Exploring the interactions and attitudes of international and domestic students in a New Zealand tertiary institution

In the last decade there has been rapid growth of the New Zealand export education industry. This, combined with the current environment where tertiary classroom interaction and friendships may lead to future global business relationships, has meant that understanding interactions and attitudes between local and overseas students has become particularly relevant. This paper explores the nature and level of interaction between international and domestic students both within a tertiary classroom environment and a social context. Eighty-eight students enrolled in a business school at a New Zealand tertiary institution were surveyed to determine their current level of interaction with students from the same and different ethnic groups. Additionally, attitudes that the student groups held towards each other were analysed as moderating factors of cross-cultural interaction. It was found that interaction primarily occurred between students of the same student group and when students did interact with those from different ethnic backgrounds, it tended to be for academic rather than social activities. As expected, the attitudes and perceptions of both student groups regarding each other were established to be generally positive, suggesting the lack of interaction is not attitudinally based. Thus additional examination of factors limiting student interaction is warranted. Moreover, it is proposed that future research should investigate the impact of interventionist strategies implemented by tertiary institutions to encourage interaction between different student groups.