As with all research, there are limitations to this study that should be borne in mind when
considering the findings. First, the study reports on an international placement program at a
single university and may not therefore be representative of international placement
experiences generally. Generalization and representativeness were not outcomes this study
was designed to produce – the qualitative design aimed to simply report the experiences of
this particular group of students participating in this specific initiative. Second, only the
experiences of the students are reported here, not the preceptors hosting the students during
their placements. The experiences of the preceptors would be well worth understanding, as
they are pivotal players in any placement experience. It is possible that while students had a
positive experience, the preceptors could have experienced other difficulties or issues in
managing a student from another country and system that might need to be addresses or
mitigated to ensure program sustainability and ongoing success. This was beyond the scope
of the grant supporting this evaluation, however ongoing evaluations of future cohorts will
provide opportunity to explore that aspect of international placements in more detail. An
interesting dimension to explore in future research would be comparisons of student
experiences by location of placement, particularly given the inherent difference one might
expect between locations such as New Zealand and South Africa. That was not possible with
this study, as the de-identified nature of the focus group participants and transcriptions used
in the analysis prevented such data being collected. Finally, we were unable to compare the
experiences of those students who undertook international placements with those who
experienced domestic placements. This would be a valuable stream of future research that
might elicit distinctions between the international and domestic placement experience that
may not have been apparent in this analysis.