Malaysian Chinese Students’ Perceptions of What is Necessary for their Academic Success in Australia: A Case Study at One University

There is a lack of research on the phenomenon of overseas students attending university in Western countries. Lecturers need to possess some knowledge of their students values, attitudes, thinkings and behavior. As Hodgkin (1973, P. 435) put it over twenty years ago, educators cannot expect to make much of their students and the types of learning processes, both formal and informal, to which they have been subjected at home as well as abroad. It would certainly be unrealistic to expect that all lecturers would possess such knowledge as it pertains to all of the cultural groups thay teach. What is required, however, is that they be sensitised to the great need for cultural awareness on their part, particularly with regard to their students' approaches to learning.