Interview Ethics and Consent Form

This assignment focuses on the ethical aspects of conducting qualitative research interviews. It outlines the importance of informed consent, minimizing participant discomfort and risk, ensuring privacy protection, and clearly communicating the purpose and potential benefits of the research. The provided text is a sample consent form used to guide participants through these ethical considerations.

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Introduction
For conducting an evaluation of any type, well-chosen and implemented methods of
collecting data and analysis deems essential. Evaluation involves provision of information about
both intended and unintended long-term effects produced by an entity, policy or programme And it
is in understanding the effect beyond average size that appropriate method of data collection and
analysis comes into use. It is noteworthy that successful evaluation depends on matching the
particular data collection method with key research or evaluation question enabling the researcher
to make appropriate judgement on the entity, programme or policy
This assignment has intended to evaluate the changing perceptions of students of the
environment of Auckland University of Technology (AUT) during the post-graduate experience.
Aim of the assignment is purported to achieve through a qualitative research method, thereby
interviewing students enrolled in Masters programme at AUT. The assignment has presented a
detailed description of the analysis conducted, followed by interpretation of the findings.
Conclusion has been drawn by reflecting on the entire process of developing the study, discussing
the skills developed and challenges faced. The following section initiates the study through
highlighting of the methods and analysis carried out in the study.
Description of Analysis
To derive a holistic view of perceptions of various students, the study has been designed on
with a post-positivist paradigmatic objectiveresearch paradigm, in which where perceptions
recorded by two other researchers have been evaluated with the one collected by this researcher.
Post-positivist paradigm argues the fallibility of any observation made to prove a theory and
establishes its revisability in different situation and reality (Sharp et al., 2011). Such an argument
aptly justifies the need to evaluate various perceptions recorded by different researchers with
different hypothetical assumptions to arrive at a common end– environment of AUT.
Methodology and methods
Qualitative method with descriptive purpose intends to comprehensively summarise specific
events experienced by individuals or group of individuals (Talmy, 2010). A widely used design in
medical domain, evaluating the daily goings-on of practices, qualitative descriptive method is a
categorical approach to inquiry (Creswell, 2014). This design, in comparison to other qualitative
methods, does not require researcher to interpret moving far from the data or conceptual rendition
of data (Blackstone, 2014). Simply put, qualitative descriptive studies are less theoretical, drawing
inferences from naturalistic inquiry, where study is developed observing issues at their natural state
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contextual to research arena. These characteristic features of qualitative descriptive method aptly
suit the post-positivist paradigmatic objective this study intended to pursue (Cleary, Horsfall &
Hayter, 2014).
Sample size
Sample size in this study comprises of one co-student enrolled in the post-graduate course of
Master of International Tourism Management at AUT, with whom the personal interview strategy
has been carried out. Purposive non-probability sampling plan has been applied based on the
researcher’s judgement of the student being a newly-enrolled one, belonging to a foreign country
(Tongco, 2007). Such a purpose helped the researcher gain a non-bias and actual struggle faced by
students having no family to support in New Zealand. Research instrument for carrying out the
personal interview comprises of an open-ended and semi-structured questionnaire, based on issues
related to day to day life at the campus, such as motivation to join AUT and the course, challenges
faced, infrastructure related experiences and such others.
Question Development Andand Interview Procedure
It is important to mention here that since this report aimed to understand perceptions of
students of AUT’s environment, a comparative approach analysis of three separate transcripts– one
collected by this researcher and the other two received in exchange with two other classmates has
been carried out. Questionnaire for collecting the data has been based on similar themes amongst
the exchanged interviews, so as to identify similar nodes of analysis using the qualitative analytical
software, NVIVO (v.11) developed by QSR International. Development of questionnaire is carried
out following inferences given by (Elo & Kyngas, 2007) on elements like ‘who is telling, where is
this happening, when did it happen, what is happening, and why’ (p. 109).
Analytical Procedure
Analysis of the data collected is conducted using the NVIVO software, version 11.0, using
an inductive approach, where, a narrow inference on perception of experiences of migrant students
in foreign universities has been generalised through migrant students enrolled in masters
programme of AUT. The knowledge of former experiences within AUT campus are fragmented as
similar study is rarely presented till date and hence this study purported to present a generalised
version of experiences including positive experiences, faculty, infrastructure and challenges through
qualitative descriptive approach. In meeting this purpose, experiences shared by selected
participants have been interpreted as generalised versions of situations faced migrant students,
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especially those belonging to emerging economies, where facilities in terms of teaching-learning
environment are restricted and traditional in nature (Ernst & Young, 2012).
Figure 1: Challenges and Positive Experiences as perceived by 3 different transcripts
Source: Compiled by Researcher using NVIVO (v.11)
Cluster analysis of the nodes determined from the interview transcripts has been carried out
through automated process of NVIVO where, references from transcripts are chosen by the software
based on word frequency in each of the transcripts. Initially based on the themes of questionnaire,
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certain thematic nodes based on commonalities within interview transcripts have been identified
and developed on NVIVO, followed by choosing of sentences belonging to these themes from the
transcripts to these nodes. Once the sentence refernence from each of the transcripts are transferred,
maps were derived and interpretation were carried out. The interpretation of each of these thematic
nodes in the form of findings have been carried out in the next section.
Analysis & Findings
The report is based on the key evaluation question of how have your perceptions of the
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) environment changed during your PG experience. To
answer the question, transcripts of three migrant students of post-graduate program at AUT haves
been analysed upon identifying nine common thematic nodes namely, previous experience,
motivation to join the university, overall positive experience, challenges faced, infrastructure of
AUT, teaching staff and support, recommendations, and future plans along with their personal
information. Each of these nodes has been automatically clustered in by NVIVO software based on
their ‘word similarity’ showing the personal information and future plans of the participants in one
cluster and AUT related elements in otheranother cluster (Refer to Figure 1, below). Besides, AUT
related elements have been clustered at various levels, based upon their degree of similarity, where
motivation and recommendations being related to positive perception has been clustered together.
Apart from these, positive and teaching style being related to each other owing to their reflection of
supportive environments haves been clustered together. Overall challenges in terms of
communication, attitude of staff and other associated elements and along with infrastructure related
challenges have been categorisedclubbed together; and, previous experience highlighting a
comparative overpurview of experience in AUT and past universities/institutions form a separate
cluster.
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Figure 2: Nodes clustered by Word Similarity in Transcripts.
Source: Compiled by Researcher using NVIVO (v.11)
Analysis procedureFindings
Upon identifying the thematic nodes from the interview conducted and their presentation,
this report now moves to analyse each of these nodes using qualitative descriptive approach.
Demographic profiling being a crucial element to discuss before understanding and
exploring perceptions of participants, this researcher initiates the analysis by highlighting
background of each of the participants. The three migrant students– N, H and R Nana, Hoang Thi
Hue and Rahmawati Taqwa hail from three separate countries of Cambodia, Vietnam and
Indonesia, respectively. All three of them are pursuing their post-graduate course of International
Tourism Management however, while both Nana and Hoang are in their first semester, Rahmawati
Taqwa is in her second semester. It is imperative to mention here that each of these three students
earned their admission at AUT through scholarships.
Motivation
Upon knowing their demographic profile, it is now essential to understand the motivation
behind joining AUT for their post-graduate course, especially migrating from their home country.
All three of them reflected their motivation to be a part of a ‘young and dynamic’ campus with up-
to-date technological usage and enriched faculty. As can be understood from Nana’s perspective,
“this university they provide specialise course related to tourism and hospitality, so I just applied
here. I heard a lot of good story about New Zealand related to tourism industry. That’s why I
choose it.” H oang too had similar story to share when he responded by saying that in comparison
with other Universities of New Zealand, the presence of prestigious professors and lecturers of
AUT encouraged him to join the university. , “And after comparison (mmm), compare every
element about two university, I choose AUT because I believe that when I come here, I can learn a
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lot of knowledge from prestigious professors and lecturers, and there’s also (aaa) New Zealand
Tourism Research Institute here. So…I…want to do…an internship at the same time that I study for
the master programme.” R ahmawati however, did not enroll here for Masters but for diploma.
Initially, she did not target AUT for enrolment, but chose two of the nine universities of New
Zealand enlisted by her scholarship panel at her home University. Following this, “I sorted it out so
I tried to find which universities provide post-graduate diploma in tourism management. Then I
found AUT and another one Victoria University in Wellington so I got AUT as my first choice and
Victoria University is my second choice. But then I got the acceptance in AUT so I am here right
now.” Nonetheless the positive and enriched academic facility at AUT has encouraged her to
upgrade her diploma and complete enroll for her masters in International Tourism Management as
well.
Teaching Style
Motivation behind joining AUT proved to be a positive experience as understood from the
interview responses categorised within thematic nodes of teaching style, infrastructure and overall
positive experience including behaviour of staff. As understood from N ana’s perspective when she
describes the support she received from teaching and general staff, “when I have problem, or when
I have a question, I ask the lecturers and they give me really detail answer and they support me a
lot.” Since these participants arte migrant students, mostly they face problems in communicating or
understanding lectures in English, and it is here that, they are given fee to hire tutor or proofreader
as assistance to assignment completion. “they give the fee to hire the tutor or the proof reader to do
the assignments.” Not only in terms of studies but in general and other context, the faculty helps
students through advice and suggestions, thus establishing a cordial and friendly atmosphere
between the twoamongst themselves. As Hoang points out, “I give them the question or some ask
for advice about everything here, they always answer me really clearly and take care of me really
good.” In fact, when Hoang H was by mistake provided a subject which was not within her area of
interest, she went to the administration office “of my faculty, my school and asked the
administrator about it and shewho in turn agreed to change it for me so luckily that finally that I
get the paper that I want to studythe subject of her interest.” Rahmawati too pointed out similar
view by denoting that, “all lecturers here are professional lecturers and they are all friendly and
welcome us. [….] here, all of us are the same position. We can ask them whenever we want like
that.” In terms of understanding course work and completing assignments, which are in English, the
faculty welcomes these migrant students of non-English background, “every time I am confused or
not sure about my assignments. Because English is not my first language so I always have problems
in my assignments and then they really help me to solve the problems.” N ana at the end pointed out
the independence provided by the faculty in dealing with their course work, “They are quite helpful
but as I said we have to be more independent so, we have to sort everything out by our self.”
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Thiswhich enables students to be not only self-dependent but to critically think and take decisions
regarding effort to be taken to make their assignments of quality. For instance, as Nana puts
forward, “You cannot just laid back and think that everything will come to you, [….]if it’s linked
from one assignment to another they try to get it as quick as possible so that you can learn from
your own mistakes to use a better word for the next one.”
Infrastructure
Supportive faculty is coupled with infrastructure facilities encouraging students to achieve
their educational and career goals. AUT has modern architecture with up-to-dated technological
amenities like laptop in every classrooms, wifi facilitiates of forty gigabytes and enriched library
facilities, with both physical and virtual accessibilities. These facilities assisted and motivated the
students to recommend AUT to their family and friends, owing to their belonging to developing
countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, where these facilities are rare within educational
set-up, as highlighted by the participants. Hoang mentions that it has surprised him “to find that
even in each of classroom that every student has laptop inside the room to use.” For him,
“everything in general is quite good” and that, is is “sometimes good for me because I received the
useful information.” The modern facilities of AUT pointed by R ahmawati noted that “The facilities
provided in AUT, the buildings are quite new so it looks modern”, which motivated her further to
pursue her masters upon completing her diploma from AUT.
However, despite these modern amenities, there are certain infrastructure related challenges
such as, the confusing three-fold channels of communication among faculty and students. As Hoang
points out, “but for Arion and blackboard, outlook email that we have notification but for arion,
there’s no notification for it.” Further, R ahma points out that the library is huge with provision of
considerable workshops where books can be borrowed and used in assignments. Besides, “it is
convenient in terms of learning material for example library, you can access everything there and
you can do it at home it’s convenient but sometimes complicated.” However, she experiences
problem in “finding the text books because some of the books are on short loan.”
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Figure 3: Challenges and Positive Experiences as perceived by 3 different transcripts
Source: Compiled by Researcher using NVIVO (v.11)
Previous Experience
Nonetheless, these challenges in infrastructure are in better position when compared to their
previous experience in their home universities. As Nana asserts, “everything is on the board like
whiteboard they stick it because it’s not really, the school not really advance in terms of
technology.” In her their home country, teaching is essentially traditional in nature, with faculty
following the practice of indoctrination among the students. There is very minimal scope of critical
thinking and application of theory based on personal understanding, leaving students helpless in
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situations of facing practical problems. This further poses a challenge for them in accomplishing
assignments owing to difference in approach of teaching– indoctrination vis-à-vis independent
critical thinking. As Rahmawati notes, “the assignments requirement because it’s different from the
style of we do assignments in Vietnam so sometimes I can’t understand clearly about the
requirement of lecturer for students to do the assignments.”
The considerable gap between faculty and students in her previous university of Indonesia
unlike here in AUT by is also reflected in Rahmawati’s view that “the first time I saw all the
lecturer are not same likeas, in my country (where) students and lecturers have a gap and they have
a higher position than us.” Besides, the staff takes special care of the international students with
their approach being “good in solving problem.” This difference in attitude of staff and their
helping nature is further evident from Hoang’s comment that, “my friends who study in the other
university always really envy with me because they didn’t, they don’t receive the same taking care
from the staffs at AUT at the university.”
Recommendations
With respect to address the looming challenges faced at AUT, however small, participants
note certain recommendations which they feel will make studying at AUT more fun and fruitful.
First, regarding the multi-channel communication system, H oang refers that “it’s better if all kind
of information is just from the university to students via only one channel.”to communication of
information through one specific channel instead of one. Besides, R ahmawati feels that “it will be
better if they (university shuttle services) provision are all free so that it becomes easier for them to
attend classes of because we are AUT students so it is easier for us if we have class in the north or
south campus.” Also, she feels that “each faculty (should) provide likcertaine amount of the balance
for them to printing notes things”, as to obtain the considerable amount of notes there are too many
notes which requiringes massive printouts thereby , depleting their scholarship amount. Another
significant recommendation lies in terms learning some practical soft skills, enabling them to use it
during their career path or its utlisation after their return to their home country. As is understood
from Rahmawati’s reflection, “I hope they provide some practical workshops so when I come back
to my hometown I can implement it in my community as what I got from here […] despite all the
theoretical things I learn, we also want somethings (sic) more practical so it will be more useful for
me in the future.” N ana however feels no such constraints here in AUT and hence is not keen on
recommending much except that substantial time should be given to students to research more for
their assignments, thereby maintaining desired quality. An overall positive perceived experience
along with negative (challenging) experience has been presented below (refer to Figure 3).
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Figure 4: Concept Mapping of Overall Perception of AUT Life by Participants
Source: Compiled by Researcher using NVIVO (v.11)
Overall, the interview reflected a holistic view of the experiences of migrant students in
AUT, where alongside the positive aspects and learning they receive, there looms certain challenges
which together with the faculty and authorities, these students will be able to address.
Reflection
The entire process of accomplishing the assignment substantially developed my skills as a
researcher and social person. Not only did it enhanced my idea of transcribing and analyzing data
and its presentation, but also it taught me the nuances of social communication and team work with
fellow students. Initiating from the conducting the of interview process with my classmate N ana to
exchanging interview transcripts with H oang and R, ahmawati, it taught me the idea of inter-
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dependence, trust and team work. To accomplish a common goal, interdependence on team
members and trusting is essential, as in understood from motivation-management theory of mutual
responsiveness. This theory requires individual to behave responsively in conflict of interest
situation where one party resists temptation of being selfish and the other resists temptation of
protection against exploitation (Murray & Homes, 2009). The practice of exchanging process,
sharing data collection procedures and assisting each other in accomplishing the task enables
instilling of idea based on motivation-management theory of mutual responsiveness which will help
me as an individual and professional of International Tourism Management.
Based on the assignment requirement, where I was supposed to obtain two interview
transcripts of my classmates and develop my research instruments based on the theme of those
questionnaires, I had to read them thoroughly, making inference issues those were dealt in there.
Following both the transcripts, where questions were somewhat broad in nature, generating long
answers, I had to think of developing direct and narrow answers dealing with specific elements
associated with my participant’s life. Such an approach generated short, direct and in-depth
answers, enabling me to analyse each of the specifics descriptivelyinterpretively. However, me
being a migrant student myself, identifying the elements to be covered in the questionnaire was not
of much constraint. Nonetheless, I tried to manage developing questions which will not only reflect
participant’s perception of AUT’s environment but on their personal goal and inspirations as well,
along with a comparative structure on how studying and experiences in AUT were different from
educational institutions of their home country. This elements of developing of questionnaire was
based on my perception of personal motivation of joining AUT, infrastructure and other positive
experiences and challenges I personally experienced after joining AUT. This approach essentially
differed from the other two transcripts, which was evidently focusing on life at AUT.
Following questionnaire development, the next part was to convince my fellow mate Nana
to participate in the interview, which did not pose much trouble owing to the agreement and
responsiveness we followed to help accomplish each other, the task assigned. However, I did face
some problem in analyzing the data owing to the usage of NVIVO software. Being new to the
software usage and its magnanimity exploratory in nature, it took me considerable time to read and
understand ways of generating analysed data, nodes, clustering of nodes and at the end, presenting
them through a concept map.
To conclude, the experience of achieving the assignment requirement through process of
deciding the methodology, development of research instrument, cooperation and gathering
knowledge of secondary literature to understand nuances of questionnaire development, data
collection and its , analysis, along with learning of a new qualitative analysis software, along
withcooperation and gathering knowledge of secondary literature, while deciding the methodology
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to learning of a new qualitative software and development of research instrument was one of a kind.
This journey was not only educational but also was of excitement and enjoyment, where I came to
know the various challenges faced by my fellow mates here in AUT, what motivated them to enroll
here for their post-graduate program, the teaching method followed in their home country, and but
most importantly, the elements contributing to life here at Auckland University of Technology and
the similarities and dissimilarities of experiences from mine. I look forward to conducting such
similar assignments and other tasks which not only ensure developing personal bond and skill as a
keen-sighted researcher but help one to gain insights on difference of life and people’s attitude of
facing them.
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References
Bhattacherjee, A. (2012). Social science research: principles, methods, and practices (2nd
ed.). FL: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Blackstone, A. (2014). Principles of sociological inquiry (1st ed.). DC: Saylor Foundation.
Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods (4th ed.). NY: Oxford University
Press.
Cleary, M., Horsfall, J., & Hayter, M. (2014). Data collection and sampling in qualitative
research: does size matter? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 70(3), 473-475. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jan.12163
Creswell, J. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
Approaches (4th ed.). CA: SAGE Publications.
Crossan, F. (2003). Research philosophy: towards an understanding. Nurse Researcher, 11(1), 46-
55. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/nr2003.10.11.1.46.c5914Elo, S., & Kyngas, H. (2007). The
Qualitative Content Analysis Procedure. JAN Research Methodology, 107–115.
Ernst & Young. (2012). University of the future: A thousand year old industry on the cusp of
profound change. Retrieved from
http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/University_of_the_future/$FILE/
University_of_the_future_2012.pdf
Murray, S. L., & Homes, J. G. (2009). The architecture of interdependent minds: A Motivation-
management theory of mutual responsiveness. Psychol. Review, 116(4), 908–28.
Tongco, M. (2007). Purposive sampling as a tool for informant selection. Ethnobotany Research
and Applications, 5, 147. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17348/era.5.0.147-158
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Appendices
Figure 1: Comparative view of motivation
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Figure 2: Comparative view of positive experiences
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Figure 3: Comparative view of teaching style
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Figure 4: Comparative view of challenges
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Figure 5: Comparative view of infrastructure
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Figure 6: Nodes compared by number of coding references
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Node: 1
Name: Challenges
Description: Challenges facing at AUT
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 14 references coded [15.88% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.91% Coverage
¶31: there’s a thing that I am quite disappointing about the library is the number of some important
book is really limited
Reference 2 - 1.02% Coverage
¶31: the limit the number of that book is really few, and it just the library just allow us to read it in
short loan period, in two hours.
Reference 3 - 0.81% Coverage
¶31: We can’t borrow it in some days like the other book and the library even don’t provide the e-
book for us.
Reference 4 - 1.15% Coverage
¶31: sometimes for some books that I need they don’t have the e-book so it’s quite hard for me to
access the study material that my lecturer required to do
Reference 5 - 1.72% Coverage
¶35: actually because my programme is run by two school, the first is school of Hospitality and
Tourism, the second is the Business school, so in the Blackboard, the information system, I receive
the announcement from both sides.
Reference 6 - 0.91% Coverage
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¶35: it’s quite messy because there’s some kind of information that I don’t really need and I have it
from the both school.
Reference 7 - 0.98% Coverage
¶35: may be the information system in AUT is quite complicated for me, because we have to check
the information in several software.
Reference 8 - 3.10% Coverage
¶35: First is via outlook, the kind of email, second thing is blackboard. And there’s sometime there
are a new to the lecturer post some new information or some new in the blackboard but the
notification is not didn’t appear on my app. The third thing the we need to check is the Arion, like
but for Arion and blackboard, outlook email that we have notification but for arion, there’s no
notification for it.
Reference 9 - 0.48% Coverage
¶43: another thing that I really want to complain is the enrolment.
Reference 10 - 0.87% Coverage
¶43: because AUT is a university of technology so everything will you know the techno high
technology to apply for it,
Reference 11 - 1.27% Coverage
¶43: when I send the email to the international student office to ask them about the way to do that
enrolment, they said that it’s ok just come to AUT and do it directly,
Reference 12 - 1.46% Coverage
¶43: when I checked my timetable on Arion, it’s really surprised me that every paper for the
semester is there. It’s mean that someone choose the paper for me that and I didn’t be aware about
it
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Reference 13 - 0.52% Coverage
¶43: Every paper class is full so the staff can’t help them to change it
Reference 14 - 0.68% Coverage
¶43: actually they don’t have the opportunity to take part in the paper that they really want.
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 7 references coded [5.19% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.07% Coverage
¶24: we just have forty gigabytes each month and my friends in the other universities they have
unlimited data
Reference 2 - 0.82% Coverage
¶24: shuttle bus to the northshore campus and the south campus we have to pay for it.
Reference 3 - 0.88% Coverage
¶24: sometimes we have workshops in the north or south campus. Yes now we need to pay for us
Reference 4 - 0.54% Coverage
¶24: Another one is printing, we still need to pay for it.
Reference 5 - 0.38% Coverage
¶30: First challenge is language of course
Reference 6 - 0.76% Coverage
¶40: We have pay the tuition fee so I thought that it would be free for students
Reference 7 - 0.74% Coverage
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¶40: everything I need to think twice (laugh). Because it is quite expensive.
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 5 references coded [3.08% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.42% Coverage
¶33: It is very tough in terms of work load and time constraints.
Reference 2 - 0.73% Coverage
¶35: even I can still see the teachers try to engage students but they really depend upon students
ourselves,
Reference 3 - 0.87% Coverage
¶43: being a student you always want to know your score, your grade right. So like it takes like 3
weeks. It’s pretty long for me
Reference 4 - 0.77% Coverage
¶45: I feel the system that on my system the connection between Blackboard, Arion and everything
is quite confusing
Reference 5 - 0.29% Coverage
¶49: I think some learning material is limited
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Node: 2
Name: Future Plans
Description: Future plans post course completion
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 1 reference coded [1.38% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.38% Coverage
¶47: to myself to improve my soft skill, but actually when I come here the assignment really drive
me crazy and I don’t have enough time to do that so I think that may be in the future,
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 2 references coded [2.84% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.37% Coverage
¶10: I just planned to study Post-graduate Diploma in International Tourism Management but then
now I am planning to upgrade it to master.
¶11:
Reference 2 - 1.47% Coverage
¶48: now after experience all of the colourful experiences here now I am going to upgrade my
program to master in International Tourism Management.
¶49:
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 1 reference coded [0.79% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.79% Coverage
¶69: I will apply for some job related to management level because it all (laughter) the objective of
master graduate.
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Node: 3
Name: Infrastructure
Description: Librarary, technology and other supportive provisions od AUT
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 7 references coded [5.07% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.71% Coverage
¶19: because is show the architecture of the building is quite new and the architecture is modern
Reference 2 - 0.37% Coverage
¶31: I think that the facilities in AUT is quite good
Reference 3 - 0.88% Coverage
¶31: it’s really beyond my expect because everything is really convenient for me to use like the
library, the computer,
Reference 4 - 0.78% Coverage
¶31: what surprised me that even in each of classroom that every student has laptop inside the room
to use.
Reference 5 - 0.48% Coverage
¶35: About the IT, I think that everything in general is quite good
Reference 6 - 0.53% Coverage
¶35: It’s sometimes good for me because I received the useful information,
Reference 7 - 1.33% Coverage
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¶35: The third thing the we need to check is the Arion, like but for Arion and blackboard, outlook
email that we have notification but for arion, there’s no notification for it.
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 5 references coded [3.91% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.80% Coverage
¶18: The facilities provided in AUT, the buildings are quite new so it looks modern.
Reference 2 - 0.65% Coverage
¶18: And then the sources of library is hmm for me it is really huge.
Reference 3 - 0.74% Coverage
¶18: the library provides a lot of workshop for us regarding library necessity
Reference 4 - 1.04% Coverage
¶18: we can use the website to borrow the books without coming to the library to find the book by
ourselves
Reference 5 - 0.68% Coverage
¶18: other workshop likes Endnote, easily we can use in our assignments.
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 4 references coded [2.90% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.18% Coverage
¶47: it is convenient in terms of learning material for example library, you can access everything
there and you can do it at home it’s convenient but sometimes complicated
Reference 2 - 0.60% Coverage
¶49: I have some problem finding the text books because some of the books are on short loan
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Reference 3 - 0.34% Coverage
¶59: Yes, I can make a use of those kind of workshops
Reference 4 - 0.78% Coverage
¶59: this also guide me to AUT database to find some lot of resources that I cannot find if I just go
to the library
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Node: 4
Name: Motivation
Description: Motivation behind joining AUT
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 3 references coded [4.45% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.64% Coverage
¶15: Actually in Vietnam I worked for a university, and my university have a good relationship with
AUT, and one of the professor of AUT used to work with my university staff in a project so that’s
why I knew about AUT
Reference 2 - 0.70% Coverage
¶15: I applied for the, to get the New Zealand Scholarship, scholarship is for the Asean country
Reference 3 - 2.11% Coverage
¶15: I choose AUT because I believe that when I come here, I can learn a lot of knowledge from
prestigious professors and lecturers, and there’s also New Zealand Tourism Research Institute here.
So…I…want to do…an internship at the same time that I study for the master programme.
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 1 reference coded [1.37% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.37% Coverage
¶16: I got AUT as my first choice and Victoria University is my second choice. But then I got the
acceptance in AUT so I am here right now.
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 2 references coded [4.35% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 2.45% Coverage
¶15: I read the program and I was (chuckles) especially interested in studying consumer behaviour
so I choose two courses one is related to tourist perception and behaviour and another one is quite
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general it is contemporary topics in tourism and two other subjects are related to research so I think
for research I can get in-depth into tourism practice
Reference 2 - 1.90% Coverage
¶17: I did not apply to any other place because I check AUT website and I know that, this university
they provide specialise course related to tourism and hospitality, so I just applied here (chuckles). I
heard a lot of god story about New Zealand related to tourism industry.
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Node: 5
Name: Personal information
Description: Name, demography
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 3 references coded [0.58% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.26% Coverage
¶3: Hi, my fullname is Hoang Thi Hue
¶4:
Reference 2 - 0.13% Coverage
¶7: I am from Vietnam
Reference 3 - 0.19% Coverage
¶11: This is my first semester
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 3 references coded [2.19% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.32% Coverage
¶4: My full name is Rahmawati Taqwa.
Reference 2 - 0.83% Coverage
¶6: I am from Indonesia. Eastern part of Indonesia actually. It is East Nusa Tenggara
Reference 3 - 1.04% Coverage
¶8: I am studying Post-graduate Diploma in International Tourism Management. This is my second
semester.
¶9:
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 4 references coded [1.37% Coverage]
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Reference 1 - 0.11% Coverage
¶7: My name is Nana
Reference 2 - 0.13% Coverage
¶7: I am form Cambodia.
Reference 3 - 0.74% Coverage
¶7: I am a postgraduate student, I started here (ahhhh), this is my first semester,
Reference 4 - 0.40% Coverage
¶9: I am doing, Master of International Tourism Management.
¶10:
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Node: 6
Name: Positive experience
Description: Overall positive experience recieved from AUT
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 8 references coded [8.14% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.64% Coverage
¶19: I come here and see the campus, I feel that the university really young and active.
Reference 2 - 1.77% Coverage
¶19: And also good impression that I have from the scholarship office staffs in AUT. They really
take care of me like when I first come here, they give me a warm welcome and also lots of
document to guide me how to study and live here.
Reference 3 - 1.18% Coverage
¶19: They even take me to the bank, to make the bank account. (aa) they really supportive and I
think the scholarship office here is really unique thing of AUT
Reference 4 - 0.85% Coverage
¶19: That’s why I think they make my journey, academic journey in AUT is really better.. better
than what I expect.
Reference 5 - 0.49% Coverage
¶39: I do my master programme here is friendly and supportive staffs
Reference 6 - 1.42% Coverage
¶39: from the librarian, to the staffs in the International Student Office the Student Hub, to even the
security staffs are they are always friendly and supportive when I asked them to help,
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Reference 7 - 0.98% Coverage
¶39: when I give them the question, they always respond me very quickly with good attitude, and
the useful and helpful information.
Reference 8 - 0.81% Coverage
¶39: they give for me a lot of advice like and welcomed me really warmly when I come to the
scholarship office,
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 12 references coded [13.02% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.87% Coverage
¶18: when I want to borrow books and then I could not find the book here and then officer told me
that I can borrow the book in the other universities either in New Zealand or in Australia.
Reference 2 - 1.32% Coverage
¶20: I did my assignment and I did it manually in APA references and I got a lot of mistakes but
then when I know how to use Endnote
Reference 3 - 1.05% Coverage
¶30: I join the workshops and then also they have some tutors for us about three tutors so it really
helped.
Reference 4 - 1.16% Coverage
¶32: we get the support like I get the support from lecturers and I also get the support from my
scholarship officers.
Reference 5 - 0.81% Coverage
¶32: I am really thankful for that because they provided a lot of things that I need
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Reference 6 - 1.25% Coverage
¶32: when I did my first assignments and they encouraged me to ask some helps from the tutors
they provide and they pay for it.
Reference 7 - 0.63% Coverage
¶36: I receive what beyond my expectation and I am happy for that.
Reference 8 - 0.51% Coverage
¶38: The exceptional good that I have a lot of friends.
Reference 9 - 1.40% Coverage
¶38: we have nothing to go then we go out together to have some fun. It really makes me not feel
alone here because I do not have family here.
Reference 10 - 1.19% Coverage
¶38: have a lot of friends from different cultures and now I have a family here so I do not feel like I
am a stranger here
Reference 11 - 0.85% Coverage
¶48: I have a lot of friends from different countries so we share many different cultures
Reference 12 - 0.98% Coverage
¶48: lecturers how they open my perception about the knowledge. Yes I think I have more confident
now.
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 3 references coded [2.54% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.68% Coverage
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¶23: I can say here I am more independent I mean in terms of choice like assignment or topic you
do.
¶24:
Reference 2 - 1.09% Coverage
¶25: you are seem to be more independent in the way you choose your area, for example you are
interested in this topic you can choose it and elaborate more on it
Reference 3 - 0.76% Coverage
¶63: I pretty like the learning environment and not only in the class but outside, that you have
choices to choose
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Node: 7
Name: Previous experience
Description: In what way studying at AUT is a difefrent experience from previous
university/institution?
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 5 references coded [8.66% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 3.21% Coverage
¶15: that I’m really wonder between the (umm) study master of International Tourism Management
in AUT or the same programme in Victoria University of Wellington. And after comparison
(mmm), compare every element about two university, I choose AUT because I believe that when I
come here, I can learn a lot of knowledge from prestigious professors and lecturers, and there’s also
New Zealand Tourism Research Institute here
Reference 2 - 1.34% Coverage
¶19: my friends who study in the other university always really envy with me because they didn’t,
they don’t receive the same taking care from the staffs at AUT at the university.
Reference 3 - 1.67% Coverage
¶19: If they have problem, they just come to see the ISO, the International Student Office, but the
staffs.. their staffs they have take care of all international students, so…sometimes it’s not good in
solving problem but
Reference 4 - 0.85% Coverage
¶23: in the past I choose study in Vietnam and the education system in my home country is really
different from here
Reference 5 - 1.58% Coverage
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¶23: the assignments requirement because it’s different from the style of we do assignments in
Vietnam so sometimes I can’t understand clearly about the requirement of lecturer for students to
do the assignments
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 2 references coded [2.73% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.54% Coverage
¶28: The first time I saw all the lecturer are not same like in my country hmm students and lecturers
we have a gap and they have a higher position than us.
Reference 2 - 1.19% Coverage
¶48: I thought it gonna be the same likes all universities in my home country but what I got here is
completely different.
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 5 references coded [4.27% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.02% Coverage
¶23: Yeah program and teaching studies is quite different back at home, back at home we rely on
teachers everything teacher guide us during the lecture
Reference 2 - 0.88% Coverage
¶23: we don’t have much ready at home so, teachers prepares everything for us and we just learn
what he/she want to deliver to us.
Reference 3 - 0.47% Coverage
¶23: We don’t have much work on critical thinking on those kind of work,
Reference 4 - 0.92% Coverage
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¶29: at Cambodia, teachers try to like for example if they introduce one theory they try to elaborate
explain more details on the theory
Reference 5 - 0.97% Coverage
¶47: like everything is on the board like whiteboard they stick it because it’s not really, the school
not really advance in terms of technology
Node: 8
Name: Recommendations
Description: Negative experience, things suggested to reform in AUT and recommendations to
family and friends about studying at AUT
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 3 references coded [2.62% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.88% Coverage
¶35: I think that it better if all kind of information is just from the university to students via only
one channel.
¶36:
Reference 2 - 0.56% Coverage
¶47: the experience that I have here is better than my expectation about AUT.
Reference 3 - 1.18% Coverage
¶47: next semester I should manage my time table, my schedule better to have more time to take
part in the kind of activity and make my experience here better.
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 8 references coded [8.94% Coverage]
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Reference 1 - 1.38% Coverage
¶24: It will be better if they are all free because we are AUT students so it is easier for us if we have
class in the north or south campus
Reference 2 - 1.25% Coverage
¶24: my friends from the other universities, each faculty they provide hmm like amount of the
balance for them to print things.
Reference 3 - 0.93% Coverage
¶42: I hope in the future they provide unlimited data for us so it not likes just forty gigabytes
Reference 4 - 0.98% Coverage
¶42: we have free shuttle bus to go to the Northshore and south campus and hmm free printing as
well.
Reference 5 - 0.43% Coverage
¶42: I hope they provide more workshops for us.
Reference 6 - 1.21% Coverage
¶42: most of the workshops are in the weekdays so sometimes I have a clash with my class so I can
not attend the workshops.
Reference 7 - 1.42% Coverage
¶44: I hope they provide some practical workshops so when I come back to my hometown I can
implement it in my community as what I got from here.
Reference 8 - 1.33% Coverage
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¶44: despite all the theoretical things I learn, we also want somethings more practical so it will be
more useful for me in the future.
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 2 references coded [1.70% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.68% Coverage
¶75: my suggestion my preference I would just have a 3 papers during 12 weeks for 4 papers in 20
weeks
Reference 2 - 1.02% Coverage
¶75: you don’t really have enough time to elaborate more and do more research on that so you just
try to (long pause) like to keep up to the deadline
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Node: 9
Name: Teaching Style
Description: The experience with university staff, their support and lessons learnt.
<Internals\\Interviews\\Ho Transcript> - § 6 references coded [5.60% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 1.01% Coverage
¶27: when I have problem, or when I have a question, I ask the lecturers and they give me really
detail answer and they support me a lot
Reference 2 - 0.59% Coverage
¶27: they give the fee to hire the tutor or the proof reader to do the assignments
Reference 3 - 0.85% Coverage
¶39: now they like the family member for me because they support me both in the study and the
living the life here
Reference 4 - 1.08% Coverage
¶39: I give them the question or some ask for advice about everything here, they always answer me
really clearly and take care of me really good
Reference 5 - 1.54% Coverage
¶43: I come to the administration office of my faculty, my school and asked the administrator about
it and she agreed to change it for me so luckily that finally that I get the paper that I want to study.
Reference 6 - 0.54% Coverage
¶47: the staffs are friendly and the facilities even better than I thought,
<Internals\\Interviews\\Hoang_Transcript> - § 3 references coded [3.97% Coverage]
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Reference 1 - 0.89% Coverage
¶28: all lecturers here are professional lecturers and they are all friendly and welcome us.
Reference 2 - 0.84% Coverage
¶28: here, all of us are the same position. We can ask them whenever we want like that.
Reference 3 - 2.23% Coverage
¶28: they are really welcome every time I am confused or not sure about my assignments. Because
English is not my first language so I always have problems in my assignments and then they really
help me to solve the problems.
<Internals\\Interviews\\NANA Transcript> - § 8 references coded [6.39% Coverage]
Reference 1 - 0.81% Coverage
¶27: They are quite helpful but as I said we have to be more independent so, we have to sort
everything out by our self,
Reference 2 - 0.48% Coverage
¶27: You cannot just laid back and think that everything will come to you,
Reference 3 - 0.79% Coverage
¶29: here teachers just highlight important things, so you have to pick it up and then do your own
research on that.
Reference 4 - 1.19% Coverage
¶35: we are not I mean encourage, what should I say to push ourselves, to be enthusiastic by our
own, they don’t pressure on us give us the constraint like you have to engage
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Reference 5 - 0.79% Coverage
¶39: teachers list down all the sources, I have to go back and list down all those and have to reach
minimum criteria.
Reference 6 - 1.18% Coverage
¶43: if it’s linked from one assignment to another they try to get it as quick as possible so that you
can learn from your own mistakes to use a better word for the next one.
Reference 7 - 0.50% Coverage
¶55: most of the resources they, the lecturers provide us, I find them useful
Reference 8 - 0.65% Coverage
¶55: I can link it back because some assignment resources help me to guide my assignment or essay
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Qualitative Research Methods and Analysis
Transcript of the interview with Rahmawati Taqwa
Interview running time- 20 minutes 17 seconds
Date- 7/10/2017
I- Interviewer
P- Participant
I- Hello. My name is Hoang Thi Hue. I am studying Master of International Tourism Management
at AUT. Thank you so much for your agreement to take part in the interview today. This is a part of
my assignment for the paper “Qualitative Research Methods and Analysis”. The information that
you provide will be only used for this purpose. I am going to ask you some sub-questions relating to
the main research question is “How have your perceptions of Auckland University of Technology
(AUT) environment has changed during your Post- Graduate experience?”. Please feel comfortable
to answer these questions and ask me again if you do not understand somethings so I can explain it
for you more clearly.
I - Nice to meet you today. How are you?
P – I am good. Thank you.
I - Can you introduce your full name?
P – My full name is Rahmawati Taqwa.
I – I want to ask you some questions. “Where are you from?”
P – I am from Indonesia. Eastern part of Indonesia actually. It is East Nusa Tenggara
I – What is your post-graduate program here?
P – I am studying Post-graduate Diploma in International Tourism Management. This is my second
semester.
I – Do you want to continue to study master degree or just finish it like this?
P – Actually when I first came here, I just planned to study Post-graduate Diploma in International
Tourism Management but then now I am planning to upgrade it to master.
I – Are you a self-funded student or you get scholarship to study here?
P – Yes I got the scholarship from New Zealand Government. Basically, the scholarship is provided
for ASEAN countries. Hmm like fifteen people from Indonesia they all got the scholarship and I am
one of fifteen people from Indonesia.
I – Will they continue to provide the financial support for you to study master degree?
P – Yes, they provide me the financial support to upgrade my study degree.
I – Why do you choose to study the post-graduate program here – in AUT?
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P – Basically, at the first time I applied for the scholarship hmm New Zealand scholarship, they
provided a list of universities in New Zealand. There were nine universities and then I sorted it out
so I tried to find which universities provide post-graduate diploma in tourism management. Then I
found AUT and another one ahh Victoria University in Wellington so I got AUT as my first choice
and Victoria University is my second choice. But then I got the acceptance in AUT so I am here
right now.
I – How do you think about the facilities in AUT?
P – Actually it is quite good. The facilities provided in AUT, the buildings are quite new so it looks
modern. And then the sources of library is hmm for me it is really huge. Yes ahh, I found that it is
really good for me because when I want to borrow books and then I could not find the book here
and then officer told me that I can borrow the book in the other universities either in New Zealand
or in Australia. So I tried the way and I get the book just within one week I guess. It is helpful and
then also the library provides a lot of workshop for us regarding library necessity so we can use the
website to borrow the books without coming to the library to find the book by ourselves. And other
workshop likes Endnote, easily we can use in our assignments.
I – Do you think that the facilities and likes what you said about the library and the workshops
support your study?
P- Yes it really supports me because you know what, first time I did my assignment and I did it
manually in APA references and I got a lot of mistakes but then when I know how to use Endnote I
get better marks. So it is really helpful.
I – Is there anything makes you feel uncomfortable when you the facilities in AUT?
P – What do you mean like “uncomfortable using”?
I – Ahh Is there anything you do not like about the facilities here?
P – Hmm, the library is all good but another thing that hmm I do not really like is they provide just
limited data for us. It likes we just have forty gigabytes each month and my friends in the other
universities they have unlimited data. Ahh the shuttle bus to the northshore campus and the south
campus we have to pay for it. It will be better if they are all free because we are AUT students so it
is easier for us if we have class in the north or south campus and then sometimes we have
workshops in the north or south campus. Yes now we need to pay for us. Another one is printing,
we still need to pay for it. I found that my friends from the other universities, each faculty they
provide hmm like amount of the balance for them to print things. Yep.
I – How about the information system? How do you think about it?
P – Hmm information system in AUT they are quite fast responses so every important information
we can receive it directly to our students via websites like Arion, Blackboard and emails so we get
all updated information and also they have the Student Hub so every time we have problems we can
go directly to Student Hub and then the staffs there are really really helpful.
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I – How do you feel about the quality of teaching?
P – The quality of teaching hmm yes all lecturers here are professional lecturers and they are all
friendly and welcome us. The first time I saw all the lecturer are not same like in my country hmm
students and lecturers we have a gap and they have a higher position than us. But here, all of us are
the same position. We can ask them whenever we want like that. And they are really welcome every
time I am confused or not sure about my assignments. Because English is not my first language so I
always have problems in my assignments and then they really help me to solve the problems.
I - When you study here, what are the challenges that you have to face to?
P – First challenge is language of course but you know what hmm first time when I came here AUT
they do provided English workshops so all of the students hmm international students they can join
the workshops for free. And I join the workshops and then also they have some tutors for us about
three tutors so it really really helped.
I – Do you receive any other supports to solve the problems that you meet in studying?
P – Yes we get the support like I get the support from lecturers and I also get the support from my
scholarship officers. And I am really thankful for that because they provided a lot of things that I
need for example hmm like when I did my first assignments and they encouraged me to ask some
helps from the tutors they provide and they pay for it.
I – So you receive the financial support and even this part from the scholarship office?
P – Yes
I – Is it what you expect before you come here?
P – Honestly I didn’t expect something like this big before because like hmm you know I receive
what beyond my expectation and I am happy for that.
I – What are the exceptional good things that you receive here about the AUT environment?
P – The exceptional good ahh that I have a lot of friends. They are all from many different
countries, different cultures and they are all really nice since the first time I came here until now.
And now we can really be good friends. Sometimes when we do not have the class or we have
nothing to go then we go out together to have some fun. It really makes me not feel alone here
because I do not have family here. And being in AUT and have a lot of friends from different
cultures and now I have a family here so I do not feel like I am a stranger here.
I – How about the bad thing or anything that you feel bad about when you are here?
P – It is not really bad actually hmm it likes what I said before about the limited data the provided.
So we just get forty gigabytes per month and then we have to pay for the bus but it is quite
expensive. It is the shuttle bus for AUT students so it should be free. We have pay the tuition fee so
I thought that it would be free for students but we still need pay for it. And the other thing is
printing, I want to print my assignment so everything I need to think twice (laugh). Because it is
quite expensive.
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I – In your opinion, what should be changed to improve AUT environment?
P – I think hmm I hope in the future they provide unlimited data for us so it not likes just forty
gigabytes but we have unlimited data likes other universities. And also we have free shuttle bus to
go to the Northshore and south campus and hmm free printing as well. And ahh I hope they provide
more workshops for us. Sometimes I hope the workshops they will provide it in the weekend. Now
they provide a lot of workshops but most of the workshops are in the weekdays so sometimes I have
a clash with my class so I can not attend the workshops.
I- You talked about the workshops and even before you said that you took part in some workshops
about English and the other things about APA. Is there any other topic that you want AUT create
the workshops about that topic to help you study better?
P – I think nowadays they provide workshops for thesis and dissertation so I hope that they provide
it more in the future like I mean every two weeks so we can attend the workshops. I think it will be
really useful for us. And also I hope they provide some practical workshops so when I come back to
my hometown I can implement it in my community as what I got from here. Hmm yes I think it will
be really helpful for me. So despite all the theoretical things I learn, we also want somethings more
practical so it will be more useful for me in the future.
I – Can you give more detail about the practical workshops? What you want to gain from that
workshop?
P – It is small kind likes participation in the community hmm like how I can contribute all of my
knowledge to them. So it will not only benefit for me but also for them. Somethings like that.
I- And the final question is in general how you feel your perception changes before and after you
take part in the post-graduate journey in AUT?
P – First time before I came here, I thought it gonna be the same likes all universities in my home
country but what I got here is completely different. Hmm I have a lot of friends from different
countries so we share many different cultures and the lecturers how they open my perception about
the knowledge. Yes I think I have more confident now. First time I planned just to do post-graduate
diploma but now after experience all of the colourful experiences here now I am going to upgrade
my program to master in International Tourism Management.
I – So in conclusion, in your opinion is your real experience here better or worse than your
expectation about AUT environment?
P – Hmm It is in better I guess.
I – Thank you so much for your answers and our interview will be finish here. Nice to meet you
today.
P- Thank you
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Transcript of the interview with Hoang Thi Hue
21 minutes 43 seconds
07 October 2017
I: Interviewer
P: Participant
I: Good afternoon, I’m Rahmawati Taqwa, and I’m studying at AUT and now I am doing
my second assignment of Qualitative Research Method and Analysis. Thank you for
participating in this assignment. I will ask you some questions regarding my research topic:
How have your perception of Auckland University of Technology environment has changed
during your postgraduate experience. So, take your time, be relax, just answer the question
as you can. Can you tell me what’s your name?
P: Hi, my fullname is Hoang Thi Hue
I: Where are you from?
P: I am from Vietnam
I: Is this your first or second semester?
P: This is my first semester
I: Ok, Can you tell me the reason why you choose AUT to study?
P: (aaaammm) actually (aaamm) in Vietnam I worked for a university, and my university have
a good relationship with AUT, and (uumm) one of the professor of AUT used to work with
my university staff in a project so that’s why I knew about AUT. (aaaaa) but (aam) last year
I applied for the, to get the New Zealand Scholarship, (uhhh) scholarship is for the Asean
(aa) country, and then… I…find the information about all university in New Zealand and
I…at that time I have two option, that I’m really wonder between the (umm) study master of
International Tourism Management in AUT or the same programme in (amm) Victoria
University of Wellington. And after comparison (mmm), compare every element about two
university, I choose AUT because I believe that when I come here, I can learn a lot of
knowledge from prestigious professors and lecturers, and there’s also (aaa) New Zealand
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Tourism Research Institute here. So…I…want to do…an internship at the same time that I
study for the master programme. That’s why I choose AUT.
I: So, what’s your first impression of AUT?
P: (uummm), my first impression about AUT is when I come here and see the campus, I feel
that the university really young and active. (aa) because is show the architecture of the
building is quite new and the architecture is modern. And (aaaaa) also good impression that
I have from the scholarship office staffs (aaa) in AUT. They really take care of me like when
I first come here, they (aaa) give me a warm welcome and also lots of document to guide me
how to study and live here. They even take me to the bank, to make the bank account. (aa)
they really really supportive and I think the scholarship office here is really unique thing of
AUT because my friends who study in the other university always really envy with me
because they didn’t, they don’t receive the same taking care from the staffs at AUT..at
the..university. If they have problem, they just come to see the ISO, the International
Student Office, but the staffs.. their staffs……they have take care of all international
students, so…sometimes it’s not good in solving problem but for AUT, there are four five
staffs and their responsibility just taking care of AUT scholars. That’s why I think they
make my journey, academic journey in AUT is really better.. better than what I expect.
I: So what are your academic challenges during study in AUT?
P: (aa) actually because in the past I choose study in Vietnam and the education system in my
home country is really different from here. (aaa) first of all, the challenge that I have to face
with is the language barrier because English is not my (amm) first language, so…even when
I learn English from long time I actually that my skills aren’t good enough and I make a lot
of mistake in (aam) writing, especially for assignments writing, and even in speaking for
presentation. And (amm) my listening skill is not good enough so sometimes in the (aa)
lectures, I missed the…the main point of the lecturer because I can’t understand it
completely. The second challenging that I want to point out is (umm) the.. assignments
requirement because it’s different from the style of we do assignments in Vietnam so
sometimes I can’t understand clearly about the requirement of lecturer for students to do the
assignments so I make it wrong and it lead to my result, the..the mark is not good as I
expect, and…I’m a kind of person who quite bad in time management. Like I’m (aaa) I feel
that I always run out of time to do the exercise and the assignment. So….when I’m under a
lot of pressure here, because of a lot of thing, like struggle in the new environment, get to
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with the new requirement this make me feel quite stress and sometimes I feel even a little bit
upset that I lack the support from my family and friend in home country and sometimes it’s
make me (umm) feel unconfident and it’s affect to my study a little bit.
I: So, when you said that you have problem with your academic, what about your lecturers and
AUT staffs. Are they willing to help you?
P: Yes, (aaa) luckily that (mmm) when I have problem, or when I have a question, I….ask the
lecturers and they give me really detail answer and they support me a lot so it’s help me to
solve some problem. and for the scholarship office as that I mentioned before they really
su…supportive and the scholarship even give us the financial support to (umm) to have…
get the academic study, like they give the fee to hire the tutor or….the….proof reader to do
the assignments. But because I ..as I told you that I’m not good in time management so I
always finish my assignments late so I don’t…really..have enough time to ask the proof
reader to check my work. But I think in the future maybe I will try my best to finish
everything earlier and then can use the support, that kind of support from scholarship office.
I: So..what about the facilities provided by AUT, like library resources or IT or anything?
P: I think that…the facilities in AUT is quite good, like…before I come here, I hear from my
friend and also the information that I found on the internet that the facilities in AUT is good
and modern. But when I come here it’s..it’s really…beyond my expect because (umm)
everything is really convenient for me to use like the library, the computer, and what
surprised me that even in each of …classroom that ……every student has (aaa) laptop inside
the room to use. It’s put under the table and it’s really surprised me that we can use the
laptop in the university to study in the class and do the exercise, practice the skill during the
software. it’s really impressed me. And…but there’s a thing that I..I am quite disappointing
about the library is the….the..the number of some important book is really limited and for
example like we learn…in this semester I have two papers about research method and
there’s a book really important for us, is Doing Research in the Real World, but the
limit….the number of that..that book is really few, and…(umm) it just..the …the library just
allow us to read it in short loan period, in two hours. We can’t borrow it in some days like
the other book and the library even don’t provide the e-book for us. So…ya… sometimes for
some books that I need they don’t have the e-book……so it’s quite hard for me to access the
study material that my lecturer required to do.
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I: What about the IT? Information system or something?
P: (ummm) about the IT, (aaa) I think that everything in general is quite good but (aaa) actually
because my..my..programme is run by two school, the first is school of Hospitality and
Tourism, the second is the Business school, so..in the Blackboard, the..the..information
system, I receive the announcement from both sides. It’s sometimes good for me because I
received the useful information, but..sometimes it quite..you know..it’s quite messy because
there’s some kind of information that I don’t really need and I have it from the both school.
And in my opinion, may be the..information system in… AUT is quite complicated for me,
because we have to check the information in several softwares. First is via outlook, the kind
of email, second thing is blackboard. And there’s sometime there are…a..a..new to…the…
the…..lecturer post some new information or some new……in the blackboard but the
notification is not..didn’t appear on my app. The third..(umm) thing the we need to check is
the Arion, like…but (ummm) for Arion and blackboard, outlook email that we have
notification but for arion, there’s no notification for it. Everything like..sometimes the…
school post the document.. or…sometimes the.. lecturers post the coversheet for the
assignments in there, and I..I have no idea about it because I’m..didn’t check it quite often
and I just know about the information when my friend told me about it. So, for me, it’s quite
complicated, so I think that it better if all kind of information is just……from the university
to students via only one channel.
I: Ok, …so basically what is the good thing you get from AUT? I mean like all the
environment or…
P: Yes, I think the..the..good, the best thing that I get when I do my master programme here is
(aaaa) friendly and supportive staffs from the..librarian, to the staffs in the International
Student Office (aaa) the Student Hub, (aaa) to even the security staffs are…they are always
friendly and supportive when I asked them to help, when I give them the question, they
always respond me very quickly with (aaa) good attitude, and..the…useful and helpful
information. But..and the….scholarship office that like what I mentioned before, they really
really nice for me, and now they like like the family member for me because they support
me both in the study…and the…living..the life here, like they give for me a lot of advice
like..and welcomed me really warmly when I come to the scholarship office , when I give
them the question or some ask for advice about everything here, they always answer me
really really clearly and take care of me really good.
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I: Ok..despite all the good things that you said, is there anything bad you wanna say about
AUT that make you feel unsatisfied or something like that?
P: (ummm) yes, actually there are lots of things that I..I..I quite unsatisfied ..about AUT
environment like I said..mention before that..like the..(sss) information system quite messy
for me and ……….for me to catch up with every kind of info and sometimes it affect my…
my…plan to study. So I..I..think that it’s should be improved. (mmm) like..and the…another
thing that I really want to complain is the enrolment. Because before I come here, I thought
that I..I expect that I, because AUT is a university of technology so everything will..you
know the techno…high technology to apply for it, so..maybe I will choose to do the…
choose the paper or subject for my sys…system..(aa) for my semester. The..the online
system like use the online card to do it, but…when I asked the….before I come here, when I
asked the staff, (aaa) when I send the email to the international (aaa) student office to ask
them about the way to do that enrolment, they said that it’s ok (aaa) just come to AUT and
do it directly, so I think…ya I think I can do it when I come here but after the…
orientation….I didn’t receive any instruction about how to enrolment it, and when I checked
my timetable on Arion, it’s really surprised me that every paper for the semester is there.
It’s mean that someone choose the paper for me that..and I didn’t be aware about it (mmm)
I’m really worried because there are some…there was some…subject that I don’t want to
attend and I..I want to study the other paper. So…I come to the administration office of my
faculty, my school and asked the administrator (mmm) about it and she agreed to change it
for me so luckily that finally that I get the paper that I want to study. But (mmm) my
friends…there are some people is not lucky like me that they come to the scholarship (uuhh)
the administration office too to ask about the changing but unluckily that, at the time they
come there, is the…every paper is full. (uuu) every paper class is full so the staff can’t help
them to change it so… lots of my friends have problem with choosing the paper.
And..because we just have (aaa) one.. three semester here, so..there are some paper is just
conducted in semester one, there are some other paper just conducted in semester two. So…
actually they don’t have the opportunity to to take part in the paper that they really want.
I: Ok, the last question, do you feel like your perception regarding AUT environment have
changed since the first time you study here?
P: Yes..(ummm) from my point of view, I think that in general, that..the..experience that I have
here is better than my expectation about AUT. Because…because that…(aaa) as I told you
that the staffs are friendly..and the facilities even better than I thought, so I think that I
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receive a lot of support for my study and it’s make me..sometimes I feel quite challenging
to..you know, to do my best for the academic study, but luckily that I receive a lot of support
from staffs, from lecturers and even from my friends. So I can deal with it and I think I’m be
more comfortable and confident now than the first time I come here, but (aaa) the..one thing
that I think is under my expectation that before I come here, I thought that I will have
enough time to take part in a lot of extra curriculum activity like take part in some clubs and
doing stuffs outside the…classroom, to …..my self to improve my softskill, but actually
when I come here the assignment really drive me crazy and I..I don’t have enough time to
do that so …I think that may be in the fut…in the next semester I should manage my..time
table, my schedule better to have more time to take part in the kind of activity and make my
experience here better.
I: Thank you
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Qualitative research methods
Transcript of the interview with Nana
Interview running time- 28 minutes 11 seconds
Date- 5/10/2017
II- Interviewer
P- Participant
I- Dated-5/10/2017, hello my name is Amit Verma. I am a student of Master of Business-
International Business, with me it’s Nana who has gracefully accepted my invitation for
interviewing hr for our research question which is, “How have your perceptions of
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) environment has changed during your PG
experience”. For our assignment 2 of Qualitative Research Methods. How are you Nana
today?
P- I am good, thank you, how are you? (Chuckles)
I- I am good too and thanks for coming and agreeing for the interview. Shall we begin?
P- Okay.
I- Thanks.
I- Could you please tell me about yourself?
P- Hmmm, My name is Nana as you said. I am form Cambodia. I am a postgraduate
student, I started here (ahhhh), this is my first semester, I started in July of 2017, and so it’s
about 3 months being in at AUT.
I- Okay.
I- What is your area of study?
P- Ahhhh, I am doing (ahhhh), Master of International Tourism Management.
I- Master of International Tourism Management, okay. Nice.
I- So, tourism is your major right?
P- Yes
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I- How did you get interested in the major of your postgraduate program?
P- Ahhhh, can you explain it again?
I- How did you get interested in the major of your postgraduate program, which is
tourism?
P- Aahhh, because I have done hmmmm, my bachelor in tourism management too and I
have 2 years’ experience in this sector and I just want to elaborate more because I most of most
experience is about practical work, I want to be related more into theory and management
practice.
I- What were the motivating factors for you to taking this course? What exactly you looked
into this before you applied for this program?
P- Ahhhh, yes I actually, I read the program and I was (chuckles) especially interested in
studying consumer behaviour so I choose ahhhhh two courses one is related to tourist perception
and behaviour and another one is quite general it is contemporary topics in tourism and two
other subjects are related to research so I think ahhhh for research I can get in-depth into
tourism practice.
I- Okay, good.
I- What brought you to AUT? Did you apply somewhere else too before deciding to come
here?
P- Ummm, no (chuckles) I did not apply to any other place because I check AUT website
and I know that ummmm, this university they provide specialise course related to tourism
and hospitality, so I just applied here (chuckles). I heard a lot of god story about New
Zealand related to tourism industry. That’s why I choose it.
I- Okay.
I- So before applying online for this university, did you check the rating of AUT? Like QS
rating which is quite a popular source of checking the ratings of the universities around
the world?
P- Yeah, yes I also check, that’s why I said hmmm AUT is one of the specialise University
Tourism and hospitality.
I- Okay.
I- Is this your first semester here at AUT or have you studied before here?
P- Hmmm, this is my first experience (chuckles).
I- How AUT is different from your previous university?
P- Hmmm, yeah program and teaching studies is quite different back at home ahhhh, back
at home we rely on teachers everything teacher guide us ahhhhh during the lecture ahhh we
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don’t have much ready at home so, teachers prepares everything for us and we just learn what
he/she want to deliver to us. AAAA, we don’t have much work on critical thinking on those
kind of work, so I can say here I am more independent I mean ahhh in terms of choice ahhh like
assignment or topic you do.
I- Okay, so what you are saying is that in here at AUT is more practical way of teaching?
P- Yes, kind of here you are seem to be more independent in the way you choose your area,
for example you are interested in this topic you can choose it and elaborate more on it but there
you are already assign to do certain task.
I- Okay, good.
I- What do you think about the quality of teaching and learning at AUT in terms of
lecturers, lecture materials etc.?
P- Hmmm, I think ahhh do you refer to teachers too?
I- Yes.
P- Hmmm, they are quite helpful but as I said we have to be more independent so, we have
to sort everything out by our self, we have to know what is the area, what do we need for certain
task go and seek on our own. Ahhhh, you cannot just laid back and think that everything will
come to you, so yeah.
I- Elaborating little bit more on that, Do you think lecturers here are good, they know what
they are doing, they are explaining? Is it different from your bachelor’s university in
some way?
P- It is quite different back at home, back at Cambodia, teachers try to like for example if
they introduce one theory they try to elaborate explain more details on the theory but here
teachers just highlight important things, so you have to pick it up and then do your own research
on that.
I- Good.
I- Did you also find the course material you are getting has enhanced your ability to learn
more?
P- Of course yes, but they are too much, yeah it seem to me they are too much, ahhhh as I
said they only highlight important points from different sources so we had to link back those
sources that’s quite over loaded (chuckles).
I- Talking more about the learning material, if you in need to some clarification, do you
find that there is sufficient contact time between you and your lecturers to support your
learning?
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P- Ahhhh, I think postgraduate course is very tough to do 4 papers in like 1 semester but
it’s only about 12 weeks. So, I don’t really I couldn’t really find enough time like for example
for 1 lecture, if I don’t understand some points, I couldn’t like do some research before I
approach teacher because different task for different papers. It is very tough in terms of work
load and time constraints.
I- Okay.
I- Moving on to next question. What do you think about the engagement of this course?
Were you engaged to ask questions and make contributions in your taught sessions?
P- Chuckles, as I said we are more independent so, ahhh even I can still see the teachers try
to engage students but they really depend upon students ourselves, we are not I mean encourage,
ahhh what should I say to push ourselves, to be enthusiastic by our own, they don’t pressure on
us give us the constraint like you have to engage so (chuckles) that’s why so I am more relaxed.
I- So what you are saying is that it depends upon student to student?
P- Yes
I- So what do you think about the course, has it challenged you to produce your best work?
P- Yes, as I said because for each paper the work load and time constraint really push you,
like even though you don’t want to but you have to so for example, if you have one task and
your teachers already provided you sources to read for example back at home if we have a task,
I just do my own research and I don’t care how much sources I have to find but teachers list
down all the sources, I have to go back and list down all those and have to reach minimum
criteria.
I- What do you think about the assessments and feedback in terms of promptness? If you
submit it today than in how much time does it comes back to you with marks?
P- Hmmm, I’m not sure but it takes quite a long time.
I- So are you happy with that?
P- Hmmm, I I I I that they have a task to do but being a student you always want to know
your score, your grade right. So like it takes like 3 weeks. It’s pretty long for me (chuckles) but
that’s not really a problem, it’s just yourself and you want to know it but if it’s linked from one
assignment to another they try to get it as quick as possible so that you can learn from your own
mistakes to use a better word for the next one.
I- Okay, good.
I- How would you like to comment on the resources and services at AUT for PG students
like in terms of library in terms of Blackboard?
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P- Hmmm, I am not sure about other students but I feel the system that on my system the
connection between Blackboard, Arion and everything is quite confusing, I think they also
provide workshops for that but I sometimes feel like some option they provide on those kind of
a platform I don’t really use it and I wonder how do they create it like it is a little bit confusing
sometimes.
I- Is this different from your previous university?
P- I don’t have such a thing back home. No no no not at all like (ahhhhh) everything is on
the board like whiteboard they stick it because it’s not really (ahhhh), the school not really
advance in terms of technology and those kind of communication system so, I think these are
the pros and cons here. These are little bit complicated but you can access it easily. I mean not
easily, it is convenient in terms of learning material for example library, you can access
everything there and you can do it at home it’s convenient but sometimes complicated.
I- What do you think about the physical library of AUT?
P- Hmmmm, it’s like it is okay for me like (ahhhh) you have everything there but just I
have some problem finding the text books because some of the books are on short loan, we can
only borrow for 2-3 hours or some for only 2-3 days. So, I think some learning material is
limited.
I- Alright.
I- So you said that in your previous university you did not have all these digital technology
of library but what about physical library. How would you compare your previous universities’
library with AUT’s library?
P- Yeah, it’s hard to compare to (chuckles) my country’s library because we have text
books lot of text books but they are not up-to-date, mostly and old materials so in terms of the
work I mean the volume of your work here can find it more, you ca produce it better.
I- What Moodle? Do you find the online resources and communication in Moodle have
supported your learning?
P- Can you explain it more?
I- I mean the Moodle on which your professor upload all the things related to your course,
have you found them helpful in enhancing your learning ability/
P- Yes, most of the resources they, the lecturers provide us, I find them useful because most
of the resources are related to some chapters, so when I do the assignment. I can link it back
because some assignment resources help me to guide my assignment or essay because I just go
there with nothing then I read those kind of sources then I can figure out structure of my
assignment?
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I- Okay.
I- Have you also found the that the digital environment of AUT has supported your
learning, using your library tools like, you attended the workshops seminars, which have
got you familiar with how to use library tools like referencing tools etc.?
P- Do you refer to workshops?
I- Yeah workshops, did you attend the workshops to get a hang of all the services how to
use them in library tools because there are many things which you can use like
referencing.
P- Yes, I can make a use of those kind of workshops but at the beginning probably it is for
my experience (ahhhh) at the beginning I just register for every workshops and I don’t really
have a clear objective what I get out from those workshops. I don’t know how I will use it later
so, after doing my papers and I get to know what can I make use of that so, they are quite
helpful but if you just go there to attend as many as workshops as possible and think that
everything is related to your module. I think you kind of (chuckles) confuse yourself and you
can’t pick up most of the objective or the significance of the workshop but (ahhhh) for example
like library I find like it is very useful because (ahhhh) if I just because this also guide me to
AUT database to find some lot of resources that I cannot find (ahhh) if I just go to the library
because (hmmmm) there are they are, the subjects are separated so you can get the data or the
sources quickly.
I- Okay
I- Which part of your degree you enjoy the most? This is your first semester what your
perception has changes since the day you started and what part of the degree you like the
most?
P- Just like I mentioned earlier, it is the sense of independence you have look you have to
be more careful more selective for whatever you choose even like the sources of material,
source of your course material, your workshop or your topic because everything you will later to
shape you like your final research or something like that.
I- Okay.
I- What is your overall view on PG graduate experience at AUT?
P- I think most people say that it is pretty tough but, it is good (chuckles) all what they said
like you will not learn, know what you have learned from your course but once you aaa later
you will reflect back and you will find that you have learned a lot of things and this is what I
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was told and ahhh I don’t know what to say (laughter). Hmmm, I pretty like the learning
environment and not only in the class but outside, that you have choices to choose.
I- Alright.
I- So let’s further talk about the post graduate course back in Cambodia from your previous
university and comparing with the graduate course from AUT. How do you compare
them? Are postgraduate courses at AUT better?
P- Hmmmm (silence) yes, ahhh, because hmmmm back to my bachelor degree I’m I think
it’s hard to compare from bachelor degree to master’s degree.
I- Your university’s master degree with AUT’s master’s degree.
P- Yeah its better here than my home’s university.
I- What do you intend to do after finishing your course?
P- Like, my master degree?
I- Yeah
P- I will be back home ahhhh I I the reason I want to do my master degree because I want to
learn more theory. So, I will do I will apply for some job related to management level because it
all ahhhh (laughter) the objective of master graduate.
I- So you don’t have plans to stay here and do further study from AUT or find a job in
New Zealand?
P- No
I- Will you recommend AUT to your family and friends?
P- Yes, I will just like I said all the good stuff you have learned here, so I find it is kind of
affected you and useful for your career.
I- Okay.
I- Do you have any suggestions through which AUT can improve its capabilities of
providing better learning experience to its future and current students because there is
always room for improvement.
P- Probably only my problem but I found as I told you the workload is intense for 4 papers
in one semester. If possible I prefer to have just like 3 papers and extend is longer like now we
do 4 papers in 12 weeks so, my suggestion my preference I would just have a 3 papers during 12
weeks for 4 papers in 20 weeks because you know I find probably because of the background I
have to learn from the bachelor degree is different but I find that for one paper you have 20
weeks to do a certain tasks you actually interested in those topics but you don’t really have
enough time to elaborate more and do more research on that so you just try to (long pause) like
to keep up to the deadline so I don’t we will learn a lot of things from here.
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I- Okay.
I- This is the end of the interview. Thanks Nana for stopping by today for the interview
and you have signed all the consent and ethics forms. Thank you.
P- Thank you.
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Paticipant Information sheet
Appendix D1: Participant Information Sheet Exemplar
Instructions for use of this exemplar:
1. This section is provided to assist you in the effective use of this exemplar.
2. Comprehensive information about AUT’s ethics approval processes may be found on the
Research ethics website at http://aut.ac.nz/researchethics and in particular the guidelines for
the use of this exemplar (Appendix D).
3. If your research requires ethics approval by a Health and Disability Ethics Committee,
please ensure that your Information Sheet conforms to the template given in the Quick Links
section on the HDEC website at http://ethics.health.govt.nz/.
4. It is recommended that researchers use the format of this exemplar though this is not
compulsory. The following content is compulsory and must be incorporated into your
Information Sheet:
a. The AUT logo;
b. The two paragraphs in the section titled ‘What do I do if I have concerns about this
research?’ (note that the wording given in the template must be used);
c. The AUTEC approval details (Note that the date of approval is the date of the memo
from the Executive Secretary giving final ethics approval, not the date of the
AUTEC meeting).
5. The primary purpose of an Information Sheet is to ensure that people are able to give
informed consent to participating in your research. The quantity and quality of the
information needs to be adequate. Remember that you may only use the data for the
purposes for which it has been given so please ensure that you advise your participants of all
likely uses.
6. The question and answer format is used in the exemplar because participants and researchers
have advised that it is a successful format. If you think that your research would be better
served by a different format, then use it, but ensure that you’ve covered all the points. In the
same way, feel free to delete or add questions and answers as is appropriate to your research.
7. Do delete sections that are not applicable to your research.
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8. Do adjust the header and footer sections.
9. It is very important that your language is appropriate for the culture and age-group of the
people who will read it.
10. This is an Information Sheet for participants which will be used under the auspices of the
University – please use simple language to describe your research and the processes
involved, be friendly and encourage the reader to participate in your research, and ensure
that your grammar and spelling are of a high quality.
11. When you have drafted your Information Sheet, and before you submit it with your
application, delete this instruction section and ensure that you have deleted all the advice
typed under the headings in the exemplar.
Before submitting this with your application, please note the following: Incomplete or incorrectly formatted applications will not be considered by AUTEC; Please check online for the most recent version of this exemplar before submitting your
application;
This Information Sheet needs to be submitted, along with the application and all associated
documents as follows: In printed form; With the required signatures in the relevant part of the application form; Single sided; Using clips rather than staples; By 4 pm on the agenda closing date at:
The AUTEC Secretariat
Room WA505F, level 5, WA Building,
55 Wellesley Street East, City Campus. The Internal Mail Code is D-89. If sending applications by Internal Mail, please ensure
that they are posted at least two days earlier to allow for any delay that may occur.
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Participant
Information Sheet
Date Information Sheet Produced
5 October 2017
Project Title
MGMT803 Collecting & Analysing Interviews
An Invitation:
Hello, my name is Amit Verma, I’m a student of Master of Business – International Business.
You have been invited to take part in face-to-face interview in a Master’s research study
discovering “how have your perceptions of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
environment changed during your PG experience?” Your involvement in this research is entirely
voluntary. You may elect not to answer any of the pre-planned interview questions asked of you.
You may pull out your participation at any time during or after the face-to-face interview session
up till data collection. The data collected will not be used for any other purpose but for this
research alone.

What is the purpose of this research?
The purpose of this research is to find out “how have your perceptions of the Auckland
University of Technology (AUT) environment changed during your PG experience”. This is a
class assignment for the paper ‘Qualitative Research Methods’. Your participation will empower
the collection of information to studied and analysed to discover the experience of the PG
students at AUT. It will all be taken as a part of research at Auckland University of Technology.
How was I identified and why am I being invited to participate in this research?
You have been asked to participate in the face-to face interview session lasting around 20-30
minutes because you fit the segment of the population that is required for this research, as you a
part of PG studies at AUT so you have been selected for this purpose.
What will happen in this research?
For the purpose of augmenting the accurateness of the qualitative analysis of the data from the
interview period, with your approval I will record the audio of the session. The research methods
used in the study are entirely qualitative and last for 20-30 minutes. You will be the only one
being face-to-face interviewed from my side for this research which is going to include
approximately 20 questions to draw out the information needed to gain the knowledge. This
interview will take place on the Auckland University of Technology city campus at a time that is
most convenient for you.
What are the discomforts and risks?
These are minimal because the research involves one face-to-face interview which will be
transcribed for later analysis. I am not seeking to collect any sensitive data on you; the study is
only concerned with your experience at AUT while you are a PG student. I do not feel that there
are any significant risks associated with this research but if you do feel at any time that I have
asked an unsuitable question(s) then you may pull out from the interview and your decision will
be respected to the greatest.
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What are the benefits?
I cannot promise the study will benefit you but the material I acquire after the study will help to
increase the understanding of the experience of the AUT PG students while they are studying at
AUT.
How will my privacy be protected?
All the information provided will be held in full confidence. Careful steps have been taken to
ensure that any information you may provide in the interview will in no way be directly linked to
your personal details, such as consent.
What are the costs of participating in this research?
In exchange of your time, you will be provided with some refreshments that you would like as a
consequence of participating.
What opportunity do I have to consider this invitation?
The opportunities you can consider from this invitation could be that you will share your
experience being a PG student at AUT.
How do I agree to participate in this research?
You will be required to sign a consent form of participation. You will be provided the consent
form in a hard copy on which you will be required to put you signature prior to the
commencement of the interview. Once the interview id finished you will be given a soft copy of
the consent form which you have signed.
Will I receive feedback on the results of this research?
Yes, you will be given the soft copy of the transcript of the interview.
What do I do if I have concerns about this research?
Any concerns regarding the nature of this project should be notified in the first instance to the
Project Supervisor, Judith Pringle, [e-mail], 921 9999 ext. 5420.
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Concerns regarding the conduct of the research should be notified to the Executive Secretary of
AUTEC, Kate O’Connor, [e-mail], 921 9999 ext. 6038.
Whom do I contact for further information about this research?
As a reminder, if you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact the project supervisor,
Judith Pringle, on the contact details provided below.
Researcher Contact Details:
Name- Amit Verma, e-mail- [e-mail]
Project Supervisor Contact Details:
Name- Professor Judith Pringle, e-mail- [e-mail], work phone- 921 9999 ext.
5420.
Approved by the Auckland University of Technology Ethics Committee
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