Abstract:
The popularity of internationalisation and its integration into higher education institutes has changed several aspects of the learning and teaching processes throughout universities worldwide. Students in particular have been greatly influenced by this change. Students' perspectives towards the internationalisation of higher education are an important factor to be studied, as they not only impact students' achievements, but also influence the level of success that a university can experience. The literature review portrayed a tremendous gap concerning international and domestic students' attitudes towards the internationalisation of higher education in New Zealand. Therefore, this research study focused its efforts on gathering information concerning students' attitudes towards the internationalisation of higher education institutions in New Zealand. The study was conducted in a large tertiary educational institute in New Zealand; across both international and domestic students of various ethnicities and faculties. A questionnaire was constructed to gather students' points of views on different aspects of the internationalisation of higher education. Questionnaire items addressed, among other things, participants' reasons for their university choice, their views regarding the integration of internationalisation into their curricula, and the use of information and communication technologies to support internationalisation. Using mainly quantitative research methodology, 200 paper and pencil based questionnaires were gathered from students. Once the gathered data was coded into categories, chi-square tests of independence and Fisher's Exact tests were utilised to analyse the categorical data, whereas t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the continuous variables. The quotes derived from the openended questions of the questionnaire were also integrated into the analysis as qualitative data, and used to support the findings from the quantitative data. As a result of completing the above procedure, students' attitudes towards the internationalisation of the university were determined. Participants identified the process of internationalisation and its integration into higher education institutions as an important phenomenon. Factors of internationalisation, such as intercultural awareness and learning a foreign language were also identified as important. Participants did not show an outstanding engagement level in activities that could increase their international knowledge and skills, such as study abroad programmes and international extracurricular activities. These programmes could have improved communication between international and domestic students, in turn building more meaningful relationships amongst and increasing exposure to internationalisation for these students. Despite this finding, overall, participants emphasised that they would like to increase internationalisation within their university and hence develop their level of internationalisation proficiency. This research study has made major contributions to the literature in this field. Not only will students learn about the importance of internationalisation and its influences, but the university and its educational leaders will also be able to benefit from the findings. Meeting students' needs in this manner could also increase the success level of internationalisation of the university, which in turn could lead to an increase in the global recognition of the university.