The influence of teaching and assessment practices
on the performance of International
students in Commerce subjects

Enrolments of international full-fee students have increased in this university's College of Business over the period 2001 to 2004 from 100 to 300 new entrants. Preliminary research showed that international students who had come via the NZ secondary school system had much lower success rates in first year Commerce papers than did equivalently qualified local students, with those without a pass in the school leaving exams in an "English-rich" subject being significantly less successful than those with such a pass. The University therefore decided that International students entering with school leaving qualifications must include a pass in an "English rich" subject, taking effect from 2003. The overall level of performance of first year International students in the B.Com. degree now matches that of equivalently qualified local students. However, the success of international students is not universal and varies amongst the different first year Commerce courses (in Economics, Accounting, Management and Management Science). This paper considers various aspects of the teaching (lectures, tutorials, Web CT, etc) and assessment (nature and weight of assessment items, attention to English fluency) of students in first year Commerce papers in order to explain the variation in the performance of international students.