Abstract:

Internationally governments, employers and universities themselves have questioned whether graduates have been adequately prepared to enter an internationalised workforce. Education is now Australia’s third largest export industry, but there is little evidence about the utility of learning outcomes for international students from developing countries who study a business degree in Australia and return home after graduation.

My research investigated the relationship between the outcomes a Group of Eight University (Go8 University) in Australia suggests its graduates possess, in the context of its internationalisation and graduate attributes policies, with the actual outcomes that have utility for international students from a developing country. This was explored through the experiences of a group of Vietnamese business graduates who studied in Australia and then returned to the world of work in Vietnam after graduation. Vietnam’s adherence to Marxism and Leninism provided an opportunity to test the efficacy of the university’s pedagogies and policies for graduates returning to a country where tension is caused by the duality of communist ideals and free market economics as it opens its doors to the western world following its admission to the World Trade Organisation.

Using a snowball technique to recruit graduates to the study, data was collected from business graduates through the conduct of individual interviews in Vietnam and afterwards through the completion of a graduate attributes questionnaire. Focus group interviews were later conducted in Vietnam in the final phase of the data collection process. The learning outcomes that have utility to the business graduates involved in this study were then compared with the Go8 University’s policies about internationalisation and the attributes it suggests its graduates possess. The research was informed by university policy and the literature relating to internationalisation of higher education, internationalisation of the curriculum and the development of graduate attributes.

The attainment of a business degree was the sole focus of the business graduates when they left Vietnam. It helped them meet their employment and social ambitions when they returned. Whilst the disciplinary knowledge graduates learned in their degree has proved useful, graduates advise that not all knowledge can be applied in a developing country where culture and the duality of communist social principles and free market economics conflict. It is the development of an international perspective, graduate attributes and a world view that has actually prepared the graduates to meet the ongoing challenges in the workplace as Vietnam opens its doors to the western world.

Whilst the results of the research suggest that the learning outcomes of the graduates involved in this study align with the Go8 University’s policy documents, it is recommended that more emphasis be placed by the university on graduate attribute development as a central learning outcome for students.

Recommendations about enhancing the student learning experience, together with recommendations about future research that may be undertaken in relation to learning outcomes and the international student experience will be discussed. The impact that the research has had on my individual teaching practice may also be of interest.

Keywords:

Internationalisation, graduate attributes, university policy, international students.