Graduation Term

2020

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Educational Administration and Foundations: Educational Administration

Committee Chair

James C. Palmer

Abstract

Higher education campuses are becoming ethnoculturally diverse with the influx of international students from various parts of the world and must modify their international student recruitment and enrollment strategies in response to this trend. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of student affairs personnel to campus services for international students by comparing what should be provided to what is being offered. The study also attempts to identify the gap in their perceptions. Services identified in the literature were examined using the Briggs and Ammigan (2017) collaborative programming and outreach model, which combined concepts of student engagement and experience, intercultural and global competence, assessment and communications, and institutional leadership and support.

The researcher used a quantitative research method based on an internet survey of 272 international student affairs professionals employed at four-year public and private institutions within the 12 states that comprise the Midwest Higher Education Compact. The questionnaire included 21 paired statements describing institutional actions, programs, or services that are designed to help international students. Each pair of statements asked respondents to indicate their level of agreement that the action, program, or service specified in the statement reflects (a) actual practice at their institutions and (b) practice as it should be at their institutions. Responses were analyzed to identify gaps between actual and desired practice.

Study findings, based on a 54% response rate, suggest a potentially troubling shortcoming in the extent to which institutions take steps to enhance the intercultural and global competency of faculty and staff. In addition, the study also revealed that respondents perceived gaps in the extent to which their institutions offer semester-long orientations for international students and adequately staff offices that provide services for these students. Study implications are discussed as well as implications for future research.

Access Type

Dissertation-Open Access

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2020.Findlay.S

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