Abstract
Purpose – In this study, the writing needs of postgraduate research students are explored, so that support structures that enable successful completion rates and student satisfaction can be identified. Postgraduate education is expanding in Malaysian public and private higher education institutions; yet research tends to focus on public institutions, because private institutions have traditionally been oriented towards teaching instead of research. Therefore, this study explores the needs of students in a branch campus of a private overseas university in Malaysia. Methodology - Semi-structured exploratory interviews were carried out with six postgraduate students, so that a deeper understanding of their research writing needs could be obtained. Interviews were then analysed using a general inductive approach. Findings – It was found that students required support in three main areas: writing, supervision and ICT. Students sought English language support and more workshops and programmes which specifically dealt with thesis writing. They also believed that peer support groups would be beneficial. Secondly, more guidance was needed from supervisors to enable greater clarity on writing and institutional processes and procedures. Finally, students wanted greater access to ICT writing tools to facilitate writing and language learning. Significance – The findings of this study are beneficial to institutions seeking to provide greater support for postgraduate students to ensure timely completion rates and greater student satisfaction. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that postgraduate support incorporate 3Ps, i.e., be pedagogically driven; peer oriented; and programmatically implemented.
Highlights
The process of writing a thesis in the English language is regarded as a challenge for many postgraduate students, and those from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) have an extra burden because they need to contend with the linguistic demands of writing in this genre (Li & Vandermensbrugghe, 2011; Phakiti & Li, 2011)
Focus is placed on NESB students to identify areas of support they find important in facilitating the research writing process
This study focused on the writing needs of NESB students in an international branch campus of an overseas university in Malaysia
Summary
The process of writing a thesis in the English language is regarded as a challenge for many postgraduate students, and those from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) have an extra burden because they need to contend with the linguistic demands of writing in this genre (Li & Vandermensbrugghe, 2011; Phakiti & Li, 2011). In Malaysia, which is the context of this study, the focus on postgraduate education is increasing in both public and private institutions of higher learning. One reason for this is the ‘push’ to increase the number of PhD holders to 60,000 by 2023 (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2015). Between 2007 to 2014 alone, the percentage of PhD students increased by 236% (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2015). One of Malaysia’s aspirations was to widen access and participation in higher education and over a ten year period, it has managed to obtain a tenfold increase in Masters and PhD enrolment, ranking it third among other ASEAN countries like Singapore and Thailand (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2015)
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