Counselling for International Students in Western Universities: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Counselling Expectations and Services

Facing decreased public funding, Australian and United States universities actively recruit full-fee paying students from Asia. However there are questions regarding the impact of the reduced funding upon the development of appropriate counselling services to meet the international students’ needs. Tinsley’s Expectations about Counselling Scale was employed to quantify the counselling expectations of ethnic Chinese, Australian, and United States university students, and to assess the impact of videos of counselling sessions upon these groups. In follow-up interviews, the participants responded to questions about their attitudes towards university counselling centres, and the counsellor-client interactions depicted on the video. Australian and United States university counsellors also were interviewed about their centres’ accommodations to meet international students’ needs. Implications for university counsellors and administrators are explored.