Higher Degree Students (HDR) during COVID-19

Disrupted routines, uncertain futures, and active strategies of resilience and belonging

Authors

  • Catherine Gomes https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3429-9330
  • Natalie Ann Hendry RMIT University
  • Ruth De Souza RMIT University
  • Larissa Hjorth RMIT University
  • Ingrid Richardson RMIT University
  • Dan Harris RMIT University
  • Gretchen Coombs RMIT University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v11iS2.3552

Keywords:

COVID-19, challenges, resilience, belonging, higher degree by research students

Abstract

The wellbeing of higher degree research (HDR) students, or postgraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic has been of concern. In Australia, international students have queued for food parcels, while headlines report stark drops in international enrolments and the financial bottom line of universities. We undertook a pilot study using ethnographic interview methods to understand the lived experiences of current international and domestic HDR students at an Australian university in Melbourne, from June to August 2020 (n=26). In this paper, we discuss domestic and international students’ experiences during the pandemic. International HDR students faced similar challenges to domestic students, but experienced further stressors as temporary migrants. We discuss their experiences in relation to resilience, understood as a relational and collective quality. We suggest that institutions develop policies and programmes to address resilience and build students’ sense of belonging and connection, informed by how students cope with challenges such as COVID-19.

Author Biographies

  • Natalie Ann Hendry, RMIT University

    NATALIE ANN HENDRY, PhD, is Vice Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Media and Communication. Her research explores everyday social media and digital technology practices in the context of critical approaches to education, mental health, media, wellbeing, youth studies and policy. This draws on her experience prior to academia, working in community education, secondary schools and hospital settings, and consulting for health organisations and industry. Email: natalie.hendry@rmit.edu.au

  • Ruth De Souza, RMIT University

    RUTH DE SOUZA, PhD, is a highly experienced multidisciplinary educator, researcher and consultant, specialising in cross cultural engagement, cultural safety, and the interface of digital technologies within CALD communities. Her background is in nursing where she has extensive experience as a clinician, researcher and academic in New Zealand and Australia and has published work on community engagement in the arts. Ruth is a 2020 RMIT Vice Chancellor's Fellow, based in the School of Art. Her fellowship project aims to engage health professionals in finding new ways to understand, co-design and implement sustainable cultural safety initiatives in a range of health contexts. Email: ruth.desouza@rmit.edu.au

  • Larissa Hjorth, RMIT University

    LARISSA HJORTH, PhD, is Distinguished Professor, digital ethnographer, socially-engaged artist, and director of the Design & Creative Practice (DCP) research platform at RMIT University. Hjorth has two decades experience leading collaborative digital and mobile media projects that innovative methods to understand intergenerational and cross-cultural relationships around play, loss and intimacy. She has lead 20 national and international research projects in locations such as Japan, South Korea, China and Australia. Hjorth has published over 100 publications on the topic—recent publications includeHaunting Hands (with Cumiskey, Oxford Uni Press), Understanding Social Media (with Hinton, 2nd Edition, Sage), Creative Practice Ethnographies (with Harris, Jungnickel and Coombs, Rowman & Little) and Ambient Play (with Richardson, MIT Press). Email: larissa.hjorth@rmit.edu.au

  • Ingrid Richardson, RMIT University

    INGRID RICHARDSON, PhD, is a Professor of Digital Media in the School of Media & Communication at RMIT University. She has a broad interest in the ‘human-technology relation’ and has published widely on topics such as virtual and augmented reality, games, mobile media and small-screen practices, urban screens, remix culture and web-based content creation and distribution. She is co- author of Gaming in Social, Locative and Mobile Media (Palgrave, 2014), Ambient Play (MIT, 2020) and Understanding Games and Game Cultures (Sage, 2021). Email: ingrid.richardson@rmit.edu.au

  • Dan Harris, RMIT University

    DAN HARRIS, PhD, is a Professor, the Associate Dean, Research & Innovation, School of Education at RMIT University, an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and Co-Director of Creative Agency research lab. Harris is editor of the book series Creativity, Education and the Arts (Palgrave), has authored over 100 articles/book chapters, 17 books, plays, films and spoken word performances, and is a member of the Digital Ethnographic Research Centre (DERC) Executive. Email: dan.harris@rmit.edu.au

  • Gretchen Coombs, RMIT University

    GRETCHEN COOMBS, PhD, is a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Design and Creative Practice Enabling Capability Platform at RMIT. She researches socially engaged art and design practices in the US, the UK and Australia, with a particular focus on how they are practiced in urban contexts. Gretchen has a PhD in social and cultural anthropology and a MA in visual criticism: her writing uses a combination of ethnographic methods and visual analysis. Her co-edited book for Routledge, Undesign: Critical Practices at the Intersection of Art and Design due out later this year. She is currently completing her monograph, The Lure of the Social: Encounters with Contemporary Artists (Intellect 2018), which is an experimental ethnography of artists working at the intersection of art, aesthetics, and politics. Email: gretchen.coombs@rmit.edu.au

References

Anderson, J., & Burgess, H. (2011). Developing emotional intelligence, resilience and skills for maintaining personal wellbeing in students of health and social care. The Higher Education Academy. Social Policy and Social Work (SWAP) and MHHE – Enhancing Learning and Teaching About Mental Health in Higher Education. http:www.mhhe.heacademy.ac.uk./silo/files/resilience-resourcesheetpdf.

Berg, L. & Farbenblum, B. (2020). As if we weren’t humans: The abandonment of temporary migrants in Australia during COVID-19. Migrant Worker Justice Initiative. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593f6d9fe4fcb5c458624206/t/5f6056e68758b84c79540c5c/1600149242800/As+if+we+weren%2019t+humans+Report.pdf

Browning M. H, Larson LR, Sharaievska I, Rigolon A, McAnirlin O, Mullenbach L, et al. (2021) Psychological impacts from COVID-19 among university students: Risk factors across seven states in the United States. PLoS ONE, 16(1): Article e0245327.

Bryom, T., & Lightfoot, N. (2013). interrupted trajectories: The impact of academic failure on the social mobility of working-class students. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34(5–6): 812–828.

Castells, M. (1997). The power of identity. The Information Age: Economy, society and culture, Vol. II,. Blackwell.

DeSouza, R., Hendry, N., Stevens, R., Gomes, C., Harris, A., Hjorth, L., Richardson, I., & Kokanovic, R. (2020). In a time of uncertainty: supporting belonging and wellbeing for HDR students. Melbourne: RMIT University.

Edwards, K. (2009). Passion, resilience, and caring: Voices of African American nursing faculty in higher education. ABNF Journal, 20(67).

Eve, M. (2002). Is friendship a sociological topic? European Journal of Sociology, 43(3), 386-409.

Eve, M. (2010). Integrating via networks: Foreigners and others. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33(7), 1231-1248.

Gibson, J. & Moran, A. (2020, April 4). As coronavirus spreads, “it's time to go home” Scott Morrison tells visitors and international students. ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-03/coronavirus-pm-tells-international-students-time-to-go-to-home/12119568

Gomes, C. (2020). Outside the classroom: The language of English and its impact on international student mental wellbeing in Australia. Journal of International Students, 10(4), 934–953. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v10i4.1277

Gomes, C. (2018). Siloed diversity: Transnational migration, digital media and social networks. Palgrave Pivot.

Gomes, C. (2017). Transient mobility and middle class identity: Media and migration in Australia and Singapore. Palgrave Macmillan.

Gomes, C. (2015). Negotiating everyday life in Australia: Unpacking the parallel society inhabited by Asian international students through their social networks and entertainment media use. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(4), 15-536.

Grüttner, M. (2019). Belonging as a resource of resilience: Psychological wellbeing of international and refugee students in study preparation at German higher education institutions. Student Success, 10(3), 36-44.

Leong, C. H. & Ward, C. (2000). Identity conflict in sojourners. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 25(6),763-776.

McKenna, K. M., Hashimoto, D. A., Maguire, M. S., & Bynum, W. E. (2016). The missing link: Connection is the key to resilience in medical education. Academic Medicine, 91(9), 1197-1199.

Morales, E. (2008). Exceptional female students of color: Academic resilience and gender in higher education. Innovative Higher Education, 33, 197–213.

O’Reilly, K. (2012). Ethnographic methods (2nd Ed.). Routledge.

Pieloch, K. A., McCullough, M. B., & Marks, A. K. (2016). Resilience of children with refugee statuses: A research review. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 57(4), 330–339.

Ploner, J. (2017). Resilience, moorings and international student mobilities: Exploring biographical narratives of social science students in the UK. Mobilities, 12(3), 425-444.

Richardson, I., Hendry, N. A., Gomes, C., Coombs, G., Hjorth, L., DeSouza, R. & Harris, A. (2020). HDR belonging: Practices and perceptions during COVID-19: Report 2 – August 2020. RMIT University.

Scarf, D., Moradi, S., McGaw, K., Hewitt, J., Hayhurst, J. G., Boyes, M., ... & Hunter, J. A. (2016). Somewhere I belong: Long‐term increases in adolescents’ resilience are predicted by perceived belonging to the in‐group. British Journal of Social Psychology, 55(3), 588-599.

Shield, R. W. (2004). The retention of Indigenous students in higher education: Historical issues, federal policy, and Indigenous resilience. Journal of College Student Retention Research Theory and Practice, 6, 111–127.

Sinanan, J., & Gomes, C. (2020). “Everybody needs friends”: Emotions, social networks and digital media in the friendships of international students. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(5), 674-691.

Studies in Australia (2020). The facts and figures of international students in Australia. https://www.studiesinaustralia.com/Blog/australian-education-news/the-facts-and-figures-of-international-students-in-australia

Yue, A. (2018). Media, mobility, and resilience among diasporic young people. International Journal of Communication, 12(2018), 4085–4105.

Downloads

Published

2021-07-19

Issue

Vol. 11 No. S2 (2021): International Education in the Time of Global Disruptions: COVID-19 and its Impact on International Students

Section

Research Articles (English)

Categories

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Journal of International Students

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

All published articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Unported License.

How to Cite

Higher Degree Students (HDR) during COVID-19: Disrupted routines, uncertain futures, and active strategies of resilience and belonging. (2021). Journal of International Students, 11(S2), 19-37. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v11iS2.3552