Discourses of Deficit in Higher Degree Research Supervisory Pedagogies for International Students

Abstract

Global student mobility has placed pressure on western universities to recruit students from non-western, non-English-speaking backgrounds. In this article, we argue that language requirements such as the International English Language Testing System bands are underpinned by discourses that privilege western modes of thought. We go on to argue that English language proficiency underpins discourses of deficit that construct non-western students as less able to undertake research programmes. In exploring pedagogical possibilities, we draw on a published story of an international higher degree research student, called Mei, at an Australian university. We question the idea that a research higher degree is more about linguistic skills than it is about research skills, and we argue that rigour, scholarship, and new knowledge constitute the assessable factors in what international higher degree research students produce.