Transitions for international postgraduate public health students at an Australian university Acknowledge my co-authors  past and present Head of Students in the School of Health and Society and Heike Schütze who started some of the initial work on developing academic skills Dr Catherine MacPhail; Dr Alison Bell; Dr Heike Schütze; Lesley Hare

PG Public Health Programme 132 active students in the 2 year MPH Advanced course This presentation is focused on my role as the Academic Programme Director for post-graduate Public Health programmes – but also reflects on some of my Coordination of subjects that students in this course take, particularly a compulsory first semester Introduction to Contemporary Public Health Issues. MPH has about 30 students – more diverse, but still very internationally orientated. Many of our students do not have an optimum start to their university studies Arrive late in the semester due to delays in processing visas Choose to live in Sydney because of perception that there is more work available there – but underestimate the burden of traveling via public transport daily Come from academic backgrounds that are very different to the emphasis on critical reflection that makes up Australian post graduate study. Many have never previously submitted written assessments, or engaged with ideas like referencing, paraphrasing or developing arguments. Proactive online engagement with university processes can be a new experience for students Financial challenges as not prepared for the cost of living in Australia Have significant experience of profound culture shock and home sickness, particularly in their first semester. We’ve developed a number of different initiatives across the MPH course in order to address some of these issues. Think about this in contrast to the UG programme which is almost exclusively a domestic student cohort.

Orientation Information Central repository for much of the orientation information that students miss if they enrol late [click] Includes specific directions about how to use SOLS and Moodle – the two main online resources that students will need to use in order to manage their enrolment Include here a short referencing tutorial that I developed based on the feedback that I was getting for interviews for academic integrity issues. Recognition that for students new to referencing – just pointing them towards resources not adequate

Essential Academic Skills Condense academic skills between Weeks 2-7 of the semester Specifically scaffold referencing, essay and report writing into the subject Tutorial material Exemplars Checklists Focused this element particularly in our first subject – Contemporary Public Health Issues. We have two intakes per year which makes course progression quite challenging . This subject is compulsory in the first semester to attempt to control this. -Condensed time frame to ensure that we don’t focus on this material at a time when students have not yet enrolled. Focus is particularly on academic skills in tutorials – move onto public health focused tutorials from Week 8 onwards

Scaffolded activities & tutorials Search skills Referencing Annotated bibliography Essay writing skills For example: we start the semester with tutorials that teach students about using the library and how to conduct literature searches and referencing. This leads to an initial small assessment in which students are asked to produce an annotated bibliography which allows them to work on referencing (they are required to use 4 different reference types) Then spend 2 tutorials classes working on essay skills – the different elements of an essay, how to plan an essay, provide exemplars and a checklist that allow them to work through essays to see how the different elements are included. This leads to an essay submission on the same issue that they previously conducted their search on and composed the annotated bibliography. Checklist is included in their assessment submission to ensure that they have considered whether their submission actually meets the format requirements of an essay. Essay

International Student Mentors Initiated by Head of Students as a pilot for Faculty Recruit before a new semester starts Country of origin, gender, time to graduation Training on mental first aid Track consultation issues and respond within course In recognition of the fact that students are not always comfortable coming to academic staff for advise and assistance – recruit four international students as International mentors per semester -> paid positions that accommodates 20 hours of engagement per week. Generally recruit students from their third semester as they have had the chance to overcome many of the issues that new students face Rolling recruitment to ensure that we always have mentors who are familiar with the role working with new mentors Recruited to accommodate the countries that most of our students come from to assist with English language constraints, gender balance -Mentors are ‘mentored’ by the Head of Students, Faculty Student Support Advisor and work with the Academic Programme Director. -> meet monthly to discuss specific issues being experienced by each cohort – identify students in need of additional assistance -> track issues that mentors are giving support on – can be used to change processes at School and Faculty level -> using this information to determine how particular changes might be impacting students

Academic Employment Perceptions about casual employment Role of mentoring in developing confidence Augments income Less a overt strategy – more of a happy by-product – that we are slowly changing the perception that tutoring and other casual employment opportunities are only for domestic students Mentoring programme in particular seems to act as a catalyst for getting international students into other forms of paid employment in the School – builds confidence but also addresses some of the financial hardship issues that they are facing. Applied for a Faculty ESDF grant – Educational Strategies Development Fund – to examine these issues further. Will be going through to the following round of the application process -> qualitative study to examine some of the issues. Perception that language and skills be an issue for new students but realise that culture shock and homesickness the reality. Want to understand this better and work with students to address this issue.