Abstract
An increasing number of students choose to study at a university in a foreign country. A common belief among educators is that international students are insufficiently academically adjusted. Recent research has found a mixed picture on whether international students underperform in academic integration and academic performance. Therefore, Morrison et al. (2005) argue that research should extend its focus to understanding the underlying reasons for these performance differences of international versus local students.In a cross-institutional comparison among 871 students of five business schools, we investigated the differences in academic and social integration amongst local and international students. International students value their faculty and educational system more than local students. However, international and local students have limited social contact with each other and spend their private time differently. Finally, students with a non-Western background are less integrated than Western students, have considerable lower academic and social integration scores and have (marginally) lower grade point average (GPA) and European credit transfer system (ECTS) scores. Institutes with small classes and collaborative learning settings seem to provide a more favourable learning environment for international students.
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Acknowledgements
This research has been financed by SURF Foundation as part of the NAP acculturate project (http://www.acculturation.nl/). We found like to thank the following people who helped with the data collection and the overall implementation of the NAP project: Paul Jacobs, Wim Swaan, Ilja Kogan and Albert Lamberix from UM, Bert Kamphuis and Marleen van der Laan from HZ, Mascha Lommertzen and Sylvia Hermans from NHTV, Toke Hoek, Sofia Dopper and Dagmar Stadler from TU Delft, Jan Brouwer from HHS, Brechtine Detmar and Peter Dekker from HvA, Carien Nelissen, Henk Frencken and last but not least Ria Jacobi from the University Leiden.
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Rienties, B., Grohnert, T., Kommers, P., Niemantsverdriet, S., Nijhuis, J. (2011). Academic and Social Integration of International and Local Students at Five Business Schools, a Cross-Institutional Comparison. In: Van den Bossche, P., Gijselaers, W., Milter, R. (eds) Building Learning Experiences in a Changing World. Advances in Business Education and Training, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0802-0_8
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