The ULTSEC has awarded strategic project funding to Karolien Jordens, Postgraduate Administrator in the Institute of Cellular Medicine, for a joint project between FMS, HaSS, SAgE and the EDI committee. This strategic project is called “Postgraduate study in Newcastle: the inter-cultural experience (PG-Nice)” and its aim is to investigate the cultural and linguistic difficulties international students across the University are faced with and how these difficulties affect their experience abroad.

Recruitment, retention and completion of international postgraduate students are indicators of a University’s research health. In addition to making important contributions academically and financially, these students are a barometer of our worldwide standing. Anecdotal experience suggests that our international students can be confronted with cultural and linguistic difficulties, and we hypothesise they affect learning gain. To provide future students with the best experience, we will investigate the linguistic and cultural challenges of our students and how they affect postgraduate academic performance so we can improve it for the benefit of the students and the institution.