Research Proposal: Satisfaction And Settlement Experiences Of International Students At NMIT, New Zealand Essay. (70 Characters)

Excellent work. Clear philosophy, inquiry strategy and research model.  

- Appropriate method utilised, with a very clear outline of method – detailed enough for replication.

- Aims recorded, specific objectives of primary and secondary research are outlined here. Limitations and assumptions are indirectly explored: being more explicit about limiters and delimiters would be clearer in this section rather than in the conclusions, as it was largely on the detail of your method rather than on the validity of your data.

Major topics clearly identified

- Clear links to theory/literature

- In own language (ie, >90% paraphrased & <10% quotes)

- Would have been good to have been able to have worked out rate of volunteer turnover at each organisation.

- Clearly applying the Literature Review to the Findings

- Development of themes/main issues

- Personal analysis/observations included

Presentation of the Report, Format, Layout, Spelling etc: a few double spaces mid?sentence (probably trailing edits). I usually do a Find & Replace on these once I am at the proofing stage.  

- Appropriate use of appendices (participant sheets, research plan, survey data), but I would like to have seen the unused data graphs provided here (a very minor point, though).

Whilst avoiding delving into psychology based discussions, it is apparent that motivations  are inherently psychology. Acknowledging this, there is a need to have a basic  understanding of these factors. A Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) was created to  summarise the reasons why people volunteer (Clary, Snyder & Ridge, 1992). As per Clary et  al. (1992) these include:

• Values: This relates to acting on beliefs an individual holds, also recognised as  altruism.
• Understanding: This revolves around developing an understanding of the  organisation and the people who they are helping.
• Career: Although this may seem similar to understanding, a career focus relates to  gaining new skills to apply for a career progression.
• Social: This relates to fulfilling expectations of others such as family and friends and  meeting their societal needs.
• Esteem: This relates to people volunteering to feel good about themselves and  needed.
• Protective: This type of volunteer acts to protect themselves from negative feelings  such as guilt.

The overarching question for this research report is 'How can an understanding of drivers in  volunteer retention help not for profit organisations in the Nelson Tasman region lower  their volunteer turnover?'. To answer this the following objectives were used:

1. Identify current retention policies in relation to not for profits
2. Identify important motivational factors that influence a volunteers decision  to leave or stay
3. Discover if the opinions of volunteer co?ordinators are congruent with that  of volunteers in regards to retention
4. Make recommendations for the not for profits in question to help retain  volunteers.

This study emphasizes the identified problems in the statement and provides a justification for the need for research in the area. This is then followed by the expected outcomes where the researcher states the anticipated results that could be achieved through the study and how they are necessary. Finally, the significance of the study is outlined. The study is focused to further growth in the pool of knowledge, influence policies of tertiary institutions touching on international students and impact the Ministry of Education’s regulatory framework for universities and ITPs. Given the fact that most international students tend to find it difficult to communicate effectively in their assignments and exams, this shows that there is a gap the administration of NMIT needs to deal with so that this problem may not be faced in the future. In this case, it is recommended that the administration should set clear policies and programs to which the international students are taught the academic language intended to be used in the process of teaching and examination.it is recommended that a follow up mechanism should be reign forced. This can be huge step in curbing the problem of language barrier being faced by the students.

This section introduces the first chapter of the research proposal. The chapter begins with the background information. This section identifies and describes a thoroughly defined research question: The Satisfaction and Settlement Experiences of International Students at NMIT, New Zealand. The background outlines the problem to be studied in the research and gives context to the research question with regard to existing scholarly work. In the introduction, what is known about the satisfaction of international students and their settlement experiences is expounded. Main factors that contribute to international students’ dissatisfaction are highlighted. The statement of the problem then brings the readers’ attention to the current state of New Zealand’s tertiary institutions with regards to international student satisfaction. A justification of the study is then provided.

In recent decades, New Zealand’s universities and tertiary institutions have attracted an ever increasing number of international students. A high number of students apply to study in New Zealand universities, most of them from the Asian countries. As at 2016, international students represented 15% of the total number of students pursuing tertiary education in New Zealand (Obeng-Odoom, 2012). Chinese students account for the highest number of international students in New Zealand by nationality. The contribution of export education to the economy of New Zealand cannot be underestimated. In 1999, export education injected $ 545 million into New Zealand’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In just 2 years, this amount had doubled and was standing at $ 1.3 billion. As at 2004, the industry’s share of the GDP had surpassed $2 billion and the value addition to the GDP attributable to export education was $2.2 billion (Maramba, 2015). Today, export education to international students is the fifth largest income earner for the country, raking in approximately $ 2.48 billion. The New Zealand government has targeted to increase this figure to $5 billion by 2025. These figures speak to the importance of international students to the economy of New Zealand as a country.

Factors contributing to international students' dissatisfaction

What is it that is attracting such large numbers of international students to New Zealand? New Zealand is home to some of the best universities in the Asia-Pacific and indeed in the world. They offer competitive curricula and their graduates are competitive in the employment market. Some of them include the University of Auckland, the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago. Leading New Zealand’s institutes of technology and polytechnics include, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, Manukau Institute of Technology and Eastern Institute of Technology. A study conducted in New Zealand in 2011 showed that learning experience was the single most significant determinant of satisfaction among international students (Paltridge, Mayson & Schapper, 2010). Besides, accommodation experience, the support services were also important indicators of the level of satisfaction among foreign students.

To ensure that New Zealand achieves the $5 billion in export education earnings by 2025, it will need to attract more students to New Zealand universities. The singular most effective means of attracting and retaining international students to tertiary institutions is by ensuring student satisfaction and an easy settlement experience (Scott, 2015). Satisfaction of the student is a direct determinant of whether they enjoy their stay in the institution or not. Student satisfaction also determines their attitude towards academic work; satisfied students concentrate better and get better grades as opposed to those who have problems settling in the foreign country. According to a study that was conducted in 2011, 88% of international students in New Zealand’s tertiary institutions reported that they were satisfied with their experiences (Mark, 2013). An overwhelming 90% of students of foreign nationality from Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) reported satisfying experiences in New Zealand. 84 % of these said they would recommend New Zealand’s ITPs to anyone seeking to study abroad.

International students come to New Zealand with a variety of expectations about the curriculum of their study programs as well as their settlement experience. While it is fair to assume that the curriculum of most New Zealand’s universities and ITPs satisfy student expectations, Hsu et al (2016) submits that other aspects of foreign students’ experience must also be interrogated. This paper seeks to escalate public discourse on international students in New Zealand. The paper will investigate the expectation of international students coming to Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, New Zealand against the reality. It will also look into the needs of international students in terms of settling in a foreign country, their level of satisfaction and how this impacts on their experience. There is an existing knowledge gap as is evidenced by the scarcity of scholarly work done to explore the issues pertinent to international students’ satisfaction and settlement experiences in New Zealand. This paper hopes to bridge that gap by conducting a qualitative survey where questionnaires shall be used to capture the feelings of international students regarding the research questions.

New Zealand universities and tertiary institutions have over the last 2 decades continued to receive an influx of international students especially from the Asia-Pacific countries. Mikuli?, Duževi? & Bakovi? (2015) submit that despite the fact that this has occasioned a major boom in property markets around the nation’s tertiary institutions and injects a significant amount into its GDP, serious concerns have been raised regarding how these institutions are handling the matter of multiculturalism and inter-culturalism on campus. In 2017, the number of international students in New Zealand declined by 7 %; this was largely occasioned by a plummeting of registration rates by international students from India (Collins, 2016). This decline in the enrollment of international students is attributable to the fact that the satisfaction of international students is in question. Their settlement experience is marred by cross-cultural challenges and the international students support systems in most tertiary institutions are not sufficiently equipped to do their function.

Importance of student satisfaction and easy settlement experiences

The above concerns seem to be lost to the government of New Zealand even as it plans to double the nation’s earnings from the export education industry from $ 2.48 billion to $ 5 billion. As posited by Peya et al. (2016), it appears the desire to rake in the top dollar from wealthy internationals students is taking precedence over the core of education-to provide quality education to international students which can only be guaranteed if their satisfaction and settlement experience on campus is smooth. Student satisfaction is one of the most commonly overlooked areas in tertiary education (Obeng-Odoom, 2012). Most specifically the satisfaction of international students has not been adequately addressed in NMIT just like in several other tertiary institutions in New Zealand. Lack of satisfaction among international students means they are not enjoying their stay at the college. Although international students at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology have achieved at par with domestic students since 2013, in 2015, a decline was recorded (Stevens, 2014). This was associated with the variations between the expectations of international students regarding NMITs learning styles and the reality. The issues that affect international student satisfaction, which tertiary institutions must look into include; appropriate and relevant curricula, living arrangements, social relationships, international students support and life satisfaction.

This segment provides justification for the existence of the research problem. As already stated in the paper, students’ satisfaction among international students has not been given sufficient attention both by scholars and the tertiary institutions themselves. Despite the fact that New Zealand is one of the leading education destinations for international students in the Asia-Pacific region, the country has yet to reckon with the fact that international students’ satisfaction has not been adequately addressed. According to Hartnett, Römcke & Yap (2014), students as consumers in the education market, will make purchase decisions based on the way they perceive the products and services that are on offer at tertiary institutions. It is therefore imperative that institutions of higher learning such as NMIT identify the areas that directly and indirectly impact on student’s satisfaction. While it can rightly be argued that the attractiveness of New Zealand’s tertiary institutions has remained fairly stable over the years, it is only through research that the perceptions of the international students themselves can be evaluated. If this study is not done, the nation’s education system runs the risk of hurriedly putting qualifications in the hands of wealthy international students whose competencies in their career areas they cannot corroborate.

This segment responds to the question: why is the study being done? The research is being done to investigate the level of satisfaction of international students at NMIT. It intends to interrogate how the settlement experiences of international students affect their learning experience (Patterson, 2014). This research is proposed in reaction to the rising need for informed strategies on handling international students by New Zealand universities and tertiary institutions, given the growing numbers of international students coming into the country. More specifically, the study is designed to respond to the rising number of international students enrolling at NMIT. As contained in Research Methods Conference Paper Abstracts (2010), this study is being done in response to identified gaps in the body of knowledge, exemplified by shortage of scholarly work looking into student satisfaction in international institutions. The purpose of the study is to highlight these gaps and propose approaches and strategies for bridging them. The study will be conducted to come up with evidence based practices in the provision of student support programs for international students.

Attracting and retaining international students to tertiary institutions

This section of the research proposal identifies the anticipated outcomes of the study: the expected results. After employing both primary and secondary data collection methods, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting it as in (Bansal, Tima & Corley, 2011), the study expects to come up with the trends and patterns of international students’ satisfaction at NMIT. The study will be able to identify the correlation between the level of international students’ satisfaction and their learning outcomes as measured by their General Points Average (GPA). As contended by Scott (2011), the results of the study will make sense of the gaps in international students’ expectations versus the reality. Findings from this study will prove whether or not international students have confidence in the student support services available for international students at NMIT.  The results of this study will also help the researcher to identify the issues of concern to international students which can be improved on in order to help them maximize their learning experiences.

To determine the level of satisfaction and the settlement experiences of international students at NMIT, New Zealand

Objectives

General Objectives

• To compare the international students’ expectations and the reality at NMIT, New Zealand
• To determine the effectiveness of NMIT support services to international students
• To determine NMIT learning experiences and settlement services meets the needs of international students

Specific objectives

• To determine the extent of satisfaction in foreign students at NMIT
• To evaluate the impact of NMIT students support services on international students’ adjustment periods
• To determine the efficiency and reliability of student support services for international students
• To identify existing gaps between the expectations of students of foreign nationalities and the reality at NMIT
• To identify international students’ concerns with satisfaction and settlement at NMIT

This study is intended to make contributions to the growth of the body of knowledge in the role of satisfaction in the academic performance of international students. It hopes to provide new insights to the interplay between satisfaction among international students and their settlement experiences. The study objectifies to introduce new dimensions to the role of student support services for international students and their settling experience. As contended by Hartnett et al (2014), the researcher hopes to highlight the major issues pertinent to international student’s satisfaction and highlight the gaps between the expectation of students and reality. As a complementary action to continuing the growth in the body of knowledge, the researcher intends to publish the completed study to avail it in print and electronic form for students and peers to critique and learn from it. This research will influence policy framework for the design of student support systems. As in Bansal et al (2018), the researcher targets to establish evidence based propositions for change in the way tertiary learning institutions handle international students support in New Zealand. The study will present alternative ways of improving support systems for international students. The research will provide compelling arguments both for and against certain aspects of curricula for international students and in so doing, influence the design of such curricula going forward. The findings of this study will inform the New Zealand government’s strategies in regulating the export education industry. It will also provide new perspectives for New Zealand’s Ministry of Education in creating new frameworks for regulating provision of education for international students.

With the increasing number of students moving across the border in search of education, there is an imperative need to conduct an extensive research on the student's satisfaction and experience across various institutions. The previous chapter; literature review was based on the identification of the relevant information about the student's satisfaction and experiences in various international education institutions. Thus this chapter highlights the various tools and methods that were utilized by the researcher in the completion of the study of the Asha International student’s satisfaction and settlement experience at NMIT Nelson. The data collection on the student's satisfaction and experience is facilitated by the choice of the research methods and methodology. The chapter is completed through the highlighting the research philosophy, research approach, research design, strategy, and data collection techniques.  Research methodology process is one of the most important aspects in every stud as pointed out by (Knight  & Cross 2012). Every research project is required to have effective methodological options that will ensure that the correct and adequate information about student’s satisfaction and experience are collected. All the used methods and tools were analyzed before the study and choice justified.

Curriculum, accommodation experience, and support services

According to De Langhe, & Schliesser (2017), the aim of the research, philosophy is to assist in determining the source, nature, and development of the knowledge with regard to the topic under the study. Research philosophy helps in constructing the assumptions and beliefs for the topic to have accurate data, thus proper data collection techniques and analysis must be chosen. Saunders et al. (2015), states three major types of philosophies: Positivism, Interpretivism and Realism research philosophies. Positivism research philosophy dictates that factual information can only be collected through observation method and is solely dependent on the quantifiable data.  Interpretivism philosophy focuses on collecting data that are socially constructed so as to come up with real information for the research topic. Lastly, the realism philosophy entails the mixture of both the positivism and interpretivism thus is associated with the collection of data that are both socially constructed and observable.

Therefore, having highlighted the above, the study on the Asha International student’s satisfaction and settlement experience at NMIT Nelson, realism philosophy is the best option. The researcher is out to make observations on the student experience on educational services and their level of satisfaction to come up with a conclusion. The researcher must have data that can be quantified, measured in terms of number and themes. The research was Interpretivism as it aimed at satisfying the following criteria. The research question was developed in a careful manner and the study considered the research question very carefully and will be carried out pertaining to the inquiry strategies. The study was entirely based on the survey responses by the participants. Through Interpretive research, the researcher aimed at analyzing the international student’s responses to the questions asked and drawing out meanings and conclusion from their answers.

Klier, Klier and Muschter (2017 denoted that research approach help in collecting relevant and accurate data that will help in the easy analysis of the topic under study that is categorized either as fact or observed data. The two most common research approaches used by researchers are the deductive and inductive approach. The inductive approach is perceived as helping the researcher to develop a new theory based on the already analyzed outcome of the study. The approach is a bottom-up since data is initially observed, hypothesis developed and theory constructed. On the other hand, the deductive research approach is perceived as a top-down approach; whereby the hypothesis of a study is created before the data collection process to support the hypothesis.

From the above brief discussion on the research approach, the researcher thus was entitled to generate hypotheses about the international student’s satisfaction and settlement experiences at the NMIT, Nelson, New Zealand.  Thus the deductive approach was chosen since it enabled the researcher to review the literature on the topic to come up with various concepts, factors, and theories that support their satisfaction and settlement experience at NMIT, Nelson New Zealand.

In order to complete a research project successfully, the stretcher is always required to quantify the research variables. The most known research purposes for conducting a research study are exploratory, explanatory, and descriptive purposes. Percy (2016) stated that explanatory research purpose helps in identifying relationship of the research variables, thus leading the collection of factual data. The exploratory purpose creates the research paper groundwork; thus helps the paper background and social causes concerning particular issues surrounding the research topic. Lastly, the descriptive research purpose helps the researcher to analyze the research variable in independent criteria thus leading to accumulation of the actual purpose of the research topic.

Expectations of international students

Concerning the research on the Aisha international student’s satisfaction and settlement experience, the interdependency of the settlement conditions and the satisfaction level of the students will help the researcher in making a conclusive recommendation. Thus the main purpose of this study is to construct the relationship between the settlement conditions and the level of satisfaction among the international students of NMIT Nelson.

The research design is a set of methods and procedures that are used in collecting data and analyzing measures of the variables of the specified research topic (Mingjiu , Min  & Jun 2015). The widely used research design includes experimental, semi-experimental, descriptive, correlational, cohort, case study, exploratory, longitudinal, observational, meta-analysis and casual design (Vanderhoven, Schellens, Vanderlinde & Valcke 2016). Descriptive research helps the researcher to find an answer concerning questions of what, whom when, where and how associated with a specific research problem. The descriptive design provides information about the current status of phenomena and helps in describing ‘what exists’ with respect to the variables. The descriptive design also entails method us in case of study, naturalistic observation and survey. Thus considering the topic of that needs understanding the expectation versus reality of the international student's satisfaction and settlement experience in NMIT, the researcher actually needed to make survey and observation to ascertain some of the hypothesis.  

Having said that, survey and observation were the most suitable methods of factual data collection, thus respondents were selected from the Aisha students population and from them, direct response through a designed semi-structured questionnaire was gathered. Therefore, the most suitable research design for this study was descriptive since it had all the ability for the primary data collection, and ability to compare the findings with the already existing literature review to come up with a final accurate outcome. According to Mingjiu et al. (2015), some of the advantages of descriptive design for the topic include the ability to collect a large amount of data for detailed analysis, thus providing rich data about how, and the level of student’s satisfaction and settlement experiences that can be used to develop recommendations and practices for the future international students across the world.

Koczela, & Scheuren (2016) defines a research strategy as a step-by-step plan of action that is purposed to provide a direction of the efforts and thoughts of the researcher in obtaining relevant and accurate data concerning the topic under study. There are numerous research strategies; however, the widely used include focus groups, interview, case study, and survey. Case studies mostly used to elicit secondary information that is always available in numerous empirical databases that were published in the past years. Focus groups strategy entails the data collection from a particular identified group for people through an interview to get their perceptions, opinion, attitudes, and beliefs regarding a topic. The interview strategy enables the researcher to collect information through conducting open-ended questions in a single respondent at a time, while survey strategy entails where close-ended questions are asked to the respondents at a time and based on the responses, data analysis is conducted to come up with the outcome.

Investigating the needs of international students

Considering the number of Aisha international students, the number was actually big thus collecting responses from each was quite hectic since the sample size can be quite big and the analyzed data might not be factual. Therefore, for the success of the project, the researcher chose to use survey research strategy since no other strategy has the capability to ensure accurate naturally occurring data collection from sample to collect data for a reliable conclusion in the real world (Diong, Butler, Gandevia, & Héroux2018). The survey tends to focus on self-report from the respondents obtaining their beliefs and opinions that are crucial for the researcher to compare and contrast the expectations versus the reality of the international student's satisfaction and settlement experiences at NMIT Nelson. Additionally, the choice of the survey is that it has the capability of providing a large amount of data within a short period of time, less expensive, easy to administer and cover wide broad of aspects such as past behaviors, opinions, personal facts, attitude among many others that are important for the researcher's understanding.

The researcher thus used the quantitative methods of measurement and analysis of the data through the open-ended questions. The researcher followed the following steps to ensure the accuracy of the data collection and analysis:  Before commencing any survey data collection, audience identification is very important thus for the purpose of this study, the audience will be Aisha international students. The survey process will be conducted and supervised by the researcher and trained researcher assistant.

Data collection is the most important aspect of research methodology since it helps in quantifying accurate data that will provide reliable results ( Couper 2011). According to Valbuena, Miller, Samaha,  & Miltenberger (2017 )there are two major data collection methods and techniques used by researchers across the world: primary and secondary.

The secondary data collection entails the information collected from the already published sources such as journals, books, articles, and authentic websites among many others. The secondary data collection helped the researcher to understand the background of the topic under the study by going through past researches. The literature review was conducted through systematic search by the use of specific search terms such as “international students, expectations, reality, satisfaction, and experiences, survey research methods’. The search engines provide about 80 peers reviewed journals and only 30 met the criteria of the search since they were either published within a span of 8 years, contained all the required terms or were surveys conducted on the international students to elicit satisfaction and experiences.

The primary data collection, on the other hand, entails the direct response collection from the respondents and is either qualitative or quantitative. The primary method was the most accurate method of collecting data concerning the expectations versus reality of the Aisha international student’s satisfaction and settlement expectations since the researcher was majorly concerned d with the quantitative responses. Thus no interview will be conducted since the respondents will be using the closed end designed questionnaire to provide their views, beliefs, and opinion on the topic under discussion. The closed-ended questionnaire is more reliable and accurate for the study since it will save time, energy and money. The questionnaire will be designed in such a way to cover the demographic aspects and quantitative responses, thus a %- point Linkert Scale method will the best option to cover the responses.

 According to Arifin (2018), population is the broader group of people under the study and on the other hand sample size is the subset of the population where qualitative and quantitative information is drawn to generalize the results. The population of the study was all the students of the NMIT, Nelson students that have about 10,000 students from within and across the border. The study, thus majorly focused on the Aisha international students

Sample size refers to the subset of the population that respondents are withdrawn and subjected to the study to make a general conclusion of the entire population(Kirpich 2018). As indicated above, the estimated population of the international students at NMIT, Nelson is about 10,000; The Yamane’s formula was used to calculate the sample size for the study;   n=N/ {1+N (e) 2} where

N: sample size

N: Total population for the city

e: precision

n= 50

The researcher applied a convenient sampling technique in identifying the participants, since this was the most applicable method of accessing international students with rich information, and was least costly as compared to others. While approaching the participants, student’s demographic features were observed in terms of skin color, dressing, language, the area of settlement and behavior.

Questionnaire formed the key technique of primary data collection of the study. the researcher drafted a closed-ended questionnaire that was firmware to the supervisor to evaluate and improve on the questions. A survey Monkey was the provider that was used since there were various analysis tools that NMIT had subscribed to thus the researcher utilized the opportunity (Suan, Wei Leong Tan, Soelar & Ali 2017).

The questionnaire was piloted on the fellow students, who were provided with the opportunity to give their responses on the best way to improve on the questions and the researcher made the necessary changes. Upon the final approval of the questionnaire by the course supervisor, the questionnaires were distributed among the identified Aisha international students to collect the required information. The questionnaire was designed to cover the demographic aspects such as whether the respondent is an international student or not, perceptions of the settlement conditions, expectancies experience and opinions. The questionnaire was brief and clear in design so as to motivate the participants to complete the entire questionnaire and was active for a period of 10 days. Leading questions were extensively avoided and limited and simple and logical questions were asked. Linkert scales were included in the Questionnaire to act as the cross-cutting techniques to help the respondents in gauging their perceptions, attitudes, and expectations of the settlement at Nelson, hence allowed the collected data to be analyzed under tables and graphs.

In every respect, data analysis is always conducted at the end of the data collection process (Kolante, 2016). Culturally and linguistically, diverse healthcare students experiences of different challenges in different institutions. The process aims at relating the data collected and the literature thus used to confirm the hypothesis. Descriptive and inferential form the major forms of data analysis used by researchers across the world. According to Brix, (2018) descriptive statistic majors on recording data from a specified group of people and summarizing the data in form of the group properties. The method always has high uncertainty factor. On the other hand, the inferential data analysis entails the study of a specific group of people from an identified population to draw a general conclusion (Bansal & Srivastava, 2018). The process always involves the test of hypothesis, regression, and confidential intervals, thus for the purpose of this study, inferential data analysis would be the best option.

In this respect, the use of inferential statistic is based on the fact that the researchers objective to understand the difference between the student's expectation and reality on the condition of their settlement (Cosela, 2016). Thus, SPPS data will be used to represent the correlation between the factors and the hypothesis test will be used to test the acceptance. Data was edited by the researcher to eliminate the unusual responses and the coded for easy analysis using the computer statistical package known as PSPP; a multiple regression model. Multiple regressions are applicable when there are numerous independent variables and dependent variables, and in this study, there are service supports and the level of satisfaction and experience.

The ethical approval of the study was obtained from the NMIT Nelson Ethical Committee after the going through the participant consent forms and the questionnaire. According to Iijima, Aleksic, & Ozaki (2011), there are four major ethical principles for a success and effective research project: respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. Ingham-Broomfield (2017) denotes that respect of the autonomy requires every researcher to award freedom to the participants, thus they are able to decide freely whether to participate or not. The researcher performed this through first introducing the research topic, importance and giving the participant an opportunity to decide whether is capable of participating without any coherent.

The non-maleficence principle requires every, not to inflict harm on the study through the use of relevant research methods. This was achieved through the identification of the possible risk such as racial discrimination and was highly avoided by giving all the participants equal chance to participate.

The benefice principle requires the researcher to use the accurate scientific, practical and educational capability to carry out the study. The principle was achieved through continuous contact with the supervisors and the use of the lecture notes to facilitate the study. Finally, the principle of justice requires that all the participants are award their privacy, thus the researcher ensured that the questionnaire did not ask any question that might capture detrimental data, or that can expose the privacy of the participants.

Different scholars have engaged in different studies to develop an understanding of student’s satisfaction and their settlement experiences in different environments. However, it is critical to understand that student satisfaction has become a very essential aspect of education in which most education policymakers should pay close attention.  Shernoff, Csikszentmihalyi, Schneider & Shernoff (2014) assert that human beings have various needs which need to be satisfied in one way or the other to promote growth and development and as a result, they tend to build particular expectations around situations. International students, therefore, have particular expectations with different aspects of education in their new experiments such as the culture as well as the overall education system.

Motivation and satisfaction have been found to be critical aspects that determine a student’s experiences in different environments. Motivations are the effort to achieve and attain specific objectives and are determined by an individual persistence, intensity, and direction. It therefore plays a critical role in student’s satisfaction as it helps to determine the ease at which a student is able to strive to meet his or her goals and objectives (Lin & Scherz, 2014).  Student’s motivation and their experiences are, therefore, a result of the various factors present in their university environments. These factors may vary from one student to the other as well as from one university to the other and hence it is important that the study is focused on understanding student’s satisfaction and their settlement experiences at NMIT in New Zealand. Research has provided that learner’s interaction that students experience together is critical in determining their satisfaction levels (Mikkonen, Elo, Kuivila, Tuomikoski & Kääriäinen, 2016). In understanding student’s satisfaction, it is critical to understand how globalization has contributed to a new change in the education sector. In this case, globalization has provided a new dimension to education around the globe with developing economies or countries having a share in the global education system something that did not happen in the past. The destinations for higher education have shifted focus from the developed countries to a new shift in which the developing countries are experiencing not only an outflow but also an inflow of students in their institutions of higher learning. With these changes resulting from internalization, students, therefore, have different expectations and the ability of the education systems and environments to meet these expectations will determine the student’s satisfaction as well as their experiences in the university.

Cultural differences and experiences have been one of the biggest challenge facing international students and have affected the effectiveness of their socialization process and their interactions with the peers. It plays a critical role in explaining student’s dissatisfaction with their experiences at the university. Research has provided that culture has been used as one of the racial discrimination factors or challenges affecting international students in achieving their educational objectives. Despite the recent development in international relationships, cultural discrimination is so deep because it goes beyond the normal experience of discrimination to an individual experience of feeling not compatible with various aspects from different cultures.

Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy, (2015) in their research have argued that America has continued to record an increased number of international students in the recent past with Chinese and other Asian students having the largest population of international students in various institutions.  They have experienced a cultural shock due to the differences in their culture in term of dressing and foods and therefore this has contributed significantly to increased dissatisfaction and challenges in their settlement and especially in their first years in the institutions. Such cultural differences have contributed to increased challenges with American students in Asia and especially in Singapore also facing similar challenges. Therefore cultural integration has been eating challenge towards student’s adjustments to the new experiences, however; research provides that this impact has been found to reduce in the second or the third year of their studies. It also depends on an individual ability to respond to cultural discrimination through positive attitude development.

The success of international students learning and settlement experiences are determined by the level of their satisfaction with the environments in which they are studying and their ability to integrate with different environmental factors and changes. The learning and settlement experiences are different from one student to the other as well as from one university to the other. Individual attitude is critical in the determination of their learning and settlement experiences (Douglas, Douglas, McClelland & Davies, 2015). The different institution has developed their internal policies to facilitate the effective and smooth transition and settlement experience for international students while different governments have developed various policies aimed at protecting and improving settlement experiences amongst international students. To enhance and improve the student’s international learning and settlement experiences it is critical to developing the appropriate strategies by the stakeholders in the education sector by addressing the challenges faced by the international students.

Language has been one of the major challenges affecting international student’s settlement and learning experiences. It serves as a great barrier to effective communication between and among students. Inability to communicate effectively affects the student’s confidence to express themselves and limit them in terms of interaction and socialization. Presbitero, (2016) provides that on the grounds of socialization, international students have been found to be dissatisfied with socialization groups between the local and the foreign students. Dissatisfaction among international students is common and especially when they have high and unrealistic expectations while the institutions are unable to perform their duties and responsibilities according to the student's expectations.

  Studying in different countries creates a range of adjustments problems for international students which influence their levels of satisfaction as well as their settlements in the country. The adjustments are the critical issues that students in most international institutions face and include academic issues, socio-cultural as well as psychological adjustments (Wu, Garza, & Guzman, 2015). Studies have shown that most of these problems or issues a result from increased differences in language and communication and is highly determined by the discourse of intercultural and interpersonal communication. The most affected group of internationals is the Asian students who have been found to have experienced difficulties adjusting to the western culture of education (Palmer & Maramba, 2015). In this case, their learning and settlement experiences are influenced by factors such as socio-cultural and academic adaptation in the new country in which most of the students have been found to lack English language skills, share different beliefs and cultural values, personality traits and motivations as well as their prior learning experiences. It is, therefore, necessary to note that these factors contribute to increased dissatisfaction with their learning and social experiences. Lack of adequate housing facilities or access to quality housing has been a common challenge to the international student’s settlement experiences (Mesidor, & Sly, 2016). Due to their economic capability, they are not able to access quality houses since they are very expensive and the students will be forced to work outside their class activities to finance their bills. Studies have also revealed that there is a need for universities to develop appropriate strategies and policies to promote the integration of International students through improved socialization process and activities as well as develop strategies that will ensure that international students can access houses under the university management.

 Research has provided that there is a huge Gap between international student’s expectations and what they perceive as the reality in learning. The gap can be explained in terms of the contradicting factors which brings about a difference with the native students. Ali, Zhou, Hussain, Nair & Ragavan, (2016) provides that there is a huge gap in terms of social and cultural differences. Therefore, most international students find it very difficult to relate because of having a feeling of such a gap in their life. Interactions during learning between international students and the native students are very minimal in the first years of their stay as compared to the second or the third year depending on the individual character traits and beliefs (Glass, Kociolek, Wongtrirat, Lynch & Cong, 2015). In this case, the most conservative groups of students find themselves struggling with their learning and hence affecting their satisfaction with the learning. Research also provides that most international students especially the Chines experience loneliness and isolation centrally to their expectations of how they would be able to socialize with their peers without any problems. There is a language which does not only interfere with their communication and socialization experiences but also affects their learning experiences.

In the United States English is the common language used in institutions of higher learning with over 90% of the students in the institutions and therefore lack of prior English learning skills has become a critical challenge for the students. Lowinger, He, Lin, & Chang, (2014) argues that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand and therefore research has provided that most the international students have experienced increased inability to handle their personal issues of freedom and responsibility and hence affecting their learning experiences and especially their academic performances (Webb & Chaffer, 2016). Most importantly, research has provided that international students have continued to face increased concerns of fears about future employment opportunities or prospects given the increased competitiveness in the education sector.

Many companies as well as organizations to develop or improve growth have used the theory of management. It is a common theory in human resource management that seeks to improve the work organization from the employee point of view (Anderson, 2017). However one of the critical elements of the theory is that it emphasized a lot on adaptation to the changes in the organization environment where it also emphasizes that there is a need for the organizations through the employees to realign their fit to the environmental demands (Wen, Hu, & Hao, 2018). In this case, therefore, the students are required to realign their expectations with the existing environmental practices. Having that understanding then it will essay to for them to adapt to the existing environmental, cultural and social environments. This will then contribute to increased satisfaction as well as improved settlement experiences in the country.

Intercultural management theory has become very essential in organizational management (Wickramasinghe, 2015). Different cultural groups characterize most organization or institutions and lack of proper management of the groups may contribute or reduced efficiency and collaboration at work and hence reducing organizational performance (Nekvapil, 2016). Likewise, institutions of higher learning are also characterized with inter-cultural groups and therefore the universities are required to adopt intercultural management practices to ensure that students are able to produce in terms of their learning experiences and their socialization aspects. In terms of management, culture helps in developing individual cognitive abilities and hence increasing their capability to solve cultural conflicts (McClelland & Davies, 2015). It provides cultural awareness and therefore reducing the high expectations the international students have and embracing the reality that society is always comprised of a different culture which influence our behavior and interactions with one another. Such awareness will contribute to increased positivity and ability to deal with the emotional aspects of cultural discrimination or loneliness and isolation among international students.

The intercultural management theory attempts to provide an understanding of employee interactions in an organization as a result of different cultures including different organizational culture (Freed, Smith, & Huang, 2018). This is critical of intercultural management among universities or institutions of higher learning as it helps them develop third cultural aspects of institutional culture that is not culturally biased and accommodates the cultural aspects of all the students in the university. It compares the different cultural aspects and how they can be aligned together to contribute to increased productivity in this case by improving international students learning and settlement experiences. Geisler & Wickramasinghe, 2015) provides that, the intercultural management theory is comprised of three critical aspects of intercultural competence which include; emotional competence, cognitive competence, and behavioral competence. Development of these aspects through intercultural management contributes to increased or improved cross-cultural adaptation which contributes to the enhancement of international student’s satisfaction with their learning and settlement experiences (Addams & Roosevelt, 2016). To achieve this, research has provided that it is critical for the institutions to implement intercultural training in their institutions to bring about cultural awareness and reduce cultural discrimination which has become a major challenge and resulting to racism in the country.

The Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is a type of motivational theory that is mostly used in psychology and is made up of five human needs including physiological, safety, love and belonging needs as well as esteem and self-actualization needs (Einstein, Addams & Roosevelt, 2016). These needs are further analyzed in three categories including basic needs, psychological needs as well as the self-fulfillment needs. The understanding of these needs is critical in understanding student’s satisfaction levels with the learning and settlement experiences. According to the Hierarchy, the lower needs in the hierarchy that is the physiological and safety needs also classified as the basic needs should be satisfied before an individual can attend to the higher needs in the hierarchy.

  The application of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of need in education is critical in understanding students learning experiences and promoting the development of a human-centered educational approach. Maslow identifies various students’ needs and classifies them as physical, emotional, social and intellectual qualities or needs (Hale, Ricotta, Freed, Smith & Huang, 2018). In his argument, he believes that it is critical that students must fulfill first their basic physiological needs before their cognitive needs are met. This because the students need to feel that they are emotionally and physically safe as well as accepted within their classroom environment so that they can progress to reach their full potential.  Therefore there is a need to show the international students that they are valued and respected despite their differences in terms of culture, behavior, values, and beliefs. It is the responsibility of the institutions as well as their tutors to create a supportive environment that supports the fulfillment of their basic physiological needs. The ability of the institutions to develop and create supportive environments in the classroom will be critical in improving the international students learning and settlement experiences.

Hale et al. (2018) also provides that students with low self-esteem have difficulties or encounter challenges in progressing academically at the optimum rate until their self-esteem which falls under their basic needs is strengthened. In most cases, the challenges facing international students such as isolation and loneliness, language barrier and the economic backgrounds contributes to low self-esteem which impacts negatively their learning and settlement experiences. Maslow’s, therefore, believed that establishing a humanistic educational approach would be very critical in helping international students improve their learning experiences by developing people who are healthier and stronger and would take their own life into their hearts with a lot of responsibility (Robertson, 2016). Research, therefore, provides that with the increased personal responsibility to one’s personal life provides an ability to actively change the society they live in. therefore to change international students learning and settlement experiences there is need to focus on how we change their environments they are living in, either the physical and social environments. This will help in helping the students feel more loved, accepted and cared for in the different environments despite their differences and therefore develop a positive attitude towards their learning which will eventually lead to the achievement of their optimum goals through attainment of self-actualization needs as the highest level under the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

  The model was developed by Dr. Milton Bennet in 1986 and 1993 to provide an understanding people experiences and cultural differences engage (Bloom & Miranda, 2015).  The model is built under the assumption that the complexity of cultural differences depends on an individual perception of the differences and therefore provides that recognition of different experiences of cultural differences can be useful in making a prediction on intercultural communication and develop education interactions to improve students learning and settlement experiences. The model is built upon six stages of cultural development in which the first three stages are categorized as ethnocentric while the last three stages are categorized as ethnic relative (Soria & Troisi, 2014). Ethnocentric is the perspective that one’s own cultural experiences are more central to reality in some way and therefore contributes to the denial of cultural differences, defense against cultural differences as well as the minimization of cultural differences. These stages are therefore negative influences in the education sector as they promote the development of cultural discrimination and affect students learning experiences. The second three stages of ethnic relative provide an understanding that an individual culture is a context of other cultures and therefore contributes to development stages of acceptance of cultural differences, adaptation to cultural differences and integration of cultural differences (Hammer, 2015). These are the most critical stages of improving the international student’s satisfaction with their learning as well as settlement experiences.  The acceptance of cultural differences will contribute to increased adaptation to the cultural differences in their social environments as well as contribute to the increased integration of the differences in improving learning experiences and satisfaction.

Out of the survey population, 89.19% were current international students enrolled at NMIT while 10.81 of the correspondence were local students. On the satisfaction of the students with the services offered at the institute, the correspondence had varied views on a number of the services that they get from the Institute. While none of the students reported to completely unsatisfied with the services, majority of the students reported to be satisfied. A relatively small portion of the students were unsatisfied while others chose to remain neutral on a number of satisfaction questions. The satisfaction question covered library services at the institution, the learning services, the support from the learning advisers, the services from the academic and learning supports staff and the availability of the learning support staff. The results on the survey on the satisfaction level of the correspondence when it come to the library services offered at the university, none of the correspondence reported to be  very unsatisfied with the library and online recourses offered at the university. A relatively low portion of 6.45 of the correspondence indicated that they were unsatisfied with the library and the online resources available at the university. On this question, 9.68 of the correspondence choose to be neutral as 54.86% of them reported to be satisfied with the library and online resources offered at the Institute. On the extreme positive side, 29.03 were very satisfied with the library and online resources offered by the institution.

The second question on satisfaction focused on the learning library services. None of the students indicated extreme dissatisfaction of the learning library services offered. However, 12.90% of the correspondences were dissatisfied with the services while 16.13% remained neutral. Another 45.16% were satisfied with the library learning support services while 25.18% reported to be very satisfied with the library learning services. The responses do not vary much with those that the study received from the correspondence on the students’ satisfaction on the support that the students get from learning advisors towards academic success. Similar to the previous questions, none of the correspondence reported to be very unsatisfied. Only 16.13% of the correspondences were unsatisfied with the support of the students learning advisors towards academic success. While another 16.13% remained neutral on this question, 45.16%   were satisfied while 22.58% were on the extreme positive and reported to be very satisfied with the services of the student learning advisors towards academic excellence.      

The next question on the satisfaction of the students on the support that they get from academic and other learning support staff, none of the students reported extreme dissatisfaction while only 6.45% reported to be unsatisfied with the services. 19.35% of the students preferred to remain neutral on the question while a majority of 54.84% was certified with the services offered with the academic and other learning support staff. Like the other survey questions, the question attracted extreme positivity from o portion of 19.35% of the correspondence who reported to be very satisfied with the services offered by the academic and the support staff. The lad survey question in this category was on the students’ satisfaction with the access to the institutions learning support services. The responses for the question took the same trend as the previous questions asked in the survey as none of the students reported to be very unsatisfied with the availability and access to the institute’s learning and support services. On the other hand, a small percentage of 6.45% reported to be unsatisfied while 22.58% reported to be very satisfied with the availability and the access to the learning support services.

On the survey question that sort to determine the students’ perception on the facilities that are available at the institute, it was found that the majority of the students perceive the facilities as good. As opposed to the first set of survey questions, this question attracted a 3.13% negative response from the despondence who rated the facilities at the university as bad.  12.5% of the population rated the facilities as average. 21.88% of the students rate the facilities as very good while another 21.88% rated the facilities as excellent.

The overall experience of the students fluctuated between bad and good among the population with the majority reporting good experiences at the institute. The two extremes were the minority as on 9.68% of the students repot to have excellent experiences at the institute. On the other hand a minimal of 3.23% of the students indicated that they had bad study experience at the institute. A majority of 35.48% of the population rated their learning experience at the university as good while 25.81% felt that their learning experience at the institute was average. The remaining 25.81 % of the students rated their experience at the institution as excellent.

Question number five of the survey focused on the issues that the students might have faced in their experience at the institution. The issues identified for the survey were language issues in relation to examination as and assignments, absence of support in the students’ efforts to find accommodation, the absence of effort to understand the existing cultural issues and unavailability of adequate health center. All the correspondences reported that they have faced one or more of the above issues. The majority of the students indicated that they have faced language issues as 50% of the correspondents pointed out that language issues that relate to examinations and assignments. 28.57% of the population indicated lack of support in finding accommodation as an issue that they have experienced as 14.29% identified lack of efforts to understand cultural issues as one of the major issues that they have come across in the institute. A number of the students also exhibited that employment issues were the main challenge that they come across with 71.43% reporting the employment issues as their major issue. Additionally, unavailability of a health center also become had 17.86% of the population regarding it as a major issue.

Furthermore, the sixth question sort to generate more clarity on the number of students who got assistance to get accommodation in their first time to Nelson. The responses for the question indicated that a few students got assistance while the majority has to find accommodation on their own without any sort of assistance. Out of the population, only 31.03% got assistance when seeking appropriate accommodation the first time they come to Nelson while the remaining 68.97% indicated that they did not find any assistance to get accommodation.

The last seeks to know the number of students who would recommend the Institute to their friends. The question attracted a range of responses starting from these who would definitely recommend the institute to those who would definitely not recommend the institute to their friends. However, the majority would recommend the institute to their friend. 30% of the population indicates that they would recommend the institute to their friend without a second though while another 46.67% indicated that they are most likely to recommend the institution to their friends but they are not so sure about the recommendation.13.33% of the population indicated that they are most likely not to recommend the institution to their friends while the other 10% were certain that they would not recommend the institution to their friends.

   The study aimed at international students who recently joined NMIT with an aim of evaluating their experience at the institute. Despite that, ten percent of the correspondents were either local students or were international students who joined the institute earlier. This comes as a result of the nature of the survey technique used in this study as it did not restrict access to the recently admitted international students. However, the results of the survey indicated gave a general picture of the experiences of the international students who were recently admitted to the NMIT.  The general view of the students in terms of the library resources was positive (Hughes, H., Cooper, Flierl, Somerville & Chaudhary, 2018).

On the other hand minority of the students who felt that the library and online resources were inadequate. The negative response from the few students might result from very high expectation of the institute before admission (Yun Yue1&Terry, 2014). The same is replicated in the satisfaction of the international students with the library learning services. The same correlation is reflected on the student’s response on the questions on their satisfaction with the academic and learning support staff and the accessibility to learning and support systems. It is vital to note that none of the students indicated that they were extremely unsatisfied with any of the academic services offered by the institute. On the contrary, majority of the students were either satisfied or externally satisfied with the academic services offered by the institute (Findlay, Prazeres, McCollum, & Packwood, 2017). Over sixty percent of all the correspondence of the survey believes that the academic services offered by the university are adequate. The small percentage of the students who were uncertified with the institutions services include the international students whose expectations of the academic services were not met by the existing academic services (Basu, 2016). This however, does not mean that the services offered by the institution are inadequate but did not just meet the student’s expectations.

Considering the number of students who rated the facilities available for at the institution as poor against the number that rated the facilities as good, very good or excellent it is clear that unsatisfied group is are minority. This further elaborates that not all the expectations of the international students were met by the services that are offered by the institution. Since expectation on the facilities and the services offered in the institution is key influencing the overall study experience, it therefore follows that those students whose expectations were not met by the facilities and services at of the institution (Hughes et al, 2018). Further evaluation of the students’ experience at the university looked into the issues that affect the students in the learning process.

Language issues that are related to examinations and assignment closely follow unemployment issues as the major challenges (Elo et al., 2016).  Since not all the international students are speakers of the English language, it takes some of them time to adjust to the new environments where the English language is the official language of instructions (Campbel & Jieping Zeng, 2006).  Slow Adjustment to the language makes some of the students to miss the instructions in the examinations and the assignments.  Furthermore, there are limited employment opportunities for international student within New Zealand. This fact makes it hard for the international students to get employment in the foreign country. It is a requirement in the country for foreigners to acquire work permits for them to work within the country. The process of bureaucratic process of acquiring a work permit makes it hard for some of the international students to qualify for jobs in the country (Contreras-Aguirre & Gonzalez, 2017).  The other major challenge as indicated by the research results is lack of support by the institution in searching for appropriate accommodation for the new international students.

 The international students coming into the country for the first time are in most cases not familiar with the culture of New Zealand. Such students find it difficult to locate appropriate areas of residence (Karamoko, Casey, & Griffin, 2017). The issue is further indicated by the response of the students who indicated that they did not get any assistance from the institution in effort to get appropriate accommodation (Sin, 2015). The culture problem extends to the relations between the locals and the international students. This is indicated by the number of students who identified lack of efforts to understand cultural issues as an issue affecting their existence in the institution.  Furthermore, the absence of a health center within the institution, made some of the international students uncomfortable. The international students not familiar with the location of social amenities like hospitals find it difficult to get medical help when needed. The responses to the last survey question further pointed out the impression that the international students have on the institution. Those who would recommend the institution to their friends look at the institution positively while these who would not recommend the institution to their friend shave a negative impression of the institution (Eldaba, 2016). The majority of the international students have a positive view on the institution as they would.   

Conclusion and Recommendations

Indeed, from the research that was carried above on expectations verses reality among the international students in NMIT it has clearly come out that there is always a distinct difference between what is expected by us and what actually transpires or the bitter part of the reality. From the research, which involves NMIT international students, the international students have high regards of things that they expected to find in NMIT thus having very high expectations. On the contrary, having expectations about the future also generate greater disappointment levels incase these expectations are not met. From the research, it has also been noted that expectations held by the students not only influence their system of thought and actions but what they experience on the arrival at the university (the bitter reality) influences their expectations.

Unlike expectations, reality is the exact and real situation and conditions that the international students are facing at hand. According to the research, it was quite clear that the expectations of most international students at the NMIT were not met fully thus generating dissatisfaction amongst them. Taking a keen look at the survey results of learning and settlement needs of the international students at NMIT, the reality of the matter was quite opposite from the expectation held by the students. Most students expected to find accommodation through the help of the administration but on the contrary, 68.97% of the students struggled on their own find accommodation with only 31.03% of the sample group was helped to settle down by NMIT administration.

From the research, results that have been discussed above, a good number of the international students were faced with language issues that related to exams and assignments. This means that the university has not stipulated clear programs that would ensure all international students be well acquainted with academic language. A bad picture is also painted NMIT given that most of the international students expected to find employment opportunity or side hustle on the arrival to the university. As opposed to these expectations, the survey results show that around 71.43 of the international students found it difficult to secure employment opportunities painting a bad picture of the current administration of NMIT.

Even though there exists a number of challenges that are faced by NMIT international students taking courses that go for more than six months as was found from the concluded survey, it is important to denote that various privileges that the international students enjoyed and were satisfied with do exist in the university. More than 81% of the international students were satisfied with some of the services offered at the university. Some of these factors include; the library learning services offered o students such as the APA referencing used for formatting academic works and assignments.

 The support offered by the student learning advisers towards academic success and the assistance from the academic and the NMIT support staff. The implication of rate of satisfaction with the services being offered by the university is greatly seen on the response given by the students who were asked if they would recommend the school to other prospective personals looking forward to secure a place as international students. From the survey findings, 46.67% of the students probably would recommend NMIT for their friends.

Indeed, irrespective of the nationality of the international students, all of them faced similar learning issues such as lack of language support. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, for a person to reach the self-actualization stage, they must first feel safe and satisfy their physiological needs. Most of the international students were faced with a number of challenges given the fact that faced the language barrier in the assignments and exams.

Given the fact that most international students tend to find it difficult to communicate effectively in their assignments and exams, this shows that there is a gap the administration of NMIT needs to deal with so that this problem may not be faced in the future. In this case, it is recommended that the administration should set clear policies and programs to which the international students are taught the academic language intended to be used in the process of teaching and examination.it is recommended that a follow up mechanism should be reign forced. This can be huge step in curbing the problem of language barrier being faced by the students.

Finding accommodation in an alien environment is something that can be cumbersome and almost a tall order because one is not familiar with the surrounding and may not be well versed with security issues of certain places (Maramba, 2015). With this in mind, we also recommend that the NMIT administration should give priority to the international students through securing accommodation to tem even if they will have to pay their own rent. For one to concentrate in his studies, he must feel safe and find shelter as seen in Maslow’s hierarchy of wants. As a plan for the prospective international students, the administration should allocate houses and ensure safety of the students before enrolling them.

It is also recommended that the university should try creating job opportunities or set forth programs that can help the international students in addition to the local students (Kosela, 2018). The percentage rate of students who did not manage to secure any job opportunity is quit alarming with a percentage of 71%. In this recommendation, the administration of NMIT can start business and creating employment opportunity for their students instead of only prioritizing the natives of the region. The nature of the employment should not be cumbersome because all students need time to concentrate on their studies. It should not be ironical that students acquire skills yet they find it difficult secure employment. A good university administration should try to curb the issue of unemployment.

It is also recommended that the university should try to create more awareness strategies since most of the international students are not aware that the university is offering counselling services and support services. It should be on the plan of the university to stipulate programs will help the international students to familiarize with the culture of their new environment. This will help the students to integrate well with the natives in addition to appreciating the diversity if culture.

Despite the fact that the research carried out through survey was comprehensive, there are certain gaps that were left out and can be carried out in future research. The research did not try to investigate the relationship between local students and international students. How do they carry out their activities with the aim of ensuring co –existence? Furthermore, when carrying out research in future, it is recommended that the research should try to compare the performance of the local students with the international students to find the causes of the differing performance.

Due to the limitations experienced in this paper such as cultural bias, absence of reliable data due to lack of previous research in the same area. It is recommended that the future research should try to eliminate this kinds of limitations from its research with the aim of coming up with more relevant data concerning expectations and reality among the international students.

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