Student agency for intercultural adaptability in international programs: Insights into internationalization at home in Vietnam

Despite new developments and a growing commitment to internationalization of higher education at the government and institutional levels, Vietnam remains largely on the periphery of existing scholarship on international higher education. Even though students are both key actors and beneficiaries of internationalization at home, insufficient attention is paid by policy makers and training institutions in Vietnam to student experiences and engagement in international programs. The study reported in this paper responds to this critical gap and explores student agency in navigating intercultural adaptability (IA). It draws on 80 interviews with different stakeholders in eight international programs across five Vietnamese universities. Using agency theory, student IA has been unpacked in specific ecological circumstances in terms of (i) how student agency for IA has enacted; and (ii) what supportive interventions have been created for student agency enactment in international programs. The study provides original insights into how individual aspirations for international programs, agentic life and professional history have influenced students’ agentic engagement in IA. It sheds light on the ways in which access to and capacity to influence supportive spaces in terms of language support, culturally responsive pedagogy, career orientation and intercultural exchange programs, have enabled students to reinforce their agency in IA.