The Role of Selected Faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Academic Preparation of Graduate Students From Developing Countries

231 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992.The major research questions investigated in this study are: what are selected faculty at one research university doing, as teachers, advisors, and research directors, to assist graduate students from developing countries? and what attitudes, values and opinions do faculty possess that govern their treatment of these students? A questionnaire was developed to test the hypothesis that (a) there will be no differences amongst faculty as teachers, advisors, and research directors in the amount of academic adjustment and special effort provided to students, and that (b) there is no correlation between the amount of academic adjustment and special effort that faculty provide as teachers, advisors and research directors and the number of students with whom they work.The survey was conducted amongst a random sample of faculty across three colleges. The questionnaire focused on the three functions of faculty--teaching, advising, and research direction. Additionally, four open-ended questions sought information on the opinions of faculty regarding the education of graduate students from developing countries. Faculty in the Colleges of Commerce and Business Administration and Engineering indicate little academic adjustment and special effort as teachers, advisors, and research directors. Faculty in the College of Agriculture indicate the most amount of support in almost all of the areas identified. While few differences exist, correlation tests indicate that faculty in the Colleges of Commerce and Business Administration and Agriculture provide more academic adjustment and special effort when the number of students they worked with increased.Finally, faculty generally believe that graduate students from developing countries should not be educated differently. Concern exists regarding the communication skills of these students across all three colleges. Faculty in the College of Engineering more frequently responded positively to the academic abilities of students, whereas faculty in the College of Agriculture more frequently expressed concern about these abilities.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD