Identification of issues faced by international students in first year project-based engineering classes

BACKGROUND Project-based courses building on teamwork, communication and collaboration skills are compulsory for all students at The University of Queensland (UQ) where 13% of first-year students identify themselves as international. Many of these students find difficulty in adapting to western culture, in particular the learning culture (Chang & Chin, 1999). Students are often accustomed to the Confucian system which commonly focuses on transmission-based learning (lectures) and assessment through technical competence (exams) and there is little to no team work in this system (Gorry, 2011).