Mixed-methods study of the preparation process and challenges facing Japanese applicants to graduate programs abroad

• In Event: Transitional Experiences of International Students

Proposal

PURPOSE/RELEVANCE
This study will explore the preparation process and challenges experienced by Japanese applicants to graduate programs outside of Japan. The mobility of students has increased in the last few decades globally, although it has been restricted to a certain extent in the last few years due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (Institute of International Education [IIE], 2022). Despite this overall increase in international students, previous studies of applicants’ preparation process and challenges have tended to focus on students who had already arrived in a host country (e.g., James-MacEachern & Yun, 2017; Lesjak et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2021). Accordingly, little is known about the longitudinal process of preparation and the challenges that future international students experience in their home countries. An understanding of the application process is critical to developing effective support for applicants, which is relevant to the conference topic and to the Study Abroad and International Students SIG.


CONTEXT/THEORY
International students are essential for enhancing the internationalization of a campus, increasing tuition revenues, and strengthening the talent pool at institutes of higher education in the United States (Almeida et al., 2019; IIE, n.d.; Mwangi et al., 2016). In addition, international mobility can yield positive results for students’ home countries, especially when those students return. Returning students can bring back cutting-edge research or technology from host countries and contribute to their home countries’ societies using their global skills (e.g., foreign linguistic skills or intercultural understandings; Heck & Mu, 2016). Thus, some countries seek to send more students to overseas higher education. Japan is one such country, and it has initiated government-led programs supporting Japanese students to study outside of Japan.
However, there are several understudied areas in relation to Japanese applicants to higher education institutions abroad. First, studies of Japanese applicants’ decision-making process when preparing, applying to, and deciding on institution(s) are scarce. Second, previous empirical studies have tended to employ a cross-sectional approach, and little is known about the longitudinal changes in the decision-making process of international applicants (e.g., Zhon 2015). Third, studies about international applicants’ decision-making process have tended to be conducted from the perspective of host countries, with data collected only from international students who were already in their host countries (e.g., Lesjak et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2021).
This approach of studying international students only once they are in their host countries fails to consider the decision-making and application process experienced by students who are interested in higher education programs abroad but end up not leaving their home countries. There are myriad reasons for students remaining in their home countries, such as losing interest in programs abroad, receiving no admission offers, or being unable to cover the cost of living in a foreign country. Understanding the application process of those who did not eventually enroll in a program abroad is critical to understanding the whole picture of the application process and to developing effective support.
To guide this study, a version of a complex, multistage process adjusted for international students will be used; this framework was originally developed by Hossler et al. (1989) to analyze college choice in the US, and Kim et al. (2018) expanded it to apply to international students. According to this framework, international students experience three steps when decision making: 1) predisposition (i.e., determining whether to apply to institutions outside of their home country), 2) search (i.e., collecting the relevant information and creating a list of institutions to which to apply), and 3) choice (i.e., deciding on a college in which to enroll). Thus, using a longitudinal, mixed-methods approach, this study will explore the following research questions:
1. How do the preparation and decision-making process of Japanese students applying to graduate programs outside of Japan change over time?
2. What kinds of challenges do Japanese applicants to graduate programs outside of Japan experience?


INQUIRY
The sample of this study will be people in Japan who are thinking of applying to graduate programs outside of Japan. We will recruit study participants using a Slack channel (containing almost 2,000 members) provided by XPLANE, one of Japan’s largest nonprofit organizations (NPOs) helping prospective Japanese students apply to graduate programs outside of Japan. Data will be collected through three surveys and four interviews, which will be conducted from September 2022 to May 2023. The surveys will inquire about applicants’ demographics, motivation, challenges, and information resources used in the process of preparing to apply to international graduate programs. The interviews will gather in-depth and detailed information about their motivation and preparation process (e.g., about choosing where to apply, taking language examinations, and applying for scholarships) that cannot be gleaned from the surveys. This concurrent triangulation design involving mixed methods will allow the researcher to gain a better understanding of the applicants’ experiences. Although data collection has not started at this point, we have already obtained permission from XPLANE to use its Slack channel and have been awarded an external grant to support this project.
To evaluate the quantitative data we will gather, multiple regression analysis will be employed to explore the associations between the applicants’ demographics, challenges, and information resources. For the qualitative data, using a semantic approach, data will be tagged, categorized, regrouped according to patterns, and arranged. At the time of the CIES conference, we will share the results from the first and second surveys and interviews.


SIGNIFICANCE
The findings of this study will elucidate the preparation process and challenges experienced by Japanese applicants to graduate programs outside of Japan. Such information will be valuable for the creation of appropriate support systems for those Japanese applicants. Moreover, the study will explore the experiences of applicants who end up not enrolling in programs abroad. These applicants have tended to be invisible in previous studies, which have collected data from international students who were already studying in a program abroad. Given the increasing attention that the Japanese government is giving to sending students to higher education institutions abroad, the findings will provide a holistic—and highly pertinent—view of applicants’ experiences.

Authors

• Shinji Katsumoto, University of Iowa

• Lisa Nakahara, University of Iowa