Issues, successes and coping mechanisms non traditional Indian students experience in the context of inclusive practice and internationalisation of higher education in the UK
This study explores the journey of 24 non traditional Indian students who have won a year's Ford Fellowship to do their masters' degree in development in eight different UK universities. The themes in this study revolve around Internationalisation and Widening Participation. I engaged in a longitudinal study (17 months) from a constructivist perspective. The eclectic nature of the data enabled a multi dimensional construction of students' perceptions through academic experiences: focus group interviews in Delhi explored their hopes and fears; questionnaires and follow up meetings a month after their arrival in the UK revealed their perceptions and issues; two sets of eight in depth interviews before Christmas and Easter enabled to further understand their successes, issues, and coping mechanisms. Finally reflective questionnaires at the end of their course provided a global view of their experience. This generated a discussion about the universities' ability to support and maximise learning for this unique group of students, who are very experienced in their field and have great potential, yet who could be considered at risk because of their disadvantaged backgrounds. Although the participants share characteristics with those accounted for in the widening participation discourse, they are not British, don't work or pay fees. They belong to the international population but they are very disadvantaged and most probably first generation literate. By using Bourdieu's field theory, analysing secondary research (Jones E. 2010; Montgomery C. 2010; Basit T. N. and Tomlinson S. 2012) around these themes and comparing them with my findings, these students' voices provide an authentic testimony of the sometimes conflicting constructions of their confrontation with the deficit discourse of the academic audience. This study offers students' unique accounts and insights into equality, diversity and inclusive practices within UK educational institutions.