Page 66 - Movers, Shapers, and Everything in Between: Influencers of the International Student Experience

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Chapter 3
be due to having more experience to draw on, resulting in a greater propensity to write in comments. Conversely, first year students supplied a disproportionately low number of comments, perhaps due to the fact they only had been at the university for several months and had not yet formed an impression.
Learning Satisfaction
For satisfaction with learning, none of the variables were significantly predictive. See Table 3.4 for full results.
Living Satisfaction
Satisfaction with the living experience was predicted by university reputation and the proportion of international undergraduate students. There is a positive relationship between reputation and satisfaction: as the reputation of the university increases, satisfaction with the living experience increases F(1, 1E4) = 8.49, p = 0.0036.
Conversely, there is a negative relationship between the proportion of international students and satisfaction: as the proportion of international students increases, satisfaction with the living experience decreases F (1, 1E4) = 4.44, p = .035. For each one-unit increase in the proportion of international students, there is a .00334 decrease in satisfaction with living experience. In other words, a university that is 10% international would, on average, be rated .0334 points higher than a university that is 20% international on the 1-4 Likert scale used in the survey. See Table 3.4 for full results.
Many comments from the living experience section of the survey related to issues with interaction and integration—areas likely to be affected by the density of international students. One student noted that his university “has one of the most diverse campus cultures, but it would be nice to see some sort of integration programs. For example, I see a lot of Chinese and Arab students always huddling together, it would be nice if the university made it possible for them to integrate easier.” Another student noted she enjoyed the “small class sizes in my department, meaning lots of opportunity to ask questions and