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Dr Tammie Choi joined Monash University’s Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences (MNHS) Faculty as a lecturer in 2017, after completing her Bachelor, Honours and PhD in Nutrition, Dietetics and Food. With support of the Faculty, and personal experience as an international student herself, she quickly set about establishing the International Students Acculturation Program (ISAP), an innovative cultural mentoring program where Bachelor of Nutrition Science and Master of Dietetics students across all year-levels are brought together and empowered to collectively address the acculturative issues in their nutrition and dietetics training in Australian food and healthcare industries.
The proportion of international students has been steadily growing within the MNHS Faculty and across the University as a whole, predominantly from Asian countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and China. And while the diversity enhances cross-cultural learning, it also presents teaching challenges. Curriculum in the Master of Dietetics program is designed to facilitate development of professional and personal qualities required for dietetic practice in a variety of authentic workplace settings. But during 2020 and 2021, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, border closures and multiple extended lockdowns in Melbourne especially (where the University’s main campuses are located), students were suddenly forced to undertake all of their coursework virtually.
International students were further faced with the grim choice of either returning home and trying to continue their learning offshore, unable to attend the in-person work-integrated learning (WIL), or, if they chose to remain in Melbourne, they then struggled with isolation with minimal social support.
Dr Choi led, coordinated and collaborated with her WIL colleagues to create innovative education strategies that included new offshore public health nutrition WIL in Asia, a new clinical WIL partnership in Singapore, opportunities to be mentored by offshore international alumni students, an international student-specific workshop, and individualised WIL plans to accommodate flexible arrival dates. These new collaborations and strategies proved so successful, in fact, that they have been expanded beyond the height of the pandemic disruptions.
While the onshore international students did not face the same challenges with physical distance, and were able to attend WIL as scheduled, many struggled with social isolation which was affecting their health and wellbeing. It wasn’t uncommon for international students isolated in Australia away from their families, to go months without any physical contact from their teachers or peers. Dr Choi created individualised WIL plans taking into consideration their new learning locations, and organised a summer internship program and a special Mooncake Festival virtual event to help keep her onshore students engaged.
In 2018, Dr Choi was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Diversity and Inclusion Award, and has been invited to talk at other faculties within Monash and at other institutions including Curtin University and Bond University. Her ability to adapt to the changing circumstances brought by the pandemic, and by generating new innovative ideas and projects that recognise and appreciate the students’ cultural knowledge, while also re-engaging international alumni, and allowing the academic staff to focus on teaching, has vastly enhanced the university experience for international higher education students and is an inspiration to all.
Dr Tammie Choi was honored with a 2022 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Education – Innovation in Teaching and Learning.
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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