“As soon as you walk in the door, you’ll find yourself sucked into the vortex of the very busy college that you work in…”
If you’ve ever worked in a student services role, this scenario may feel familiar. Can’t leave your phone for more than 5 minutes in case there’s a crisis that needs your input? Are you shifting between mundane admin systems and high-level strategy, all whilst keeping an eye on international trends, migration rule changes, accessibility requirements and academic policy? You’re not alone.
As the 33rd ISANA Conference brings together student services professionals from around the region this week, we’re wrapping up interviews with people supporting the international student experience across multiple countries in the Asia-Pacific. We’re not quite ready to share the full analysis yet (you’ll have to join us at the APAIE conference next March for that!), but some fascinating patterns are emerging already.
A day in the life of student support
“You’re going to be me for the day? When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a packed calendar. Zoom meetings, on-camera all day, very little break. Make sure you have a bottle of water and something in the fridge, otherwise you might not be eating and drinking.”
Our approach to this research comes from practice theory (Kemmis, 2014) and brings in a technique called ‘Interview To The Double’ (Nicolini, 2009) to get to the heart of what happens in student support teams. The concept is simple: interviewees instruct the interviewer on how to act in their role for the day, in such careful detail that no one in the workplace will suspect anything.
In practice, this means we get very specific, very quickly: from one interview to another, we’re listening to the tangled complexity of childcare drop-offs, calendar juggling, team-supporting, fire-fighting, strategy-making, graduation speech writing, and everything in between.
Fragile connections: people, processes, technology
The breadth and complexity of student services functions has been impressive in these interviews, encompassing specialist areas like sexual and mental health, domestic violence and disability support as well as more familiar activities like academic support and building social connection. Whether student counsellors or directors of international, these roles cover the whole student journey, from pre-arrival to career support.
However, this broad remit also exposes gaps where international teams have borne the brunt of COVID disruptions and ongoing uncertainty in the sector. Whilst mature, established teams can support each other through complex student case management and ensure continuity during a crisis, teams who have lost resources or seen focus shift to other institutional priorities face ongoing knowledge gaps and reactive fire-fighting, with no scope to look to long-term needs.
Even well-resourced teams can be constrained by poorly considered policies, clumsy processes and technology failures, where the goodwill and hard work of dedicated individuals bridges institutional gaps between systems, staff, and students. This human sticky-tape can mask a lack of investment in the right systems or a culture that doesn’t support the specific needs of international students, or indeed the benefits they can bring to a university community.
View from the bridge: advocacy, planning, and prevention
Even though we weren’t specifically asking about it, there is clearly a lot of excellent practice among those we interviewed, too. Great student support runs like a well-oiled machine, connecting people through well-designed processes and systems that mean specialist professionals can focus on what they do best, instead of fixing issues that are getting in the way.
When student support practices are well connected across multiple functions, teams can move from reactive to proactive work, with time and skills to evaluate, review feedback, and plan ahead for different scenarios. They can design and implement prevention programs, not just respond to crises, and advocate on behalf of international students as well as safeguarding, educating, and supporting them through their experiences.
As we wrap up the fieldwork, we find ourselves with a renewed respect for the undersung roles in student services. Their work may not always be visible, but it plays a crucial role in supporting international student experiences, from welcome and onboarding, to wellbeing, academic progress and indeed every aspect of retention. We can’t wait to share more with you in March next year!
