UCL Graduation Ceremony 2024

Dina is delighted that another of her doctoral students, who was also her MRes student, received her doctorate at the UCL graduation ceremony 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall. Many thanks to Dr Jane Allemano, who was the second supervisor, and Dr Paul Temple, an expert on HE – a very helpful advisory team. Many congratulations to Dr Eileen Elizabeth Laffan on her success!

Image above: Dina, Eileen and Jane

Her thesis:

Being and Becoming: Narratives of Chinese international master’s students in UK higher education

Can be accessed on the UCL Library website and it is an important contribution to researching complexities for international students at UK universities. It is of relevance to all academics working with international students.

Here is the abstract:

This thesis is a study of Chinese international master’s students undertaking a master’s degree at a UK higher education institution. This study explores Chinese international master’s students’ perceptions of their experience of an academic sojourn and how these perceptions can inform the professional services of Student Experience.These perceptions are viewed through the lens of ‘bildung’. ‘Bildung’ as an educational concept looks at the transformative educational experience in a holistic manner to comprise the lived experience, these experiences bothacademic and social I term educative practices.Through the concept of ‘bildung’, I formulate a theoretical perspective of ‘being and becoming’ for the Chinese international student addressing the self, motivation as investment andemancipation and freedom through educative practices. This study is set in the internationalisation of student experience with a specific focus on professional services in higher education institutions. The participants’ narratives focus on the student experience, addressing their studies and experience of living and studying abroad. The participants reveal perceptions of the self that transform through this experience and are an example of ‘being and becoming’. This research is undertaken as a narrative study; qualitative semi- structured interviews are used to collect the narratives of five Chinese studentsstudying at a UK higher education institution fortheir master’s degree. The interviews are analysed using narrative analysis, and a narrative for each participant is co-constructed. This thesis aims to provide insights and develop a theoretical perspective in the field of internationalisation of student experience and apply this perspective to inform the development of professional services in Student Experience.