The Secret Lives of International PGRs Research England Enhancing Research Culture Project 2022-23
Manel Lemmouchi, Darren Webb, David Hyatt and Antonios Ktenidis. University of Sheffield, School of Education
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Some of the issues faced by international PGRs Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions Racist assumptions (by supervisors, PS staff, institution) Academic assumptions, issues around learning, teaching and assessment, and PGR/supervisor power imbalances Language assumptions, including pronunciation, naming, linguistic conventions
International PGRs constructed as ‘problems’ Experience of being stereotyped as an ‘international PGR’/ impact on self-image Navigating an alien and difficult to understand bureaucracy (both in and out of university) Hierarchical power relationships and conformity/resistance to authority
Wider challenges Immigration status/visa status Complex caring responsibilities (separated families, caring from afar) Lack of community England as a hostile environment Finance/cost of living/work (again resting on visa status) 2
Recommendations to Supervisors to better support international PGRs Put yourself in their shoes: “get to know the person you are supervising and do not make any assumptions”
“There are a variety of factors that affect the way we show up in meetings, there’s a variety of factors that affect the way we write. And because of the experiences we’ve had they inform the decisions we take, they inform the way we see the world. So just having an understanding of being, you know just having that mindset of the other person is coming from a whole ecosystem that is different from yours. It should make you more patient with the person…I know some of them do, most of them do, but they don’t really understand the struggles we go through to hand over our work.”
So supervisors need to recognise the ‘human’ behind the PGR, by being: Welcoming
“she (the supervisor) is the very first person who I met when I came here so I feel like I can tell her anything.”
Supportive: Interested in PGRs as individuals Sympathetic, considerate and understanding, giving space for PGRs to discuss emotional and personal concerns
“it’s like an avalanche, you know everything is coming after you. Be slow with them especially in their first year, give them some time to adjust.”
Patient: Introducing supervisees to each other:
“But in our department everybody is working on their own. So it’s difficult to find a friend as well…I got a bit lucky because my supervisor, she started supervising two other students at the same time, so the three of us could like meet regularly a bit unlike other people…So yeah it’s really, really difficult to not feel lonely when you are doing a PhD” (Creating a peer support network) 3
With academic work
Make the written feedback more accessible and more sensitive: international PGRs might feel the power imbalance sharply and take feedback as pointing out mistakes rather than encouragement to think critically. “Supervisors don’t realise how painful it is for us to hear some words from them sometimes.”
Avoid using academic jargon that not everyone understands:
“Supervisors, they’ve stayed in the academic circle for so long sometimes they don’t have the awareness that as newbies in this circle or as people outside of the circle we don’t really know the terminologies. And they just say all the terminologies to us in the conversation they have with us.”
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Recommendations for Professional Services Staff to better support international PGRs
Clear welcoming communication
Offer more tailored support
“I do hope that first communication is important… we do not want to receive any cold formal emails or too ‘generated’ emails, instead we really hope to have some dialogic conversations with the School officers…I really hope that they can regard the non UK international students as a part of the university, and I hope that our voices count.”
“Think about, you know, what are the needs of international students in general in terms of how their educational systems work. But also, not only what do they need that is general but what are some of the nuanced things that maybe more specific to maybe people that come from certain places.”
Abandon assumptions “I can see how it’s the lack of understanding that causes some of these problems. Like you don’t even understand where the other person’s coming from so therefore you assume when they are having difficulty it’s because they haven’t chosen to look for the help, or they haven’t come and asked.”
Create a booklet highlighting the services PGRs can use and benefit from “a lot more information about what is needed. I think they need to understand that sometimes if you are foreign to a place you actually have many blind spots, you don’t know what you don’t know, that’s the problem.” 5
Recommendations for departments to better support international PGRs Have one person whose sole job is supporting international PGRs in each department
Longer inductions
Not only academically but also socially too. To be available to provide advice on, for example, accessing health services, using public transport, generally orienting to life in the UK.
The initial period of the doctorate can be overwhelming (an avalanche) so induction should extend beyond a single event or a single week and should spread across the first semester.
More academic support workshops
Create a Postgraduate Research community:
Abandon academic assumptions and provide a more extended programme of support relating to, for example, what supervisors/the department/ the discipline understands by “theoretical framework” and “criticality”.
“it’s really, really difficult to not feel lonely when you are doing a PhD…I would say it was worse for international students because…we’re away from families and friends”.
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Invest in a Peer Mentoring Scheme
Treat international and home PGRs equally: “If you open opportunities for a group of students to get involved in any academic projects it should be open to all, not just British students”
More funded support that is inspired and led by lived experiences:
Create more job opportunities for PGRs to boost their CV and help with financial demands.
“I think it can be done organically so that it’s the people who have had this experience who will inform what they think will be useful for someone who would be in a similar shoe as theirs. And of course it needs to be funded and standardized by the university. But the voices of those that this concerns needs to really be considered, because I think otherwise you are going to go back into the same loop which is being done unto as opposed to being done with, or you know supporting I think definitely.” 7
Recommendations for the University to better support international PGRs Recognise the realities facing international PGRs living in the UK “I feel like I am an alien in this society…the UK is not a place to live for a long time. It’s a place, yes, you can maybe get your degree or you can come here and visit, but it’s not a place to live for a long time. Because here, it’s not encouraging outsiders to stay in the UK, it’s not encouraging non-UK people to stay in the UK. All the racism that we see in the UK is not showing ‘come on, welcome to the country’ ”. Be sensitive to these realities when framing policies and communicating these.
Truly value international PGRs “Instead of seeing international students as problematic, let’s say in terms of language, in terms of culture, or in terms of identity sometimes, acknowledge their value because we’re not just problems, we are a lot more than that”.
Senior management need to be more visible, transparent, present, accessible “you don’t really see the people who are in charge, it feels like they’re hiding behind something, it feels like they are villains in a superhero story, like they’re hiding and planning something”. 8
The university needs to be worthy “sometimes I feel like they are just using us because we are paying so much money, you know” “I think it should mean a lot for the university because someone from a completely different country is willing to come and study at this particular university leaving behind everything tells a lot. It means that the university is worthy. So I would say if this person leaves behind everything and comes, thinking the university is worthy, then the university needs to be worthy of this sacrifice that the person is doing, that protects, that provides everything that is needed” .
For more information about the research... visit: www.sheffield.ac.uk/research/ culture/erc-funding/2022-23
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