Supervising International Graduate Students in Sport Management: Perspectives of Experienced Advisors

Abstract

This study examined the perspectives of sport management academicians regarding their experiences supervising international graduate students. Fifteen experts were interviewed and provided their perspectives on practices used in international student involvement—specifically, student identification, recruitment, acceptance, orientation, progress, and retention, and the inherent challenges and benefits. The primary challenges cited by the majority of participants were language and cultural differences in learning; however, all participants concurred that the benefits of supervising international students far outweighed the challenges. These benefits included, but were not limited to, bringing international and global perspectives into the learning environment, which was positive for both students and professors. Findings from this study may provide program administration with insights on key factors affecting the quality of delivery of sport management education to international students. Consequently, high-quality programs can be developed to meet the needs of students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds.