Page 99 - Movers, Shapers, and Everything in Between: Influencers of the International Student Experience

seeks the insights from those who are located on the branch campus, with direct experience with the academic operations and perception of the relationship with the home campus. Including leaders, academic staff, and students in the sample was a way to triangulate data and better understand the various perspectives that shed light on the research questions (Cohen et al., 2011). Limitations of the sample are discussed later in the paper.
The sample included six heads or senior leaders of IBCs (Pro-VCs, Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and CEOs), eight academic leaders (Provosts, Deans, and Heads of faculties, departments, or schools), three junior or mid-career academic staff (professors and lecturers), and nine undergraduate students. Table 5.1 displays the sample characteristics and interview schedule.
The identity of individuals and of the IBCs are anonymized or pseudonymized (for example, the President of an IBC from Australia in Malaysia will be referred to as “the head of an IBC”). Other identifying information is excluded, anonymized, or pseudonymized.
Researchers used semi-structured interviews to explore the research questions to allow for less bias and greater response flexibility (Cohen et al., 2011). The length of the interviews was adjusted according to experience of each interviewee and time constraints. Interviews lasted between 23 minutes and 65 minutes.
Data Collection
The interview instrument contained questions organized by categories and subcategories relevant to the research questions. The categories included IBC Context and Operations, Academic Experience at IBC, and Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Interviews were conducted remotely via BlueJeans, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams—all of which are secure video conferencing platforms—as the COVID-19 pandemic made in-person interviews impossible. Audio of the interviews was recorded and transcribed.
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Effects of COVID-19 on IBCs
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