International students in Australian VET: Framing a research project

The latest figures of Australian Education International show there were 175,461 international student enrolments in VET in December 2008 (AEI, 2009). International student enrolments in VET grew by 226.9% between 2002 and 2008. The sharp increase in VET international students has occurred at a time when there is a lack of theoretical and empirical research on the objectives, learning practices and institutional responses of these students. This paper draws from the related literature on international students and international education to argue that in order to capture a full picture of the learning practices of international VET students, it is significant to examine the association between students' motivations to undertake their VET course and their adaptation to the VET curriculum.