly better for the role than men. Perhaps, because women are more approachable and students would feel more inclined to open up and talk to us. (Female, Allowed Audio Recording)
Travel Abroad
With regard to their international exposure, most had visited foreign countries, as part of conferences or in a research capacity. Many subscribe to the view that going to other countries helps in understanding the research developments there and that this knowledge helps to improve the existing infrastructure, such as laboratory and other research facilities, in Indian institutions. But there is also the view that going on short trips for conferences or even in a research capacity does not contribute to the counselor role, as a counselor candidly put it, “I am not for globe-trotting for short time, for the sake of it. These are just flying visits. You need longer visits for the exposure to impact you” (Female, Refused Audio Recording).
It is only when counselors have spent considerable amount of time in other countries do they develop sensitivity to problems of international students was a noteworthy opinion in discussing the impact of ‘travel abroad’ on managing international students.
Reasons for Internationalization
The counselors’ views on the need for internationalization of higher education in Indian universities was analyzed with the question as to why the university must take in more international students. The perceptions on the reasons for internationalization were divided between revenue, improvement of standards, global view, and cultural exchange.
Revenue
Many counselors stated the main reason for taking in more international students was the revenue factor, in terms of increased amount of fees, which was collected from the students admitted through the international program. “We collect a reasonably good amount of fees from them. This helps in the revenue for the university, to some extent” (Male, Allowed Audio Recording). This was perceived as a way of improving the infrastructure in the universities and creation of better teaching facilities.
Improvement of standards
Some counselors felt that since the intake of international students was initiated, the university felt compelled to improve the basic standards of the system.
After these NRI students have come in to our campus, we have changed a lot. Our kind of system changed a lot and oriented towards their system. Last 3 years, I have seen a lot of improvements. (Male, Allowed Audio Recording)
The counselors saw that improvisation was a trend that would continue in the future as the process of internationalization took stronger hold in the university.
Global view
Certain counselors felt that the intake of international students was very important in that this would impart a global view to education. In a world that is increasingly becoming interconnected, “We should understand international needs, to be compatible and efficient. It’s a welcome picture to have more international students” (Female, Refused Audio Recording).
Cultural exchange
Some counselors mentioned that cultural learning would take place when students of different countries study together.
Cultural interaction will be better both ways. Always we get what the media constructs. Not the real thing. It’s my personal opinion that they are probably biased. But when real people come and spend time here, they get to know how we function. That’s an enriching experience . . . when there are real international students (from various countries). Even in the current case of NRI students. . . . They understand the stark differences. Comforts they enjoy and what is not there. Good for them to have the exposure. To realize that their own classmates can’t afford many things. (Female, Allowed Audio Recording)
Problems Areas of International Students
The views of the counselors on various problem areas of international students are summarized as follows:
Language difficulty
In case of students coming from non–English-speaking countries, they were reported to have difficulty in following lectures, with the added problems of differences in Indian English, with respect to speed and accent.
Lack of attendance
In the technical institution under consideration, there was an increased emphasis on attendance. On the prevalent disregard for this, by the international students, “When they leave on vacations, they do not get back in time and as a result, their attendance lags” (Male, Refused Audio Recording).
Dress code
The students sometimes have difficulty with the dress code, as reasoned, “They come from a very casual and informal dress code system and here there’s an unwritten dress code here, that they find difficult to follow. If exceptions are made, Indian students complain about the preferential treatment” (Female, Refused Audio Recording).
Infrastructure
Access to Internet and hostel facilities were some of the basic issues that the international students encountered in their study in the university.
The international students come into the Indian Universities from various developed countries. The various facilities available to them for education and boarding are not equivalent here. The students sometimes reported problems with basic facilities such as restroom maintenance (Female, Refused Audio Recording).
Bureaucracy
When problems arise, the counselors report these problems to the higher authorities through the respective channels. Although the problems are so reported, there seemed to be a long time for remedial action to take place. Sometimes, even before the problems are remedied the students complete their education and leave the campus. This results in them leaving with an “unsatisfied feeling that they raised a problem and they did not have their problems resolved with effective solutions” (Female, Refused Audio Recording).
Student–professor interaction
As the international students may have experienced their education in a different academic setup, the students may come with different expectations of student-teacher interactions, such as “ The students may have been very friendly and close with their professors there. Here, we maintain a distance” (Male, Allowed Audio Recording). The students need more time and a clear perspective to understand the differences and settle down.
Education system differences
The counselors brought forth various details of problems based on the fundamental educational differences of the sending country and India.
Voluminous syllabus
In the Indian system, there is a tendency to cover a huge amount of syllabus, focusing on many more subjects and more chapters within the subjects, whereas the western system, covers less topics and in greater depth. Students find it difficult to cover all the subjects within the stipulated time. (Male, Allowed Audio Recording)
Theory-application
The education pattern is primarily focused on theory here, with even the exam questions stating “Explain, Discuss.” (Female, Refused Audio Recording).
The international students come from an application-oriented education and have difficulties in handling the examination system, which lays a lot of emphasis on the ability to understand and remember the theoretical principles more than problem solving.
Memorizing
As the international students may not be used to rote learning, they have difficulties in handling the examination system. “Even formulas are expected to be memorized here” (Female, Refused Audio Recording), and the international students were said to find this very alien in their learning structure.
Restricted-free education
The Indian system is completely focused towards the end-semester examinations, whereas the western system works on various factors such as class involvement and the teachers’ perception of the performance. In that way, the western system is more subjective whereas the Indian system is more objective. Although this naturally results in the western system being a free sort of education system, whereas the Indian system is more restricted. (Female, Refused Audio Recording)
Preparation of Larger Scale of Internationalization
The counselors were presented with the question, what would be needed, in case a large number of international students of different nationalities, not only NRIs, as was the current case, were taken into the university, in the future years. Many counselors expressed that the handling of more intake of international students would get very tough, mainly because the students come in at different levels of learning and they would find it difficult to get into the system without prior preparation. For instance, the knowledge gained by a student from the Indian schooling system and one coming from a different country would be vastly different. There was a perceived need to bridge the differences so that the international students could readily adapt to both the classroom experience, in particular, and the educational experience, in general. The many problem areas in the internationalization process also throws clear focus on the need for improvements in the current system, before the intake of large number of international students, from varying cultural and educational backgrounds, is attempted. Handling large numbers would not be as much a concern to the Indian institutions as handling a wide range of varying cultural and educational differences, which require focused qualitative attention to specific issues. Thus, the ideas presented for preparing for culturally dissimilar foreign students from various countries were
Assessment of their strengths and weaknesses at the entry level and designing bridge courses to update their levels of knowledge.
Functional use of the local language to international students, in order to help in their adjustment in the host country.
Cultural training for students and teachers, to incorporate international students into the education system.
Exposure of counselors to an international environment and understanding the facets of counseling.
English language training imparted to help the students understand the teaching language.
Encouraging Indian students to learn foreign languages of the various international students.
Discussion
The counselors considered themselves to be well equipped to handle the process of international student counseling for two fundamental reasons. One being that the primary focus of the counseling was academic and this the faculty members were well cognizant of. The other reason was that a large number of the international students in this technical institution belonged to the NRI and the CWIGC categories. These students have lived in India or have Indian origins and have clear expectations of the cultural background. So the counselors felt well prepared to handle the population of international students in the university. Although the low volume of international students and the majority of them being the culturally similar students of Indian origin were a limitation to the study, there were inherent educational differences and this provided the necessary focus. The need for cultural training and additional preparation was felt only for the future scenario of a large volume of international students from various countries.
The perspectives of the counselors to the various questions raised on internationalization are summarized as follows:
International travel
The faculty subscribe to the view that cultural immersion only would have a deep impact on the counselor role, as opposed to short trips that focus only on seminars and academic presentations. Although a brief awareness of the facilities available in other countries and the implications of the absence of the same here could be acquired even in short academic trips overseas.
Altruism/commercialism?
The response to whether internationalization is for commercial reasons or for altruistic purposes remains highly subjective, depending on the outlook of the faculty. Revenue was one of the primary reasons mentioned, although the counselors also gave certain deep perspectives on cultural exchange and understanding economic differences.
Problems and solutions
The various intricate problems that an international student would face in an Indian institution were brought forth from the perspectives of the counselors. The major problems identified about the differences in educational system in India include the fact that the Indian system lays much emphasis on theory and memorizing as against problem solving. This was repeatedly brought forth in the discussions with various counselors. The other major problem was the question of addressing the delays in the process of solving problems due to the bureaucratic functioning of Indian universities. There are many layers before even a simple issue could be addressed, which is a reason why many problems remain unsolved in spite of the availability of resources to address the same. Simple problems like the varying importance accorded to class attendance was also evident from the faculty experiences. By clearly defining these problems, solutions could be worked out in addressing these issues and improving the quality of stay and education of the international students in the country. When solutions are found and implemented for these problems faced by international students, the education system would get a global tone, improving the education of not just the international students but also the entire student community. The final note of the study ends on a practical dimension stating few suggestions that the current system could follow, in order to confidently accept a large volume of international students from diverse nationalities.
The research and the results benefit both the Indian institutions, which accept foreign students, and the foreign institutions, which send their students to India. In the former case, the study brings out important questions that Indian universities must reflect upon in order to assess their current status and the changes they must incorporate before they can confidently accept a large volume of international students. In the later case of foreign institutions, sending their students to India, this study would make them understand the challenges their students are likely to face and give them the vocabulary to probe the various areas highlighted by the research.
Suggestions for Further Research
The study approaches the preparedness and perspectives of the international student counselors from the limited point of view of the faculty. Additional research can be undertaken with the international student population to match the perspectives and bridge the gaps in the appreciation of difficulties by the faculty and the international students. Comparative case studies in the management of international students can be undertaken between private and public universities in India as well as universities focused on arts and sciences and technical institutions. Such comparative studies would reveal various measures taken up by different types and levels of institutions and help in knowledge transference on the issues relating to presence of international students in Indian institutions. Comparative differences between the educational system of countries that send across a large volume of students and the Indian education system can be analyzed. These comparative differences can then be used in the design of individual bridge courses for the international students from various countries entering the Indian Universities.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.