“Everything is so different...”

Abstract

In the scope of higher education internationalisation, Portuguese universities have been receiving an increasing number of students from Portuguese-Speaking countries, namely African countries, at the level of PhD studies. As highlighted in research, pursuing a PhD in an overseas context entails critical challenges for students, supervisors and higher education institutions. Against this background, this paper reports on the challenges faced by international African students attending a PhD programme in Education at a Portuguese university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven students and results from thematic analysis show that the main challenges relate to language, integration into a different pedagogical/academic culture, adaptation to a different research culture, loneliness/homesickness and financial difficulties. Implications of findings for institutional policy and practice are put forward.

International doctoral students’ perspectives on the qualities of supervisors: Expectations for intercultural supervision in Portuguese higher education

“…As stated in the methodology section, for many of these IDS, Portuguese is their second language and they speak different varieties of Portuguese. This poses them several challenges as to oral and written interaction with supervisors, to thesis writing and as to construction of data collection instruments and field work (Hu et al, 2016; Pinto, 2021). Findings show that significant differences regarding orthography, lexicon, phonology, prosody and sociolinguistic features are put forward by IDS as intervening in academic learning and in the supervisory relationship, reporting to episodes of linguistic insecurity and misunderstandings between supervisors and IDS.…”

“…Indeed, IDS face diverse challenges related to integration into a different pedagogical/academic culture, adaption to a different research culture, language, loneliness and homesickness (Pinto, 2021) which underline the need for intrapersonal and interpersonal qualities related to intercultural doctoral supervision. Hence, IDS in this study showed to have a clearly honed sense of the qualities they want in a supervisor, relating them to their condition of 'foreign students'.…”

“…In Portugal, HE internationalisation has become a major concern and universities have received a growing number of international students mainly from the CPLP, due to special access regimes within cooperation agreements and protocols supported on historical and cultural ties between Portugal and Lusophone countries. National policies to attract international students from the CPLP (for an overview, see Pinto, 2021) has led to a progressive increase of international students in Portuguese HEI, currently representing 16.6% of the total number of students (DGEEC, 2021). Students from the CPLP represent the largest share of this growing percentage: while in 1995/96, there were 4,000, in 2011/2012, they were around 15,000 (DGEEC, 2015), and in 2019/2020, they were close to 39,000, thus around 60% of all international students (DGEEC, 2021).…”

“…Nevertheless, and although a growing body of research focuses on IDS and on challenges and difficulties faced in their doctoral experiences (e.g., Doyle et al, 2017; Hu et al, 2016; Laufer and Gorup, 2019; Pinto, 2021; Winchester-Seeto et al, 2014; Yang and MacCallum, 2021), research dealing specifically with the qualities for supervising IDS is scarce, and in Portugal, it is inexistent. The general qualities and competences put forward in the literature seem adequate to supervising IDS, but as highlighted by Adrian-Taylor et al (2007), supervisors are central figures in IDS’ journeys since these ‘tend to have fewer social supports to help them cope with the many challenges they face while studying abroad’ (p. 92).…”

“…The greater diversity of students enrolling in PhD Programs worldwide, allied to the critical issue of students’ satisfaction and the successful completion of their degree, which are important issues for assessing Higher Education Institutions (HEI) excellence in postgraduate research supervision, has posed challenges to supervisors and institutions. Research has been addressing IDS doctoral journeys focusing on their motivations and expectations (Xu and Grant, 2017) and challenges and difficulties in taking a PhD overseas (Pinto, 2021). Nevertheless, IDS’ perspectives on the qualities of supervisors remain an understudied area in general and in the Portuguese context in particular.…”