Supervising international undergraduate medical students

Research supervision of undergraduate students has been the focus of few studies in the higher education literature. Asian second language students bring linguistic and cultural practices to the supervision process, which have been negatively cast within a discourse of cultural deficit. This interview-based study employing active interview methods and principles of grounded theory for data analysis examines supervisor perceptions of the challenges facing Indonesian students undertaking an MBBS intercalated BMedSci science degree in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science at Melbourne University. This paper reports qualitative analysis of responses by twenty-seven academic supervisors of the benefits and issues facing Indonesian exchange abroad students in this context.