Transition to a New Academic Context: Intercultural skills training for international postgraduate students

The extent of international students' academic, social and cultural adjustment to the Australian University environment has important implications in terms of students' grades, retention rates, and general wellbeing (Edmond, 1997). This paper discusses and evaluates the implementation of an evidenced-based experiential learning program (ExcelL: Excellence in Experiential Learning and Leadership; Mak, Westwood, Barker & shiyama, 1998) designed to teach socio-cultural competencies for academic and career success (e.g., participating in small groups, expressing disagreement). Twenty-four international postgraduate business students (and a matched control group of 26 students) completed a pre-program and post-program questionnaire, Both surveys included (a) a 13-item measure of students' social efficacy in interacting with local Australians in academic and general social situations (Fan Mak, 1998); (b) the 33-item Interaction Skills Checklist (Ishiyama, 1996) that generates both an overall score and domain score on Processing, Active Engagement, Self-Enhancement, Approach, Assertion and Interruption, and (c) socio-demographic questions. ExcelL Program participants reported a significantly higher level of overall interaction skills at the post-training evaluation compared to their pre-training levels while control group participants reported no change. There were no significant changes in intercultural social confidence for either ExcelL or control group participants. Implications of these findings, and recommendations about the design of postgraduate orientation programs for international students, are discussed.