A systematic review of fieldwork placement outcomes for international higher education students

What is it about?

This review aims to synthesise the available research findings from all courses in the higher education sector where fieldwork placements are components of the courses. We sought to examine the effectiveness of programs to improve placement outcomes of international students, regardless of their cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and to collate recommendations made by international students and/or placement supervisors that they felt might improve placement outcomes.

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Photo by Mr.Autthaporn Pradidpong on Unsplash

Photo by Mr.Autthaporn Pradidpong on Unsplash

Why is it important?

While the current literature drawn from educational programs in the health sector acknowledges the barriers related to cultural differences, language skills, and interactions with supervisors or patients exist, there are comparatively fewer studies that examine non-health care courses. There is also the need to identify effective programs to support international students in fieldwork placements across a variety of courses, both health and non-health care courses, to achieve satisfactory placement outcomes. This is particularly important for universities because resources can be allocated to programs that are shown to improve student outcomes.Results identified a large number of activities that could be used to improve placement outcomes. However, due to the lack of comparison or observational data, it is recommended that future studies be better controlled and include longitudinal studies to better identify the effective aspects of support programs. In this way, program and policy-making will be better informed.

Perspectives