"I wonder should I go or should I stay...": Retention of higher education students in an Australian University

The overall objective of this chapter is to explore the relationship between internationalised curriculum, international students' satisfaction with the internationalised curriculum being provided by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Melbourne, Australia and international students' retention. We define student retention as the continuous enrolment in courses until graduation. Mixed-methods research was employed in the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data in this study. The quantitative component consisted of data from Higher Education Onshore - Student Experience Survey run by Survey Services Centre of RMIT University in 2012 and the qualitative component included analysis of interview data. The influence of internationalised curriculum on student retention, which is the main goal of this study, has not been addressed in previous studies. Thus, in this chapter, we explore the relationship between internationalised curriculum and student retention. In this chapter we focus on the academic approach, course content and teaching methods in relation to curriculum and their relationship with students' retention. We report significant insights into understanding the importance of different elements of curriculum affecting student retention. In this chapter it has been assumed that the curriculum at RMIT University has been internationalised, therefore, practical outcomes may result from this study with regards to understanding the components of the internationalised curriculum and their relationship with student retention. This may assist to create better institutional policies and inform better decision making for university officials and administrators as they strive to implement such internationalised endeavours.