Diané Ranck, Mohsen Soliman, Judith Amed

1. Bridging the Gap: The Saudi Arabian Health Science Project Diané Ranck, Mohsen Soliman, Judith Amed

2. The Process – Saudi Health ProgramSaudi/USYD – 60 Scholarship selection – including English Selection / Placement EXIT PATHWAY 40 – 59 Weeks 20 – 45 Weeks CET English top up to IELTS 5 or 5.5 IELTS 5 or 5.5 Foundation Year MENTOR Other Accommodation Homestay Minimum 4 weeks 6.5 IELTS or Equivalent Faculty of Health SciencesBachelor of HSc (3 YRS) Faculty of Science BSci (Nutrition, Forensic) BMedSci (Psychology) (3 YRS) Faculty of Pharmacy BPharm (4YRS) Possible Combined Degrees eg, Bachelor Of HSc / Master of Nursing (4YRS) EXIT STRATEGY for those not sitting GAMSAT Graduate Certificate Graduate Diploma Other Masters Applied Health, MPH, MIPH etc GAMSAT All eligible candidates to sit GAMSAT or equivalent Human Biology Unit Graduate Entry Programs PhD Pharmacy Medicine Dentistry Nursing Graduate Entry HSc

3. Stage 1 CET Stage 2 Foundation Stage 3 Undergraduate Stage 4 Graduate Stage 4 Postgraduate 36 Ready to start stage 2 foundation program Feb 2008 57 Expected to complete Taylors College in Dec 2007 and Jun & Dec 2008 (+ 4 UG entry deferred to Mar 2008) 15 Saudi UG students in USYD Faculties - Started Mar & Jul 2007 + Taylors graduates starting in Mar & Jul 2008 and Mar 2009 Student progress – November 2007

4. The gap: Social issues • Food • Transportation • Timetables • Prayer rooms • Student diversity • Reaction to Asian students

5. The gap: Academic issues • Punctuality • Learning style • Taking notes in class • Preparing for classes • Doing independent research • Active Participation

6. The gap: Motivation • There is direct correlation between English language ability and other parameters in social and academic progression.

7. Bridging the gap:Possible solutions • Be sensitive to these issues (Cultural workshops) • Promote Australian culture and Australian institutions as being friendly to Muslims generally. • Promote stories of successful and happy Muslims in respected positions in our university and Australian society.

8. Bridging the gap:What we’re doing in the project • Conceptualization of the academic, psychological and social needs of Muslim Saudi Arabian students. • Identify strengths and challenges. • New plans for pre-selection, homestay, cultural adjustment, teaching and learning. • In-service training for staff, administrators and other students as well as Saudi Ministry.

9. Research Aims: • Enhance teaching and learning • Promote quality international tertiary standard benchmarks • Raise cross cultural competencies and understanding • Contribute to knowledge about the specific needs of this international student group

10. Themes influencing the proposed research questions: • Conceptualizing the Saudi Arabian scholarship student • The development of the Saudi Arabian Health Scholarship Program SAHSP • Supporting all stakeholders • International tertiary education; equity, inclusion and standards

11. Sample of literature influencing research questions:

12. Learning Styles Leask (2002) • Rote learning and lack of class participation • Lack of interaction between Australian students and international students from Asian backgrounds as “one of the most disturbing aspects of the internationalization of higher education in Australia.” • Prioritizing international goals, “the development of a campus environment and culture that motivates and rewards interaction across cultures for all students”

13. International Students as a Global EconomyAltbach (2004) “Australia is an especially aggressive recruiter of foreign students” • Global economy $12 billion dollar value each year, hosting 586,000 international students • Post-September 11 Significant declines in international students to the US and numbers have decreased 10% overall. US has become more stringent with its policies on study visas. • International students perceptions “see the US as a less safe place to study” and that • Tertiary Muslim student research internationalization to a certain extent is largely ignored “…providing Islamic services is not enough to keep fee-paying Muslim students content to tolerate being marginalized and excluded.” Asmar (1999)

14. Valuing International Students Singh and Doherty (2001) • Valued if… “the (international) student adapts or acclimatizes to the knowledge in the curriculum packages” • Teacher bias Teacher’s hold the cultural power and influence the thoughts, beliefs and actions, and is largely teacher bias that control the learning environment. • Acculturalisation Arab students experienced, because they entered a dominating cultural environment that overrides their culture, that students tend to adapt at the expense of their own, largely to accommodate the more powerful one.

15. Contextual Offshore Models Pannan and Gribble (2005) • Offshore local context Access to local contacts and knowledge is central to the success of offshore education programs, as all the key factors are immersed in and affected by the offshore environment. • Offshore teaching model Influenced by economy, culture, industry and employees, politics and education. • International students difficulties Students encounter various and often enormous or very serious difficulties, as they adjust to a new educational teaching environment. • Different learning styles Requires those involved to develop an appreciation of the offshore student cohort as well as an understanding of their cultural and educational background.

16. Methodology: “Multiple realities are presumed and individuals experience reality differently. Knowledge is subjective, and constructed and based on the shared signs and symbols which are recognized by members of a culture” (Grbich 2007) • Initially model was a participant action research model, but was altered due to limitations in accessing all participants. • Grounded theory approach will be used, where the research is governed by the findings and iterative processes refine the research journey. • Limitations of this model is that it is controlled by data and subjective. • Qualitative research will be conducted via semi structured interviews of student, administrational and staff members from the 2005-2008 cohorts. Individual as well as focus group interviews will be included. • Research schedule included observations and pilot groups held in 2007 and actual data collection for thesis in 2008.

17. Concluding statement: Essentialising Muslims as the exotic ‘other’, is to fall into the old “Orientalist” trap, which constructs non-Anglo realities as essentially inscrutable and thus unfathomable. Yet Muslims are not qualitatively different from other human beings and deserve to be understood in all their living complexity, instead of being marked as utterly different and put into metaphoric glass cases (White 2007)

18. PhD Title: Bridging the Educational, Cultural and Religious Gaps: The Saudi Arabian Scholarship Program SAHAP • PhD student: Judith Amed Acknowledgments: • Supervisor: Associate Professor Chris Roberts • Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Jill Thistlewaite

19. References: Altbach, P (2004) “Higher Education Crosses Borders” Change (March-April, 2004) Asmar, C (1999) “Whose values are valued? Muslim students and the globalized campus” HERDSA Annual International Conference, Melbourne 12-15 July 1999 Grbich, C (2007) Qualitative data analysis: an introduction Sage Publications; London Kagawa-Singer, M; Kassim-Lakha, S. (2003) “A Strategy to Reduce Cross-cultural Miscommunication and Increase the Likelihood of Improving Health Outcomes” Volume 78(6), June 2003, p 577-587 2003 Association of American Medical Colleges Leask, B (2002) “Crossing the bridge from both sides- strategies to assist international and Australian students to meet each other half way” 17th NCL Annual Conference. ‘Innovating the Next Wave’. Launceston, Tasmania, 8 July 2002.

20. References: Merton, J.M (2003) “Diversity discourses/ Diversity experiences: Teaching for and with cultural diversity” Faculty of Education. Deakin University, Melbourne Pannan, L; and Gribble, K (2005) “A complexity of influences on teaching in transnational environments; can we simplify and support it?” RMIT University Sanderson, G. (2004) “Existentialism, Globalisation and the Cultural Other” International Education Journal. Volume 4, Number 4, August 2004. Singh, P; and Doherty, C (2001) “Navigating Cultural Sensibilities: Respect and Provocation as Pedagogical Partners” Paper Code: SIN02180, Centre for Language and Diversity, Queensland University of Technology.