Overview - University of Wollongong Teaching & Learning Journal
Article Title
Working with overseas students
Abstract
Every new student experiences some difficulty in learning to operate effectively in a university, but the overseas student faces many additional problems and dearly the capacity to adjust can affect academic performance. Some may encounter prejudice, stereotyping and ignorance about his/her cultural background. For some, another dimension is added: physical characteristics which immediately single him/her out. Before even a word is spoken, others may have made assumptions which can be especially disconcerting and may also be quite mistaken. It is easy to assume, for example, that a particular student must be an overseas student when judging by physical appearance alone, but that student may be a second, third or fourth generation Australian, who may then be justifiably irritated by not being accepted as such.