Navigating Opportunities, Overcoming Challenges: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Asia-Pacific International Postgraduate Students in Australia

With the prominence of international student mobility as a key aspect of internationalization of higher education (OECD, 2022), recent scholarship has examined various dimensions of international students’ lived experiences (Ellis, 2024; Ghazarian, et al., 2024; Mok, et al., 2024; Pearson, et al., 2022; Salinas, et al., 2022; Vidal & Kamp, 2024). Responding to the limitations of existing discourse particularly in the context of international postgraduate students from developing and emerging economies, this transcendental phenomenological study investigated the shared meanings attributed by 15 international postgraduate students from Asia-Pacific in their experiences of studying in Australia. Drawing on Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological framework, five themes describing the lived experiences of the participants emerged: opportunities to earn while studying; access to health, wellbeing, and recreational support; acknowledgment of student agency; adjustment to a multicultural society; and access to a balanced work-life integration. Four themes highlighting how the participants navigated the challenges associated with their experience were generated: prioritizing tasks to optimize time and overall experience, leveraging advanced university infrastructures and comprehensive services, connecting with peers of the same ethnicity, and building professional connections and personal support networks. Findings revealed that as temporary student immigrants, the participants navigated a complex mix of academic and social challenges and opportunities, resulting in varying degrees of adjustment, adaptation, and success. Based on these, practical implications for improving the internationalization strategies of higher education institutions in the Philippines and beyond are discussed.