In the era of internationalization of higher education, a dramatic number of universities have adopted English Medium Instruction (henceforth, EMI). This move involved three key stakeholders, namely, students, lecturers, and administration personnel (Macaro & Rose, 2022). However, in the burgeoning body of literature only the students and lecturers were given abundant attention, leaving an equally significant stakeholder, administration personnel (Lasagabaster, 2022). Such oversight or potential neglect is due to their minimal contribution to the actual teaching-learning process. Despite this situation, it is imperative to recognize that administration personnel facilitate the smooth functioning of universities work outside the classroom (Lasagabaster, 2022). Administration personnels attitudes and mindset towards EMI are salient towards the implementation of EMI-related programs. Thus, we argue that administration personnels are crucial actors in implementing EMI programs as they are first in line in dealing with international students and faculty and are deemed deserving of scholarly attention. In this paper, we investigate the attitudes and mindsets of administration personnels towards the implementation of EMI-programs in a Thai technological university. Involving 50 Thai and international administration personnels from various departments, the study employs a mixed method approach to examine their attitudes and mindsets. Specifically, a researcher-designed questionnaire is employed to obtain administration personnel’s attitudes, and a semi-structured interview is used to draw out administration personnel’s mindset. Descriptive statistics and content analysis are used for data analysis. In this presentation, we report our initial findings. Implications in designing programs for professional development are also provided.

Authors:
Bettizza Escueta, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
Joey Andrew Santos, National Taiwan University of Science & Technology, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Ms Bettizza Escueta is a School Teacher/Instructor at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand

See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule

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