International students' experiences of exams

Karen Smith from the Caledonian Academy is part of team who have successfully secured funding from the Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics (part of the Higher Education Academy) for a project to look at international students' experiences of UK exams. Karen will be working with Jackie Riley (School of Engineering and Computing, GCU) and Nick Pilcher (Edinburgh Napier).

Many students find examinations problematic; we argue, however, that the experience is all the more difficult for international students who may have language issues, potentially unrealistic or different expectations of examinations and limited time to acculturate themselves (especially for taught master’s students). The proposed project intends, through in-depth interviews and questionnaires, to explore international students’ expectations and experiences of examinations in Scotland and then to use those research findings to develop an online resource to support exam preparation.