International Student Orientations Aren't Working

Back in early Fall of 2015, English3 conducted a survey of professionals in the international higher education space. We received responses from about 70 US universities to the survey, and most of the respondents were over international admissions, international services, and other aspects of international student enrollment. The purpose of the survey was to examine current practices revolving around international student enrollment and try to gauge the pulse of what is working and what isn't working. We learned some interesting things.

The first thing we learned was that 90% of respondents said they don't believe international students are adequately prepared for the American classroom on Day 1. There were a lot of reasons behind this, which I won't get into in detail here, but they ranged from not trusting English proficiency scores to fraudulent applications to simple cultural differences that caused major roadblocks.

One common practice among almost all institutions of higher education in the US is to hold some sort of student orientation for all international students. This typically varies from the general student orientation that all students will go through as they enter their college of choice to further their education. The intent of these international student orientations is to hopefully cover issues that could potentially cause problems as they enter a new environment with which they are unfamiliar. In our survey, we asked people to list what items are covered in their orientations.  These were the responses.

I am particularly surprised by the 7% of schools that don't have international student orientations, but the rest of the responses were perfectly in line with what one would expect to see. Schools want students to know what resources are available to them on campus. Plagiarism is a major issue largely because of cultural differences. For example, in India, plagiarism isn't defined the same way it is in the US. It's perfectly okay to copy someone else's work and then present it as your own. The goal is to find information that is relevant to the topic and then present valid arguments with that information. Citing someone else's work is not required.

The point is that these international student orientations are fairly uniform. Some schools do take more time than others, and some get very detailed, trying to cover dozens of skills that these students will need to be successful during their time in the US. 

Another question we asked was in regards to problems that schools see from their international student population. Here is the slide that represents these answers:

This second graph looks awfully familiar! Plagiarism, classroom skills, culture knowledge, etc. These are all of the same issues that are covered in international student orientations! There is one big difference--English. But why would you cover English in an orientation? These students already passed the TOEFL, right? They already speak English well enough to succeed in school, right?

So, the exact problems that arise most from international students are covered in international student orientations, yet these students aren't getting the message. So where is the disconnect? Why aren't these things working? Some schools have staff whose sole purpose is to build and prepare the best student orientation possible. By the way, as we dug deeper, it didn't seem to make much of a difference if the orientation was 1 day or 3 days. There did seem to be a bit of a difference in schools that offered orientations that lasted longer than 1 week. There was also a significant difference in schools that had online orientations (also typically lasting many weeks or months).

The point of this article is not to explore the many different options that are out there to alleviate these issues. There are many, and English3 happens to have one of the best out there. The point here is that I want people to see that what has been done forever really isn't working, and millions of dollars are being wasted on ineffectual practices. This is something that we need to figure out, or international students will continue to drift towards other countries that are pushing the boundaries, that are innovating, and that are becoming increasingly competitive with the United States.

We have incredible resources here in the US, and there are cost-effective ways to increase international student success, reduce attrition (before and after school starts), reduce headaches for administration, faculty and domestic students, and create an environment in which international students thrive. As they do succeed, they will tell their friends that X university "gets it." They will tell their family that they have everything they need to be successful and that they aren't just paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for an American institution to babysit them and help them feel good. But that they are receiving the education they were promised, and they were given the tools that would help them achieve their goals. In case you don't know what that results in--it's growth--more students.

Let's take some advice from our good friend, Mr. Einstein, and do something about this. 

If we don't, the growth the US has enjoyed from international students for many years will be in even more dire straits than it already is. We need to take every step possible to ensure the success of all students--international, domestic, transfer, exchange, and everything in between. The solutions are there--you just have to know where to find them and then be willing to step out of the box and try something new.

Visit www.english3.com/education to learn more about how we are elevating international student success.  Feel free to schedule a meeting here to learn more.