Description
Malaysia aspires to be internationally recognized as an excellent higher education hub and high-quality education provider. The number of international student enrolments is often used as a benchmark of its internationalization policy success. Although statistics show that the enrollment pattern was encouraging, it decreased steadily even before the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been cases where international students abandoned their education pursuits in Malaysia, left without completing their studies, and moved to other countries. Investigating the phenomenon of international student withdrawals is essential to understanding the causes. Such an investigation is best conducted from the perspective of the former students themselves.
Thus, this book examines the lived experience of a group of Malaysia’s former international students who moved to a lesser-known island state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to continue their higher education pursuits. The investigation adopts a phenomenological approach to bring the least-heard voices of international students forward. In-depth interviews were conducted to illicit descriptions of the students’ experiences.
Descriptions of lived experiences revealed five emerging themes: student pass-related experience, faculty experience, governance and institution experience, society experience, and admission policy-related experience. This book contributes to the body of knowledge by providing the first insight into international student withdrawals and their impacts on the higher education sector in Malaysia. The findings may help policymakers and practitioners consider the dynamics of international student withdrawal and the current policy.
