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How do language and culture pose adjustment challenges that hinder the academic success of postgraduate international students? This article answers this question based on a thematic analysis of 55 semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with postgraduate international students and academic and professional staff members at a Malaysian research-intensive public university. The results show that language and culture are influential in a range of academic (language, supervision, research training) and social (group work, friendship) adjustment challenges. The analysis highlights how these challenges hinder academic success as a result of limited or frustrated pathways for students' linguacultural development. We conclude that future academic research and university policy to support postgraduate international students may pay greater attention to cross-cultural, linguistic, and linguacultural issues.

Scholarly articles on international academics have been weighted towards understanding their broad personal and professional challenges related to teaching. Limited research is conducted with international women academics in Australia in, especially, exploring their leadership-related challenges and opportunities. Using an intersectionality lens, this paper addresses this gap by exploring key related challenges and opportunities for international women academics in gaining leadership positions at Australian universities. It draws on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with seven international women academics. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge in exploring two major challenges faced by international women academics in Australia: (1) administrative-related interruption impacting their research performance; and (2) lack of understanding of university policies and processes. International women academics also cited the opportunities provided to them or gained by them for their overall professional growth at Australian universities. The practical implications of these findings for international women academics and higher education institutions are also considered. [Note: The page range (140-159) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 140-157.]

Limited scholarly work has been conducted on obtaining equal opportunities to participate in employability-related programmes by international students while studying in Australia. Drawing on a qualitative study, 20 South Asian postgraduates were interviewed to explore their experiences in accessing employability-related programmes. Based on the findings, South Asian graduates have experienced unequal opportunities in accessing employability-related programmes as postgraduate international students in Australia. They are disadvantaged by generic career advice and resume assistance offered by their university career office, and companies invited to university career fairs offer internships, placements or graduate programme opportunities mostly to domestic students. As a result, South Asian graduates were unable to gain employment in their field of studies. South Asian graduates have also offered several useful recommendations to facilitate more equal chances of developing employability and thereby gaining successful employment in Australia. These include partnerships with companies in providing employment opportunities, diversification of university career office roles, and establishing connections with alumni. The paper also discusses implications for Australian higher education institutions and higher education policy and practice in Australia.

Scholarly articles on international academics mainly focus on personal and professional challenges endured by international academics' during conventional times. This includes adjustments to new roles and living in a foreign country, pedagogical differences stemming from intercultural differences, language barriers and unequal access to resources (funding, exploitation). This paper explores experiences of two international early-career academics in Australia highlighting their teaching-related challenges, strategies and opportunities during COVID-19, using a collaborative autoethnography qualitative approach. At this Australian university, teaching was paused for a week in March 2020 to cope with the learning and teaching 'shock' -- to reorientate teaching from face-to-face to completely offer courses remotely to ensure that students were not disadvantaged in their learning and provide space for academic staff to reorientate their learning and teaching materials to suit online delivery. Personalised reflections encapsulate some bizarre teaching related experiences of these international academics in the online learning and teaching space, underpinned by their cultural differences. There were four major challenges identified: transition to online learning and teaching, learning and teaching online practices, relationship issues between students and academic staff, and language-related issues. Specific strategies to overcome these challenges are also identified that led to overall teaching success endured by these international early-career academics in Australia.

There is significant research on the motivations and migration experiences of South Asian international students in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK); however, the employability journeys of this group are not well understood. This article addresses this gap, illuminating the specific employability challenges experienced and perceived by South Asian postgraduate international students enrolled in Australia and the UK. Drawing on qualitative research comprising semi-structured interviews with 30 South Asian postgraduate international students studying at a university in Australia and in the UK, the findings highlight significant barriers to employability along four key axes: time pressures from study and adjustment issues (micro); lack of internship opportunities offered at the universities (meso); lack of culturally tailored university career services (meso) and perceptions of employers' as well as Government policy implications (macro). Acknowledging and understanding these findings are important for universities to support South Asian international student employability experiences and graduate outcomes to remain competitive in the global job market. The findings suggest recommendations to enhance the employability of South Asian students in the UK and Australia.

The literature on international students predominantly emanates from the Western perspective and offers rich insights into international students' adaptation experiences. While university services improve these experiences, limited studies have investigated the role of pre-support assistance prior to students' arrival. This paper fills that gap from a non-Anglophone perspective, using 31 semi-structured, thematically analysed interviews with postgraduate international students in a Malaysian university. As country-specific research, this paper highlights practices of pre-support services for incoming international students in order to improve their experiences at a Malaysian research university. Pre-assistance provided includes the Student Ambassador Program (SAP), pre-information provided by friends and colleagues, and academics building rapport with students prior to arrival. This has a positive impact on levels of such students' engagement, satisfaction, motivation and sense of belonging to the institution.

While China has emerged as a leading host country for international students, it reinforces its determination to build a global knowledge system by integrating Chinese and Western epistemological traditions in teaching and learning to promote epistemic justice. The study aims to explore international students' challenges to current approaches to teaching and learning in Chinese higher education institutions in relation to the internationalization of curriculum. The study employed a qualitative exploratory design and collected data using semi-structured interviews with 30 international students at two prestigious Chinese universities. Based on the thematic analysis, the results highlight that international students struggle with issues such as Chinese language-dominated instruction, lack of discussion and autonomy in the classroom, limited engagement with domestic (Chinese) students and insufficient practical or hands-on learning opportunities. These findings are analysed against common standards required for the internationalization of teaching and learning. These findings have implications for classroom pedagogy in higher education institutions in China to sustain the interest of international students.

Malaysia aspires to become a regional and international hub of higher education through an international student mobility initiative. Existing scholarly work on international students is skewed towards understanding the general challenges faced by international students, but limited work has been conducted in exploring the impact of severe supervision challenges on international postgraduate students' experiences in a Malaysian research university. Hence, this paper explores the evidence of academic failure experienced by international postgraduate students by drawing on semi-structured interviews with 33 international postgraduate students. Academic failure experiences were faced by international postgraduate students as a result of two major challenges: supervision issues, and faculty mismanagement. The experience of academic failure has impacted the students' enthusiasm, motivation and inspiration in progressing in their research work and has also impacted them psychologically. The implications for developing significant and profound strategies to assist international postgraduate students in achieving positive educational outcomes are also discussed.

Given the exponential growth of international students in China, understanding the advantages of studying there is under-researched. This paper investigates benefits of such study, using 30 semi-structured qualitative interviews with international students from Asia, Africa and Western countries enrolled at two prestigious universities in Beijing and Hubei Province. The analysis identified three sets of mutually inclusive economic-, social-, cultural- and educational-related benefits: employment prospects, learning Mandarin, and building knowledge, skills and experiences. The analysis illustrates the interplay of individual and external benefits, especially the contribution to the home country, through the employability lens. The paper contributes to new insights into important nuances of the key benefits of international education relating to career and employment opportunities in home and host countries, learning Mandarin for future trade dealings and acquiring business knowledge, investment skills and management experience to benefit countries of origin.

Flipped classroom approaches have increasingly been adopted in the Australian higher education sector. However, current research on this approach is predominantly quantitative and focused on domestic students. Little is known about the flipped classroom learning experiences of undergraduate international students in Australia. This paper sets out to investigate undergraduate international students' challenges in a flipped classroom environment, based on thirty-two semi-structured interviews with undergraduate international students at an Australian university. We identified several challenges, including language issues, barriers to autonomous learning, as well as technical and technological challenges. International students in our study also provide constructive recommendations to improve the design of the flipped classroom. This paper contributes new insights into the nuances of undergraduate international students' challenges in a flipped classroom environment.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the perceived sustainable supervisory relationships between supervisors and postgraduate international students at a research university in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with 33 international postgraduate students and 10 academic staff at a Malaysian research university. Findings: Perceived sustainable supervisory relationships were perceived by both stakeholders in terms of future employment rapport, further research collaborations upon graduation and global engagement via networking initiatives. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the supervision literature by establishing novel nuances in the nature and lived experiences of the sustainable supervisory relationships beyond graduation. The implications of developing significant and profound relationships beyond graduation at micro and macro levels are also discussed.

In previous studies, scholars have noted that challenges experienced by international students have an impact on their academic success. However, limited research has been conducted on how international students overcome the challenges they face in non-Western countries, such as Malaysia. This paper aims to fills this gap by investigating essential resilience strategies adopted by international students in overcoming academic obstacles, thus contributing to the literature regarding international student development. To achieve this, it adopts a qualitative approach based on 33 semi-structured interviews with postgraduate international students that were analyzed thematically. The results reveal that international students develop resilience strategies through group assignments, in classroom settings, and by seeking university and personal support services. Understanding the resilience strategies adopted by postgraduate international students in Malaysia has imperative implications for all universities as it influences the manner in which they develop guidelines to promote international students' resilience strategies and help them cope with academic adversity and difficulties.

This article investigates how international educational experiences affect the employment opportunities of Chinese who graduated from an Australian university. Findings based on 26 semi-structured interviews highlight that Chinese students who graduated from Australia gained a web of capital (i.e., human, cultural, psychological and identity), which facilitated their employment upon return home. However, social capital, which is critical in China, was a weakness for Chinese students who graduated from overseas institutions. The findings have provided strong evidence that Chinese students' employability benefited from studying overseas. This research utilised the Tomlinson's Graduate Capital Model to an international education context. It has implications for Chinese students on how they could benefit from studying overseas and for universities that recruit Chinese international students.

The article explores how international students in China are engaging with employability-related programmes to enhance their employment outcomes in their home countries, underpinned by the Graduate Capital Model (GCM). Thirty international students in China participated in in-depth interviews. Findings revealed that international students studying at elite universities in China are very aware of building and enhancing their employability via key forms of capital: acquiring human capital (knowledge and skills) to contribute to their home countries, building social capital in China and elsewhere, and developing stronger career, cultural and identity capital through internships and other work-related programmes, as well as psychological adaptability and flexibility. Most importantly, they are proactive in interweaving strategies for this range of capital to enhance their employability and achieve successful employment outcomes. The findings contribute to the empirical understanding of the employability strategies employed by international students in China, while also providing recommendations on enhancing and facilitating employability of current and future international students there to match with the needs of global employment practices and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous scholarly work has elaborated on challenges faced by Chinese international returnees at Chinese workplaces. However, limited research has captured to what extent such challenges have involved Chinese Australian graduates in gaining employment in China. Hence this study investigates the challenges involved in obtaining successful employment in China. Drawing on a qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 Chinese graduates who studied at one Australian university and returned to China upon graduation. The study results highlight significant barriers to employment. Challenges include limited prior working experience, graduation in Australia that is not synchronised with employment months in China and lack of guanxi. This study provides important insights into barriers of employment in China for Chinese returnees from Australia and, potentially, for graduate returnees from other countries to China. It also discusses implications for Australian universities and for Chinese international students in Australia.

Scholarly articles on the repatriation of international students mainly derive from the United States and the United Kingdom. Little is known as to why Chinese international students studying in Australia repatriate home. This paper closes the gap by employing semi-structured interviews with 19 Chinese graduates who studied at one Australian university and returned home upon graduation. Based on a thematic analysis, the results of this study highlight the push and pull factors for their repatriation decision back to their homeland, China. The push factors include stricter Australian migration policy, discrimination towards Chinese graduates by Australian employers and difficulty in obtaining suitable employment in Australia. Conversely, the pull factors include China's booming economy and family pressures. The paper also discusses the micro (graduates and higher learning institutions) and macro (Australia and China economic) implications of the repatriation decisions made by Chinese graduates.