“When you are in Rome, you behave like the Romans”: International students’ experience of integration policies at a UK university

Isiaka, Abass B. (2025) “When you are in Rome, you behave like the Romans”: International students’ experience of integration policies at a UK university. Genealogy, 9 (1). ISSN 2313-5778

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Abstract

Set within the context of the calls for a critical approach to the integration of international students, this paper draws on decolonial theories to examine the experiences of international students from Asian and African countries as they make sense of institutional policies designed to support their integration. The study uses a phenomenological approach to analyse focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with international postgraduate students. The findings reveal how international students demand the decolonisation of a “Eurocentric” curriculum and a pedagogical framework that acknowledges their experiences and agencies as epistemic equals. Participants expressed diverse opinions about the institution’s academic culture, while inclusion policies are perceived as “tokenistic gestures” that fail to address racial invalidation and microaggressions. Findings from this study suggest the need for institutions in “post-race” times to transcend superficial equality discourses that commodify diversity as “good business sense”, targeting raced, mobile, and gendered “others” for inclusion by situating EDI strategies within a much longer history of global entanglements shaped by colonial, capitalist relations, rationalities, and subjectivities

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Institutional Review Board Statement: The study was conducted in accordance with the Research Ethics Guidelines and approved by Oasis University’s Ethics Committee (protocol code 402180181, 30/5/2019).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	diversity,cultural integration,student experience,policy,international student,epistemic justice,education,sdg 4 - quality education ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3304
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	12 Mar 2025 11:30
Last Modified:	12 Mar 2025 11:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98735
DOI:	10.3390/genealogy9010012

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