Abstract

South African universities have evidenced exponential increases in the numbers of doctoral students, bringing pressure to bear upon traditional supervisory practice. With the literature on the challenges experienced by international postgraduate students at South African universities being very limited, it was anticipated that the challenges experienced by international postgraduate students abroad could be drawn upon to inform supervisory practice. The aim of this paper was to perform a systematic literature review of the challenges experienced by international postgraduate students at universities in other parts of the world. The objective of the study was, firstly, to consolidate the empirical evidence and, secondly, to develop a framework to inform supervisory practice at South African universities. A systematic literature review was undertaken to identify relevant empirical studies relating to the challenges experienced by international postgraduate students. The search was executed by deploying keywords in selected databases. Twenty-one articles were identified and analysed using thematic analysis. The review evidenced that the key challenges that characterise international postgraduate students revolve around linguistic ability, cultural dissonance, academic expectations and isolation. While some studies found a positive relationship between supervisor multicultural competence and supervision satisfaction, supervisors find that both local and international students are equally challenged in academic writing. Some studies conclude that there is no difference in the supervision practice employed for international and local postgraduate students with many supervisors believing that international postgraduate students would be able to find their way through institutional and non-institutional support networks. A framework for the supervision of international postgraduate supervision has been suggested.

摘要

南非大学的博士生人数呈指数级增长，给传统的监管实践带来压力。由于关于南非大学国际研究生所经历挑战的文献非常有限，预计可以利用国际研究生在国外所经历的挑战来指导监管实践。本文的目的是对世界其他地区大学的国际研究生所遇到的挑战进行系统的文献回顾。该研究的目的是，首先，巩固经验证据，其次，制定一个框架，为南非大学的监管实践提供信息。进行了系统的文献回顾，以确定与国际研究生所遇到的挑战有关的相关实证研究。搜索是通过在选定的数据库中部署关键字来执行的。使用主题分析确定和分析了 21 篇文章。审查证明，国际研究生的主要挑战围绕着语言能力、文化不和谐、学术期望和孤立。虽然一些研究发现导师的多元文化能力与导师满意度之间存在正相关关系，但导师发现本地和国际学生在学术写作方面同样面临挑战。一些研究得出结论，对国际和本地研究生采用的监督实践没有差异，许多导师认为国际研究生能够通过机构和非机构支持网络找到自己的出路。建议了国际研究生监督的监督框架。