Download or read book International Student Engagement in American Higher Education written by Huijuan Qu and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The variety of international students increases the diversity and complexity of higher education in the United States, known by the feature of multiculturalism (Chow, 2014). The benefits and challenges from this trend are too valuable to be neglected. In terms of benefits, international students gain the chance to have advanced Western higher education; whereas, institutions acquire a more diverse community and receive money for operations. On the other hand, one of the major challenges of the staff members and the international student is clarity of communication to assure that the students' needs are being met. Staff in student affairs is expected to gain the multicultural competence to serve international students and engage students to help them succeed in American campuses. However, on the institutional level, there is a gap in understanding and evaluating the level of international student engagement. As a case study in an American higher education institution, this project is designed to examine the effectiveness of international student engagement through the perspectives of international college students. The data are garnered from students via electronic surveys and follow up semi-structured face-to-face interviews with purposefully selected eight international students. In the first, the quantitative phase finds that most international students are satisfied with the services provided by the Office of International Services at a relatively high engagement level. Then, the follow up qualitative analysis exposes international students' dissatisfaction on the aspects of English language difficulties, sociocultural/social issues, and career development issues. The survey and interview findings from both quantitative and qualitative phases are discussed with references to previous studies, and the results are expected to benefit the international students, staff members, scholars, and higher education institutions in developing international student programs that strengthen support systems and encourage international student engagement. Finally, practical recommendations are provided for related stakeholders.