Reflection on Research Proposal - Challenges Faced by Students

This assignment is a reflection on a research proposal focusing on the challenges faced by international students in Australia. The student discusses their contribution to the research, including topic selection, literature review, and research methodology. The literature review explores socio-cultural adjustments, language barriers, educational expectations, and individual issues. The methodology involves a descriptive research design, a survey research method, and a mixed-methods approach for data analysis. The student reflects on the research experience, highlighting the difficulties encountered and the knowledge gained regarding the issues faced by migrated students, particularly the interplay of various factors impacting their studies and psychological well-being. The student also reflects on the limitations of the research, such as time and budget constraints, and their personal contributions to the project, primarily in the literature review and overall arrangement of the research.

Running head: REFLECTION ON RESEARCH PROPOSAL
REFLECTION ON RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Contribution for the Choice of Topic:
The chosen research topic for this particular assignment is the problems faced by the
students when they get around the world, for further studies. I chose this particular topic
because when I had first moved to Australia, I myself had faced many difficulties and issues,
regarding my stay, food habits, and most importantly issues related legal codes. After moving
to Australia, I figured that no one focus on the issues that a student faces or might face, and
the fact of migration is understood as a common phenomenon (Wu, Garza, and Guzman.
2015). While continuing my studies in an eminent university of the country I had come across
with other students who also had migrated to the land and were facing multiple issues. I had
also come across people who dropped out of university, as they could not cope up with the
cultural, social and legal conducts of the country (Lillyman, and Bennett. 2014). Hence, while
we were asked to choose a particular topic of the group project, I had come up with the idea
that we can choose the student migration as our research topic as a very limited work have
been done on this.
Contribution to the Literature Review:
As mentioned before, while conducting the research, we found out that there is a very
limited work done on this particular topic and therefore, I decided to look at the literature that
are already provided from different perspectives. Therefore, we have divided the literature
into four perspectives. First is the socio- cultural perspective whereby, it is shown that the
territorial barriers result into socio- cultural differences and the students find it very difficult
to adjust with these differences, and therefore, these socio-cultural perspectives have an
impact on the psychological aspects of the students. They become more inattentive which
impact upon their studies (Xu. 2015). Secondly, there is a language barrier within the
country. Australia is one of the most diversified country which invites students and teachers

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and people involved in other profession from all the nooks and corners of the world,
therefore, within the university set up, and also within the social setup of the country, there
are different dialects involved. This results into a communication gap. Students often do not
understand the course studies and since the communication gap they also find it difficult to
access help from other resources. Another perspective involved is the educational
expectations. This refers to the financial aspects related to the course studies (Hegarty. 2014).
The cost of education at the Australian universities are relatively higher, than other
international universities around the world. Added to this is the cost of living in the country.
Therefore, it is quite difficult for the students to sustain through the courses. But most
important factor that the literature have highlighted that the involvement of the teachers and
the course guidelines re not as exclusive as claimed or expected, is therefore, there is
discrepancy in the whole process, which makes the students feel more demotivated and make
them loose interest (Akanwa. 2015). The last perspective that the work has included is the
individual issues. These generally include the cultural differences and issues. As mentioned
before, there is a huge cultural gap which impacts upon the psychology of the students and
along with the differences in the cultural values of the country, also contributes as an
important factor. Moreover, the climatic changes, also pose issues as many of the individuals
fail to cope with the climatic changes, and therefore, are faced with certain health problems
(Crawford, and Candlin. 2013). Therefore, the literature had helped me to gain a complete
understanding of the issues and the difficulties that the migrated students face in the land of
diversity.
Contribution to the Research Methodology:
The research methodology and the research design are crucial for all and it is very
important to choose a research design that will enable the researchers to look at the research
topic in a more sound manner and will enable the researchers to analyse it form all the

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perspectives. Therefore, for this particular research process we have included a descriptive
research design. It was my understanding, that this topic must be explained from a
correlational perspective, as there are many variables involved in the work, therefore, a
relation must be drawn among these variables. Hence, a survey research method has been
applied to collect the data, and the sampling process that had been included, was a
probabilistic sampling method (Kumar. 2019). Thus, the research involved a deductive
approach, involving both the primary and the secondary modes of data. In the data analysis
process we have included a mixed method approach, involving a description of the data and
also analysing the facts from a statistical perspective. The data had been collected from a
sample of 100 students, therefore there had been certain limitation that we faced. Firstly,
there was a time constraint, and also, the budget of the research had also been an issue.
Reflecting on the Research Experience:
From the conducted study, I have gained the knowledge that the migrated students of
the country, are effectively facing major issues while pursuing their studies in the country
down under. I have found out that the four perspective so fissures that I have discussed
before, contribute in mutually inclusive way, affecting the scores of the students as well as,
the psychological understanding of the same. The value structure of the student are also
affected and there are two trends followed among the students. Wither they become so
involved with the culture that their initial cultural values cease to exist, or else they feel
alienated. However, while conducting the study we had faced quite many problems mostly
regarding the budget of the research and the time frame. We were provided with so little time
and we had to conduct the research along with pursuing the classes. However, the individual
and the team work process and that we involved had contributed successfully into the
process.

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Statement:
In the whole research process my personal contribution lied mostly in the literature
review part of the study and I also influenced the whole arrangement process of the research.
References:
Akanwa, E.E., 2015. International students in western developed countries: History,
challenges, and prospects. Journal of International Students, 5(3), pp.271-284.
Crawford, T. and Candlin, S., 2013. A literature review of the language needs of nursing
students who have English as a second/other language and the effectiveness of English
language support programmes. Nurse Education in Practice, 13(3), pp.181-185.
Hegarty, N., 2014. Where we are now–The presence and importance of international students
to universities in the United States. Journal of International Students, 4(3), pp.223-235.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage
Publications Limited.
Lillyman, S. and Bennett, C., 2014. Providing a positive learning experience for international
students studying at UK universities: A literature review. Journal of Research in
International Education, 13(1), pp.63-75.
Wu, H.P., Garza, E. and Guzman, N., 2015. International student’s challenge and adjustment
to college. Education Research International, 2015.
Xu, L., 2015. Transitional Challenges Faced by Post-Secondary International Students and
Approaches for Their Successful Inclusion in Classrooms. International Journal for
Leadership in Learning, 1(3), p.n3.

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