The Impact of External Stakeholders' Collaboration on International Student Enrollment in the College of Career and Technical Education in a City in the North-Central United States: A Case Study

This intrinsic case study aimed to understand how the external stakeholders' (ESs) collaboration impacts international students’ enrollment in the College of Career and Technical Education (CCTE) in the North Central United States. The stakeholder theory guided this qualitative case study, based on the philosophical assumption expressed in the ontological assumption taken from the social constructivism paradigm (Vygotsky, 1916). The central research question was: How do the collaboration of the external stakeholders of the college of career and technical education, the alums (international students), and their local community leaders impact new students’ enrollment? The objective was to understand this phenomenon and analyze previous research findings in the literature review before finding how the collaboration among the CCTE’s ESs affects new international students' enrollment. Twelve participants, including 10 CCTE alums and two community leaders were selected for this study through the snowball technique or chain sampling procedures. I developed the research questions to elicit ESs’ descriptions of their collaboration and to discover the impact on international students’ enrollment in the CCTE. I used three data collection methods: the reflexive journal for seven participants, two participants for a focus group meeting, and three participants for individual interviews, to strengthen the triangulation required for the scientific viability of the qualitative research. I implemented the data analysis spiral technique, along with NVivo software. The findings suggested that active collaboration occurred between alums from the same field of study, advising was the only support for the new students, and nursing, IT, and auto mechanics alums influenced the new international students’ enrollment.