Expectations of Vietnamese students entering an international university

While the number of locally-based international universities and branches of foreign universities grows in Vietnam, the literature has failed to keep pace with an understanding of students' academic expectations about studying in these institutions. This paper presents findings of a qualitative case study that explored the academic expectations of ten Vietnamese undergraduate business students in transition to a locally-based international university in Vietnam. Expectations were examined in three areas: expectations of lecturers, of university study and of the university experience. While these categories of expectations replicate those in the existing literature, findings in the present study suggest some unique expectations particularly around relationships with lecturers and the challenges inherent in the language of instruction. Implications for how these results can be used to better prepare these types of students for university study are discussed.