International postgraduate students’ challenges at South African Higher Education Institutions Mike Megrove Reddy (D.Litt.) (University of Zululand, South Africa, +2779 422 7650, ReddyMM@unizulu.ac.za) Abstract The author was concerned on the challenges which have been encountered by international postgraduate masters and doctorate students who studied in South Africa and how those challenges negatively affected their academic, personal, social life, and supervision process negatively. The purpose of this paper was to identify the difficulties encountered by international postgraduate masters and doctorate students at South African Higher Education Institutions. The aim was to establish possible solutions to the challenges that international postgraduate masters and doctorate students experience while studying at local universities within South Africa. This was purely a desktop study on international postgraduate masters and doctorate students. The objective was to establish the effects these challenges had on international postgraduate students. Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy of Needs will be used as the theoretical framework for this study. Maslow’s theory of Hierarchy of Needs has five level which were as follows: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. Maslow highlights that in order for higher levels to be achieved, lower level needs to be met first. Local universities and academic institutions need to look for innovative methods which would prove to eliminate many of the challenges which were encountered by our international postgraduate masters and doctorates students. Key words: International, postgraduate students’, challenges, South African, Higher Education institutions

Username
Password