An Integrated Bridging Program for International Postgraduate Students

Abstract

International postgraduate students from language backgrounds other than English face difficulties in Australian universities related not only to language but also to learning and relational styles and discipline-specific expectations. Academic staff who supervise these students are often well aware of these issues but may lack specialist skills to help improve outcomes. At The University of Adelaide, collaboration between language and learning staff and discipline specialists has resulted in an integrated model of language and academic skill development which may be widely applicable in the Australian context. The Integrated Bridging Program (IBP) has been trialled in seven faculties and subsequently introduced university-wide. This paper describes the development of the IBP and its 1994 pilot, summarises the evaluative data collected and outlines resulting changes. The final section discusses factors found to have been important to the success of the program and suggests ways in which they may be more generally applicable. © 1996, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.