What Access? Lived Experiences of International Post-graduate Students from Africa Studying in a South African University

Chikoko, Vitallis; Pillay, Daisy; Pithouse-Morgan, Kathleen; Morojele, Pholoho; Naicker, Inbanathan

doi:10.1080/09718923.2013.11893215

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Internationalisation of higher education has led to universities opening up access to students beyond their borders (Sehoole 2011). However, real access is more than just opening up admission to international students, it should rather be a much broader concept better qualified by students' lived experiences (Chikoko et al 2013). Despite the positive statistical increase in admission, new challenges of inequalities arise in trying to service the different student populations (Ilie and Rose, 2016).…”

Section: Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of African international students in a South African university – A qualitative study

Kasese-Hara

Mugambi

2021

SAJHE

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South Africa has in latter decades embraced the growing trend of internationalization in higher education leading to greater international mobility of staff and students. Compared to other countries in most of the sub-Saharan Africa region, South Africa has a larger capacity to meet the tertiary needs of students within the region. An increasing number of international students has implications for their academic success, adaptation and wellbeing once in their host country. The current study explored the lived experiences of international students in a South African university, from 5 other African countries. The study adopted a qualitative design, using semi-structured in-depth interviews and open-ended questions. Nine mainly postgraduate students (4 males and 5 females) were recruited using convenient and snowball sampling methods. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis and revealed 5 themes namely "Internationalisation", "experiencing the unforeseen", "access", "social support" and "structural support", with several sub-themes emerging from these. A resulting framework shows "empowerment", "alienation" and "adaptation" as over-arching themes in experiencing the phenomenon of being an African foreign student in South Africa.

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Section: Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%