Practice, not perfect: international student support
“As soon as you walk in the door, you’ll find yourself sucked into the vortex of the very busy college that you work in…”
If you’ve ever worked in a student support role, this scenario may feel familiar. Can’t leave your phone for more than 5 minutes in case there’s a crisis? Moving between mundane admin systems and high-level strategy, all whilst keeping your eye on international trends, migration rule changes, accessibility requirements and academic policy?
You’re not alone.
I originally explored this in an independent research project with Peta Bollen (Director of Student and Academic Services, Navitas) for an APAIE conference on collaborating for sustainable impact. ‘Sustainable’ has many meanings, including the ongoing viability and wellbeing of the staff in higher education institutions who work tirelessly to welcome and support thousands of international students each year. We interviewed 20 people in these roles across multiple countries in the Asia-Pacific region to better understand what professional staff were experiencing at a point in time (2023/24). As the sector continues to work through challenging times, the findings feel as relevant as they did then - if not more so…
A day in the life of student support
“You’re going to be me for the day? When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a packed calendar. Zoom meetings, on-camera all day, very little break. Make sure you have a bottle of water and something in the fridge, otherwise you might not be eating and drinking.”
Our approach to this research comes from practice theory (Kemmis, 2014) and brings in a technique called ‘Interview To The Double’ (Nicolini, 2009) to get to the heart of what happens in student support teams. The concept is simple: the interviewee instructs the researcher on how to act in their role for the day, in such careful detail that no one in the workplace will suspect we’re not the ‘real thing’.
This means our discussions get very specific, very quickly: from one interview to another, we hear about the rush of childcare drop-offs, calendar juggling, team-supporting, fire-fighting, strategy-making, care-giving, and graduation speech-writing. Our analysis framework looks at these through the practice theory framework of ‘sayings’, ‘doings’ and ‘relatings’, examining how they hang together in ‘arrangements’ of practices that stretch so much further than the individuals involved. Eventually, we see connections and implications that were previously hidden in the tiny details of everyday work.
Fragile connections: people, processes, technology
The breadth and complexity of student services functions was impressive in these interviews, encompassing specialist areas like sexual and mental health, domestic violence and disability support as well as more familiar activities like academic support and building social connection. Whether student counsellors or directors of international strategy, they covered the whole student journey, from pre-arrival to career support.
However, this broad remit also exposes gaps and cracks where international teams have borne the brunt of COVID disruptions and ongoing uncertainty in the sector. Whilst mature, established teams can support each other through complex case management and ensure continuity during a crisis, teams who have lost resources or seen focus shift to other institutional priorities face ongoing knowledge gaps and reactive fire-fighting, with no scope to plan for the long term.
Even well-resourced teams can be constrained by poorly considered policies, clumsy processes and technology failures, where the goodwill and hard work of dedicated individuals bridges institutional gaps between systems, staff, and students. This human sticky-tape can mask a lack of investment in the right systems or a culture that doesn’t support the specific needs of international students, or indeed the benefits they can bring to a university community.
View from the bridge: advocacy, planning, prevention
Amongst the chaos and pressure, we heard a lot of excellent practice from those we interviewed, too. Great student support runs like a well-oiled machine, connecting people through well-designed processes and systems that mean specialist professionals can focus on what they do best, instead of fixing issues that are getting in the way.
When student support practices are well connected across multiple functions, teams can move from reactive to proactive work, with time and skills to evaluate, review feedback, and plan ahead for different scenarios. They can design and implement prevention programs, not just respond to crises, and advocate on behalf of international students as well as safeguarding, educating, and supporting them through their experiences.
As we analysed each interview, we found a renewed respect for these under-sung roles in student services. Their work may not always be visible, but it plays a crucial role in supporting international student experiences, from welcome and onboarding, to wellbeing, academic progress and indeed every aspect of retention.
How can we support students, without burning out?
“We need to have a break because the work we do can be emotional, exhausting, challenging in many ways - but also really fulfilling and meaningful.”
Our analysis surfaced many things that constrain effective student support practices, from reactive fire-fighting, clumsy systems and lack of boundaries to bigger issues like poor understanding and limited advocacy for international students across the community. At the same time, we heard practices that not only support students, but also sustain the teams doing the work behind the scenes. These positive practices included:
Prioritise wellbeing - yourself, your staff, and your students
Make the systems work for humans, not vice versa
Build on blueprints, don’t re-invent the wheel - someone, somewhere, has done what you’re doing before
Strengthen networks and engage your champions across the organisation and beyond
Support international student visibility and reputation - educate and advocate whenever you can
As one interviewee noted, the long-term goal would be to not need international student support at all, because ideally all our services would have the capabilities to support students from all backgrounds. Until then, however, we’ll keep building, advocating, and making sure we take care of ourselves, our teams, and our students.