Internationalising the University: The Chinese Context

Internationalising the University: The Chinese Context

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Internationalising the University The Chinese Context Edited by

Tricia Coverdale-Jones and

Paul Rastall University of Portsmouth

Selection and editorial matter © Tricia Coverdale-Jones and Paul Rastall 2009 Chapters © their individual authors 2009 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN-13: 978-0-230-20351-8 ISBN-10: 0-230-20351-5

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Contents List of Figures

vii

List of Tables

ix

Preface

x

Acknowledgements

xi

Notes on Contributors

xii

Introduction Cooperation with Chinese Universities – Issues and Trends Paul Rastall

1

Theme I Institutional Perspectives 1 Conceptions of Internationalisation and Their Implications for Academic Engagement and Institutional Action: A Preliminary Case Study Yvonne Turner and Sue Robson 2 Chinese Universities’ Motivations in Transnational Higher Education and Their Implications for Higher Education Marketisation Lin Zheng 3 The Internationalisation of Higher Education in China: The Case of One University Junju Wang 4 Global Connections – Local Impacts: Trends and Developments for Internationalism and CrossBorder Higher Education Don Olcott, Jr 5 Using Policy Initiatives to Support Both Learning Enhancement and Language Enhancement at a Hong Kong University Carmel McNaught and Andy Curtis

13

33

57

72

85

Theme II Student and Staff Perspectives 6 Cultivators, Cows and Computers: Chinese Learners’ Metaphors of Teachers Martin Cortazzi, Lixian Jin and Wang Zhiru v

107

vi Contents

7 The Dissonance between Insider and Outsider Perspectives of the ‘Chinese Problem’: Implications for One of the UK’s Largest Undergraduate Programmes Paul Vincent Smith and Xiaowei Zhou 8 Decoding Students’ Value Orientations in Contemporary China Shu Yang

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147

Theme III Practical Approaches 9 Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural Barriers to Integration: An Investigation of Two Models Siobhan Devlin and Nicola Peacock 10 Building on Experience: Meeting the Needs of Chinese Students in British Higher Education Viv Edwards and An Ran 11 Chinese Learners and Interactive Learning William Littlewood Afterword: Responses to Internationalisation in the UK and the International Context and a Survey on Responses to Intercultural Communication Teaching Tricia Coverdale-Jones

165

185 206

223

Biographical Details of Authors

239

Index

248

Figures Figure 2.1 Programmes of Chinese universities Figure 3.1

52

Growth in the numbers of overseas academic visitors

65

Figure 3.2

Changes in the number of international conferences

65

Figure 3.3

Growth in the numbers of academic visits abroad

66

Figure 3.4 Improvement in student mobility (2003–7) Figure 5.1 Figure 5.2

A model of an aligned curriculum (after Biggs, 2003)

90

Programme review process stipulated by the Integrated Framework

91

Figure 5.3 Timeline for policy development at CUHK Figure 6.1

66

95

Official metaphors for teachers in China (after Buley-Meissner, 1991; Cortazzi and Jin, 1999)

117

Characteristics of ‘good teachers’ rated by Chinese and British university students in questionnaires (Cortazzi and Jin, 1996a, 2001)

118

Figure 6.3

Metaphors for good teachers elicited from university students in different countries, in order of frequency (after Cortazzi and Jin, 1999)

119

Figure 6.4

A cultural model of core characteristics of teachers in Chinese metaphors

125

Figure 6.2

Figure 7.1 The research dyad Figure 7.2

132

Different conceptualisations of university education

Figure 8.1 Underlying structure of the value orientations Figure A.1 Figure A.2

142 156

Number of students studying Chinese in UK HEIs Source: CILT (2007).

224

Numbers of Asian students in UK HEIs in 2006 Source: Universities UK (n.d.).

226

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viii Figures

Figure A.3 Figure A.4

Responses to the question ‘How do you think about your home country now?’

231

Responses to the question ‘Do you think learning about cultural differences has helped you to understand the new culture more easily?’

231

Figure A.5 Sources of stress and ways of dealing with these

233

Tables Table 2.1

A comparison of Chinese universities’ motivations in TNHE

42

Table 2.2 A summary of the questionnaire data

42

Table 2.3

Models of Chinese foreign cooperation programme

42

Table 3.1 Targets of Internationalisation by 2010

62

Table 3.2 Progress in receiving international visitors

64

Table 5.1

The Integrated Framework and the three-stage conceptual change model

92

Table 8.1 Chinese Value Survey results (N=253)

152

Table 8.2 Top 10 most favoured values (N=253)

153

Table 8.3 Bottom 10 least favoured values (N=253)

153

Table 8.4 Top 10 most favoured values (N=58)

153

Table 8.5 Bottom 10 least favoured values (N=58)

154

Table 8.6 Gender differentiated top 5 (English majors)

155

Table 11.1 Table 11.2

Table 11.3 Table 11.4

Students’ attitudes to active and interactive learning

208

Features of English classes valued most by students in Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland China and Japan

209

Students’ views of factors which hinder participation in class

210

Students’ views of teaching strategies which support participation in class

211

ix

Preface As China has opened up to the world, Western and Chinese institutions have rapidly developed and expanded their links. While student recruitment and study opportunities remain major issues and strong financial considerations remain important, the nature and aims of cooperation with China and other Far East countries are changing rapidly. As this volume shows, much has been learnt about how institutions must adapt and evolve to meet these changing circumstances not only in curriculum and teaching delivery but also in partnership arrangements and the nature of the relationships between educational partners. At the same time, there is growing awareness of the tensions between financial motivations and educational excellence, between the move to a mass market and quality concerns, and between niche employer demands and institutional capacity to respond. All the contributors to this volume show a deep awareness not only of the educational issues but also of the wider social and economic realities and demands on education in an increasingly international context. The writers in this book show great good will and friendliness between Western and Chinese colleagues and institutions, but it is easy to foresee further tensions and changing roles as relationships become more equal and more reciprocal and as power relationships change. This volume shows areas for future research and for development of mutual understanding and benefit, and it shows the many things we do not know. Above all, it shows the needs for a willingness to innovate and adapt to new circumstances and for ongoing determination to enhance friendly cooperation.

x

Acknowledgements The editors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of colleagues at the University of Portsmouth in the production of this volume as well as the discussions with, and comments of, many who have taken part in our conferences and workshops. We wish to thank colleagues who helped with the selection of papers arising from the 2006 Portsmouth conference ‘Responding to the Needs of the Chinese Learner: Internationalising the University’, which formed the basis for this volume – Rose Clark, Robin Melrose and John Naysmith. Thanks are due also to Michelle Matthews who helped with the typescript. Thanks also to Rob Hobbs for the cover photograph. We are particularly grateful to our Chinese colleagues in many institutions who have increased our understanding of many aspects of Chinese Higher Education. University of Portsmouth June 2008

Tricia Coverdale-Jones Paul Rastall

xi

Notes on Contributors Martin Cortazzi is a visiting professor in the CAL at Warwick University, UK, and at a number of key universities in China. He is also Academic Advisor for English at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. He has taught applied linguistics courses for English teachers in Britain, China, Turkey, Lebanon, Malaysia, Singapore, Iran, Brunei, Norway, Cyprus, and elsewhere. Martin has published books and articles on narrative analysis, the application of metaphor analysis, issues in language and education such as literacy, vocabulary learning, and cultures of learning. His current research examines narratives and students’ metaphors as a way to explore issues in intercultural experience, identity, and cultures of learning. Tricia Coverdale-Jones is a principal lecturer in EFL in the School of Languages and Area Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK. She is also the Faculty eLearning Coordinator. With a long-standing interest in eLearning, CALL, and using computer-mediated communication in various forms, she has an interest in cross-cultural issues in online contexts. Tricia is also the Course Leader for a BA degree on which many international students study. She was awarded a learning and teaching award by the University of Portsmouth in 2007 for her work in raising the profile of international students’ needs and in the dissemination of good practice to colleagues. She co-edited a special issue of the journal Language, Culture and Curriculum on the Chinese learner in 2006, with Dr Paul Rastall. She is also a member of the editorial review panel for the journal Asian Journal of English Language Teaching (AJELT). Andy Curtis is currently the Director of the English Language Teaching Unit at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is also an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at CUHK. Before returning to Hong Kong, he was the Executive Director of the School of English at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, from 2002 to 2005. He has published in a wide range of journals on English language education, teacher professional development, and language programme development. xii

Notes on Contributors xiii

Dr Siobhan Devlin is a principal lecturer, and Learning, Teaching and Assessment Manager in the School of Computing and Technology at the University of Sunderland, UK. In 2003 she undertook a two-year University Teaching Fellowship study into the experience of and provision for international students at the university. She spent 4 years as a member of the AGCAS Internationalisation Task Group. Her research interests also include the impact of language and culture on e-communication and e-learning. Viv Edwards is Professor of Language in Education at the University of Reading, UK, where she is also Director of the National Centre for Language and Literacy. She is Editor of the international journal Language and Education and is Series Editor for the New Perspectives in Language and Education series. She has published and researched very widely in the areas of linguistic diversity, language and education, and literacy learning. Her most recent book, Multilingualism in the EnglishSpeaking World (2004), was selected as the British Association for Applied Linguistics’ book of the year 2005. Dr Lixian Jin is Reader in Linguistics & Health Communication at De Montfort University, UK, and a visiting professor at a number of key universities in China. She is an Executive editorial board member for International Journal of Language & Communication disorders, UK and USA; the Review Editor for Asian Journal of English Language Teaching (AJELT), Hong Kong; and a board member for The East Asian Learner, UK. Lixian has taught applied linguistics courses and trained English teachers and speech and language therapists at universities in China, Cyprus, Turkey, Hong Kong, and Britain. She has also been appointed as an external examiner for research students and for degree programmes in British universities. William Littlewood taught languages at secondary schools in the UK before taking up a post in teacher education at the University College of Swansea, Wales. He moved to Hong Kong in 1991 to participate in a curriculum development project for English and has worked there since then. He is now involved in pre- and in-service teacher education in the Department of English at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Carmel McNaught is Director and Professor of Learning Enhancement in the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research (CLEAR) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was formerly Head of Professional Development in Learning Technology Services at RMIT University,

xiv Notes on Contributors

Melbourne, Australia. Her current research interests include evaluation of innovation in higher education, strategies for embedding learning support into the curriculum, and understanding the broader implementation of the use of technology in higher education. Dr Don Olcott, Jr, is Chief Executive of The Observatory of Borderless Higher Education (OBHE) in London, UK. He serves on the UK’s Council of Validating Universities (CVU), the Board of Directors of the University of London’s Distance Education Council, and the Board of the Open University. He is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA) in UK. Don is immediate past-president of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) and currently serves as Chairman of the USDLA Board of Directors. Professor An Ran is currently Dean of School of International Education at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou. Her main research interests are multicultural education and intercultural communication. Currently, she is the principle researcher on several national research projects on the intercultural communication competence of international students in China. Her publications are in the areas of cultural awareness, educational marketing, teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and intercultural communication. Dr Paul Rastall is a principal lecturer and Faculty International Coordinator at the University of Portsmouth, UK. While he has an academic background and numerous publications in English and Linguistics, he has had many years of experience both in running university programmes for Chinese and other international students as a Divisional Head and in promoting recruitment in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and elsewhere, and in developing institutional partnership arrangements with Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan HE providers and government agencies. With Tricia Coverdale-Jones, he has organised three international conferences on the needs of Chinese learners and also co-edited a special edition of Language, Culture, and Curriculum with her on the same theme. Sue Robson is Head of the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences and a member of the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University, UK. Her current research interests include the internationalisation of higher education, the role of learning conversations in professional development, and teaching and assessing for successful learning in higher education.

Notes on Contributors xv

Dr Yvonne Turner works as a lecturer in Management at Newcastle University Business School, UK, where she teaches Cross-cultural Management and Research Methods with a special focus on Business in China. Her research interests focus on cultural pedagogy, cross-cultural learning and management, and the internationalisation of higher education. Her publications include Education in the New China: Shaping Ideas at Work and Internationalizing the University: An Introduction for University Teachers and Managers. Paul Vincent Smith is currently the Student Support Officer for the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, UK, and a doctoral student in the School of Education at the same university. Previously, he was Director of the English Language Centre at the Central European University in Warsaw, where he taught academic writing for 3 years. He has one prior publication, joint-editing (with Sławomir Kapralski) a 2002 collection of essays from Masters students at CEU, called Democracies, Markets, Institutions (IFiS Press, Warsaw). Dr Junju Wang is the Professor of applied linguistics and Deputy Dean of the School of Foreign Languages of Shandong University, Peoples’ Republic of China. Her research interests include second language acquisition, EFL teaching and learning, teacher development, and language testing and assessment. Dr Junju Wang is the author of From Ideas to Text: A Cognitive Study of English Writing Processes’, and the co-author of ‘Academic English Writing. She is also the editor of several books and her published articles appear in both domestic and international journals. Dr Junju Wang is a member of Asian TEFL Association and Hong Kong Association of Applied Linguistics. Professor Shu Yang is Dean of the School of Foreign Studies of China University of Mining and Technology (2000–) and Vice Dean of Foreign Languages Department, Xuzhou Normal University (1995–9). She was a visiting professor to Manchester Metropolitan University during 1997–8 and to Cambridge (1999, summer). Her academic interests are linguistics and intercultural communication. She has published over 30 articles in Chinese journals, and one in an American journal Language and Women (2001), and two books in English published: Language, Culture and Communication (2006), and Language and Culture: A Comparative Study (2007). Lin Zheng currently works in the School of Languages and Area Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK, as Business Tutor in English as

xvi Notes on Contributors

a second language. Her research area is focused on the recent responses of Chinese universities and the internationalisation of Chinese universities. She has a wide-ranging knowledge of Transnational Higher Education and international education partnerships. Her research area also includes the impacts of culture on Marketing, Human Resource and Communication. She is currently a member of Centre for European and International Studies Research, University of Portsmouth. Wang Zhiru is a professor in English at Hubei University, China. She took her BA in English language and literature at Hubei University, China, and MA in linguistics for English language teaching at Lancaster University, UK. She has taught on courses such as English, Teaching Methodology, English for Specific Purposes, Language Learning Principles and Strategies. As teacher trainer, she worked in Sino-British Adult Education Centre from 1998 to 2002, and has been teaching and training teachers in secondary schools and colleges ever since. She also taught Chinese at the University of Southern Queensland and Woolongong University in Australia. Her current research interest is in metaphors along with others like learner variables, Web-based learning and teacher education. Xiaowei Zhou is at the School of Education, University of Manchester, UK. She received her BA (English Language and Literature) and MA (Linguistics) degrees from Peking University, China. Her chapter, jointly written with Paul Smith, builds on her interest in how individuals communicate with other individuals from different cultural contexts and negotiate their living when they are in different cultural contexts themselves. In particular, it explores the narratively constructed understandings of Chinese students on UK Masters programmes vis-à-vis their academic acculturation process.

Cooperation with Chinese Universities – Issues and Trends Paul Rastall

This volume and the conference on which it is partly based1 appear against a backdrop of rapid change in Far Eastern, and especially Chinese, Higher Education (HE). It is likely that some of the information presented here will be rapidly overtaken by events. The Chinese Ministry of Education, for example, has issued a series of regulations in 2003 and 2007 on Chinese foreign cooperation in Higher Education (moe. gov.cn) and on the running of 3 + 1 top-up programmes for Higher National Diploma (HND) students and has also developed standards for Foundation programmes (i.e. 1 + 3 schemes) with recognition of certain universities as key providers through its agency, the China Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange (cscse.edu.cn). Foundation plus 3 years Higher Education and HND delivered in China plus 1 year topup abroad are examples of very recent areas of increased cooperation. Other areas are in Ph.D. supervision, franchising, and, in one case, the franchising of pre-sessional English. Despite the rapidly changing market and developing regulatory framework, we can perceive some key themes and likely developments. As this volume shows, there are different ways of looking at the cooperation of Western and Far Eastern universities. In a previous publication, the editors focused on our understanding of the Chinese learner and ways in which we could improve the transition to UK HE, and the delivery of classes and programmes (Coverdale-Jones and Rastall, 2006). The present publication looks at the issue of internationalisation and does so in three main dimensions. The volume considers what internationalisation means for institutions in terms of policies and practices.

1

2

Introduction

The chapters by Turner and Robson, Zheng, Olcott, Wang, and McNaught and Curtis consider, from different perspectives, • the understanding of the term ‘internationalisation’ in the context of global developments, • the responses of Chinese universities to Trans-National Higher Education (TNHE), and • the ways in which policy has developed and been implemented in Hong Kong in the context of bilingual education. Furthermore, Wang’s chapter illustrates the development and current understanding of internationalisation at a leading Chinese university. The chapters by Wang and McNaught and Curtis illustrate the differences in thinking and stage of development in Mainland China and Hong Kong and both chapters show the increasingly important role of quality concerns in both. Along with the development of the curriculum, which Wang mentions, it is clear that the development of more international standards of quality assurance in Mainland China will emerge as a major issue. Wang’s chapter underlines the ambitions of Chinese universities, but makes clear that they have ‘just started’ on the road to internationalisation. The concept of internationalisation for the University in Wang’s study covers a range of activities, but it is clear that change in the content of curricula is less emphasised and more difficult to achieve. This is partly because of current regulatory systems designed to maintain existing quality standards. The chapter by McNaught and Curtis, by contrast, shows the detailed development of curriculum content in Hong Kong designed to enhance internationalisation. Olcott’s chapter considers internationalisation as part of globalisation and the implications for institutions in quality assurance, management, and student support. Furthermore, the regulatory and institutional issues have been given even greater prominence recently through the report by Dr MatrossHelms for the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, who highlights the challenges facing Western institutions developing partnerships with Chinese bodies and the need for better understanding on the part of Western institutions (Matross-Helms, 2008). Secondly, the volume contributes to our understanding of the linked issues of student perspectives on the international experience of education. The chapters by Jin, Cortazzi, and Wang on student expectations, Devlin and Peacock on overcoming barriers to student integration, Yang Shu on the changes in, and internationalisation of, Chinese student values at a major Chinese university, and Smith and Zhou on the particular

Paul Rastall

3

problems of miscommunication between Western and Chinese students and on differing perceptions of Chinese student needs are important here. Clear themes of differences in student attitude and expectation emerge from these discussions. As Yang Shu shows, Chinese student values are becoming more diverse, less traditional, and more internationally oriented. Further work is needed to understand the diversity of student background along economic, social, and gender dimensions, and how it correlates with the range of expressed attitudes and values. Finally, practical approaches to the improvement of our delivery and understanding of students and the student experience are considered by Edwards and An Ran, and by Littlewood. Edwards and An Ran rightly warn against seeing Chinese learners as a homogeneous group and review factors affecting students’ performance along with ways of improving it. Littlewood’s chapter rightly challenges the stereotypes of the Chinese learner and is suggestive of ways to release the potential of Chinese students. The latter chapters remind us that we need to remember that it is not only a question of WHAT we internationalise but WHO we internationalise – or better that internationalisation is a process involving changes in people, staff and students, ultimately societies. Those ideas and questions are addressed by all of the contributors to this volume in one way or another. We are not just concerned with words in a mission statement or a box to tick in a quality assurance review. The first theme of the book goes from general concepts of internationalisation (Turner and Robson, Zheng) to particular case studies (Wang, McNaught and Curtis), and the second theme is linked to the third via the chapter by Devlin and Peacock. My co-editor, Tricia Coverdale-Jones, concludes the chapters with an able summary of the major themes emerging from the book and focuses on the role of cross-cultural education through a detailed study. An index to the whole volume is supplied at the end but bibliographical references are found at the end of each chapter separately. We all know about the large increase in numbers of Chinese students in the UK and other Western (including Australian and New Zealand) universities. Most of that increase is from self-funding students, often those outside the state-planned university numbers, that is, those whose families have achieved greater prosperity and which are investing in their children’s education, or those inside the state-planned numbers who are aiming for single (foreign) degrees. We also know of the huge increase in competition for such students in Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, we can perceive a great increase in programmes delivered locally through local providers, franchises,

4

Introduction

distance learning, and/or intensive teaching and learning visits. This has led to a decrease in international student numbers from Hong Kong, accelerated by the high cost of overseas study and the recent strength of the pound, but also to an increase in locally delivered collaborative activity. The importance of self-funding students should not lead us to forget the minority of excellent state-funded students. However, anyone who has been to China will have seen the rapid development of the country. It seems every university is building a new campus or replacing its old facilities. That development includes a receptiveness to what is good and useful from the West and an openness to new ideas – among other things – in curriculum design, in subject content, in teaching practices, and in assessment. There is a growing awareness of quality assurance issues. Western universities should clearly consider a redefinition of their role in the direction of supporting and assisting developments in China and elsewhere, where possible and appropriate, in their collaborative arrangements. Furthermore, there is a welcome for successful, well-qualified graduates returning from the West. Graduates with poor skills in English or in their disciplines are looked down on in a highly competitive job market. Western universities in collaborative arrangements or recruiting from the Far East must maintain the quality of their graduates or risk losing the value of the Western ‘brand’ and reputation for education. In the PRC, the potential market is still huge and growing, but – as noted – the demands are rapidly changing and cooperation is becoming ever more sophisticated. It is clear, for example, that top Chinese universities are strongly interested in the development of cooperation in higher degrees and research, as well as in the long-standing cooperation for outstanding, state-funded students going abroad. As McNaught and Curtis show, Hong Kong has extended local delivery with a strong international dimension. In Mainland China, as Zheng shows, there is a range of motivations and responses to TNHE according to the status and type of institution. Internationalisation activities for Western universities are more static, but Western universities are also adapting to changing circumstances, as Turner and Robson discuss. We can distinguish ‘outward’ internationalisation from ‘inward’ internationalisation. As Zheng notes, the interests of the PRC and the interests of Western universities have converged recently to allow the outward direction of huge numbers of Chinese students and the inward reception of them by Western universities. The outward flow of Chinese students has been the result of several factors. Rising prosperity has

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enabled many Chinese families to invest in their young people (usually, of course, a single child), but the increase in university places in the state-planned sector of HE has not kept pace with the rising demand. At the same time, opportunities created by the marketisation of education have created new demands for increased student choice, parental demands for optimum study outlets for their children, and the general opening of the economy has created demands for a more skilled – and more specially skilled – workforce. These trends must be seen against a backdrop of a shortage of ‘graduate’ jobs in China and severe competition in employability. The Chinese authorities are rightly concerned with the maintenance of the quality of university awards while opening up higher education to a greater proportion of the population. The regulations and central planning, while helping to maintain quality, can pose difficulties for Chinese universities to innovate and introduce programmes (including collaborative ones) offering niche studies aimed at meeting market demands. Universities of the UK and other Western countries have at the same time faced the need to diversify from their core business of teaching home undergraduate students. No UK or Western university can balance its books and achieve its aims solely through Undergraduate (UG) funding. Hence, we have seen the growth of postgraduate programmes, R&D and consultancy (knowledge transfer in its various forms), conference and accommodation business, alumni societies, and – of course – recruitment of international students. As Olcott notes in his chapter, there is a strong financial motivation for Western universities to recruit Chinese students. Chinese universities, on the other hand, have expanded student numbers, merged, and constructed very impressive new campuses. They are, however, faced with some similar funding issues to those in the West, as student fees are relatively low and more market-oriented strategies are being developed to meet funding gaps. Hong Kong Community Colleges have also undergone considerable reform and expansion and have become entirely self-financing operations. Naturally, they too are faced with the necessity of diversifying, rationalising their activities, and becoming more entrepreneurial, while maintaining high standards. It has, thus, been in the interests of all parties to cater to the new demand from Chinese and other Far Eastern students. It is in this way that we have seen the growth in recruitment through agents, very active participation in fairs, extensive promotion of universities and programmes, and most importantly the development of partnerships of various sorts to provide study opportunities (discussed by Zheng and Olcott). These include the establishment of branch campuses or presences

6

Introduction

on campus, franchises of Western programmes to Chinese or Far Eastern institutions, externally validated programmes in Chinese or other Far Eastern institutions, ‘double degree’ systems, and simpler advanced standing arrangements. (An alternative classification in terms of mobility is given by the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education – see Knight, J. 2005.) However, there are now – and always have been – other considerations and we can now see changes related to those other issues. We can note, for example, the increasing quality assurance role in the approval of partnership arrangements as well as the increasing complexity of the contractual documents from the point of view of Western institutions, and this is mirrored in the PRC by an increase in the number and subtlety of the regulations issued by the Chinese authorities to maintain quality and ensure the validity and appropriateness of awards. As partnership relationships deepen, the need for more extensive quality assurance arrangements rises and Western universities are increasingly acting as, or insisting on, external examining functions. Furthermore, the need for inspection and review of collaborative arrangements has been recognised by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in the UK. While it has said that the quality of the UK’s collaborative arrangements is good (QAA December, 2006), it is clear that more attention is needed in this rapidly changing field and the QAA suggests ‘greater input into the programme, monitoring and review processes from Chinese staff’ and the approval process ‘could, in some instances, be more rigorous’ (p. 2). Partnerships are increasingly, and rightly, much more reciprocal in character. Western universities more than ever offer staff development opportunities for Chinese staff in the West or in China; advice on (or provision of) materials, teaching, learning and assessment, research collaboration; and career enhancement for Chinese staff. The awareness of the needs of Chinese learners in a Western environment has developed rapidly, but there is still much to learn. The chapters by Jin, Cortazzi and Wang, Devlin and Peacock, and Edwards and An Ran are important contributions here. Western universities are also increasingly based in China or other countries for the purpose of delivering programmes, whether this is in a branch campus or more modestly in offices on campus. Branch international offices in China and elsewhere have, of course, long been the norm. Many would argue that the benefits of internationalising the university should not be seen in purely financial terms. Western universities have always welcomed foreign scholars and the exchange of ideas.

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Western students benefit from studying and living with students from other countries and cultures, and our programmes benefit from international perspectives, as Coverdale-Jones describes in her chapter. It is clear that Chinese policy is also directed towards the improvement of standards and reaching world status in scholarship and research. Internationalisation is not just a matter of collaborative programmes to meet financial needs. As Zheng points out, there are significant differences in the motivations of Chinese universities in cooperation with Western ones. For prestigious Chinese universities, and especially those directly under the Ministry of Education (MOE), internationalisation is much more a matter of working on the world stage and cooperating on a reciprocal basis on research and higher degrees than about financial motivations. The MOE’s limitation on cooperation with the world’s top universities for collaborative programmes is an example of this drive for high standards. Now, it would be absurd to suppose that either Western or Far Eastern universities could collaborate so much without affecting each other. Western universities have typically responded by improving the means of accepting students into their institutions through summer English programmes, induction, international student support, adaptation of programmes and teaching, and an internationalisation of the curriculum, as well as by setting up international offices and administrative procedures and ways of promoting programmes to institutions and students. The research by Edwards and An Ran, Yang, and Littlewood offers significant insights here. Many have welcomed sponsored researchers and other visitors. In general, there is an increasing awareness that international issues must be a factor in all activities of universities. Chinese universities in particular are also changing both in response to a wider opening up of the economy, and hence, the market for education, and from their contacts with Western institutions. As we have seen, this is true also in Hong Kong Universities, which are adapting their management structures and institutional organisations to fulfil new needs. They too have their need to fill a funding gap through an increasing consultancy role, the recruitment of international students. Furthermore, they have set up international offices and created ‘international colleges’ both for non-state-planned students who intend to study abroad and for state-planned students aiming for single foreign degrees. As Chinese universities have merged, sometimes to enormous sizes, they have had to reconsider their organisational structures and decision-making processes – not least to establish, maintain, and control partnership arrangements.

8

Introduction

Partnerships have brought new concepts of quality assurance as well as new curriculum content. Chinese teachers have taken a great interest in Western teaching, learning, and assessment ideas and have wanted to apply, where possible, the most useful concepts for the Chinese context. All of these contacts have not only opened up new ideas and fresh possibilities for universities, teachers, and students but also raised new problems and tensions. In the West, there are issues of resource and workload management related to international students. There are, furthermore, inevitable questions of how to enhance the international student experience along with deeper questions about the maintenance of quality, and how significant numbers of international students affect the ways universities see themselves and their roles. There are challenges for teachers and students in gaining better mutual understanding (as the chapter by Jin, Cortazzi, and Wang in this volume illustrates). Language problems also pose challenges to be overcome for students to achieve good awards and applicable subject knowledge and understanding. For Chinese universities, there are problems of adjusting to a freer and more open market in education – of responding flexibly to market demand within a tight regulatory framework while at the same time ensuring the maintenance and comparability of standards. As Chinese universities gain more autonomy, they too will have to clarify further their missions and develop clear conceptions of their social and economic roles and become more competitive and realistic in student recruitment. They too will have to determine for themselves the balance of traditional core and new non-core activities. ‘Internationalisation’ can be seen in narrow terms as a process or mechanism for transferring or receiving students around the world. Or, it can be seen as a guiding principle in all that we do in Higher Education. It should be in our mission statements, strategies, curricula, teaching praxis, student support, and in the making of university regulations. This publication looks at both aspects and their interconnections. Transferring students between countries raises issues of adaptation in the sending and the receiving country with the focus on the best ways of serving students, but it also raises issues of internationalising the perspectives of our home (Western) students and increasing their outward mobility (as Olcott notes), although we cannot address that issue in this volume. We also need to remember that inward and outward internationalisation are issues for Chinese universities as well as for Western ones. Chinese universities are not thinking solely in terms of sending their students to us. Chinese universities also aspire to being centres of world

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or national excellence – some of them already are such centres. And that means Chinese universities are also looking to a stage in the future when they will attract much larger numbers of international students. That has already begun in some disciplines and in some universities, but we can expect much more than the offering of Chinese language and culture-related teaching being offered internationally, and we can expect to see increasing delivery of an international curriculum in English, as China – like Hong Kong – strives for greater local delivery and a bigger place on the world stage. Chinese universities will increasingly seek to upgrade their curricula and practices in the light of their experience of transferring students and learning from academic visits. Western universities must do the same. We can expect a deepening of the concept of internationalisation in China. Wang’s chapter shows how ideas in China have developed. Chinese universities, for a range of reasons, are currently engaged in outward internationalisation. Chinese students and parents, as well as the Chinese government, are driving this. In fact, we have to say that, while Western universities are quite good at inward internationalisation, they are significantly worse at outward internationalisation. Apart from languages departments and from sending highly qualified students to Commonwealth countries and the USA, UK universities and students participate far less in international study opportunities than our European or Chinese friends. Internationalisation is not a one-way street and UK universities need to look beyond articulation opportunities. First, UK universities need to adapt to a rapidly changing market in China with rapidly changing needs. This means, of course, identifying the curricula that Chinese students want and Chinese employers will appreciate. We in the West must adapt our curricula to those needs as part of our internationalisation. Chinese students are increasingly discriminating. We have a lot to offer – much can be reconfigured to meet international needs – but we need to think about Chinese needs, such as the growing specialisation in the Chinese workplace and the increasing demand for various areas of law, public administration, logistics, the Pacific rim economies, and specialist technologies. Second, we need to recognise that, if we wish to play a long-term role with Chinese partners, we need to be reliable and helpful partners in Chinese education. The shortage of places in Chinese HE is a case in point where there are opportunities for franchise and collaborative arrangements. So, for Western universities there are major issues of internationalising their ethos and curricula both for international and home

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Introduction

students – obviously there will be questions of implementation for institutions as well as pedagogical and student perspectives. Unfortunately, China is often perceived as a threat. For others, it is an opportunity. In our small ways, we can help to foster better understanding through educational partnership. The chapters in this volume are intended to make a contribution to that understanding.

Note 1. The University of Portsmouth held international conferences on the Needs of Far East Learners in 2004 and 2006 and has since collaborated with Shandong University in the People’s Republic of China, which held its first conference in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth in Jinan in 2007. The fourth conference will be in Portsmouth in 2008.

References Chinese Ministry of Education. 2003. Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools (Adopted at the 68th Executive Meeting of the State Council on 19 February 2003 and promulgated by Decree No. 372 of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China on 1 March 2003, and effective as of 1 September 2003). http://www.moe.gov.cn. Chinese Ministry of Education. 2007. Circular of the Ministry of Education on the Further Regulation of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, 6 April 2007. http.www.moe.gov.cn. Coverdale-Jones, T. and Rastall, P. (eds). 2006. The Chinese Learner = Language, Culture and Curriculum Special Edition, vol. 19/1. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Knight, J. 2005. Borderless, Offshore, Transnational and Cross-border Education: definition and data dilemmas. London: Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. http://www.obhe.ac.uk/resources. Matross-Helms, R. 2008. Transnational Education in China: key challenges, critical issues, and strategies for success, London: Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. http://www.obhe.ac.uk/reports. Quality Assurance Agency. 2006. UK Higher Education in China: an overview of the quality assurance arrangements. http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/international/ china06/overview.asp.

Theme I

Institutional Perspectives

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1 Conceptions of Internationalisation and Their Implications for Academic Engagement and Institutional Action: A Preliminary Case Study Yvonne Turner and Sue Robson 1.1 Introduction This chapter sets out the context of internationalisation within Higher Education (HE), as it is counterpointed against broader issues within the globalisation of knowledge and education. It explores the way in which some of the key conceptual themes and tensions play out in a practice-based setting through the introduction of an institutional case study documenting the outcomes of a project taking place at the University of Newcastle. The case highlights some of the contradictory effects of the organisational processes characterising internationalisation and explores the resonances between the lived experiences of academics within a rapidly internationalising institutional setting and other forces shaping their academic lives and identity. The key conclusion of the case study is that participants experienced internationalisation as a powerful but negative factor in their working lives, allied to conceptions of globalisation in which they saw themselves as victims of externally generated forces bringing increased teaching workloads, resource pressures and a shift away from their preferred academic identities. A major theme within the case study is that people’s experience reflects the conceptual ambiguity within much of the literature in its assessment of globalisation as simultaneously a manageable and an irresistible force. Underlying themes of resistance to and cynicism about engagement also emerge in the case data as counter-reactions to the sense of helplessness and confusion that compliance with an aggressive institutional globalisation agenda implies. The chapter ends with an assessment of the managerial and institutional opportunities that exist to support the processes of internationalisation and to meet the needs

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of people in university communities as they engage with increasing diversity in the classroom and outside.

1.2 Conceptions of internationalisation Internationalisation has characterised much HE discourse in recent years. Variously regarded as a channel for educational opening-up and knowledge-transfer (Bennell and Pearce, 2003), as a response to international marketing opportunities (Mortimer, 1997), as a prompt for international research collaboration (Teichler, 2004) or as a descriptor of cross-border student flows (Humfrey, 1999), the language of internationalisation has become firmly embedded. Allied to broader debates about globalisation, and sometimes subsumed within them, however, discussion about the practical impacts of internationalisation on the academic community remains contentious and talks less about the lived experience of academics and students than its theoretical relevance to, for example, academic identities and work (Vaira, 2004). This chapter sets out the context of internationalisation debates, as discussed in the literature, and aims to illuminate some of the key themes and tensions through the introduction of an institutional case study. It highlights some of the counter-intuitive effects of the organisational processes characterising internationalisation as experienced by academics in a UK university and explores the resonances between their lived experience within a rapidly internationalising institutional setting and other forces shaping their academic lives and identity.

1.3 The context within HE discourse Discussions about HE internationalisation featured heavily in both research and policy literature during the 1990s and into the early 2000s, as conceptions of both the globalising tendencies of HE as a force and an assessment of the effects of economic globalisation upon HE began to develop. Indeed, this dualism remains a feature of many of the discussions of both internationalisation and globalisation (Bartell, 2003). On the one hand, some literature describes globalisation as a powerful, irresistible part of the zeitgeist, forcing convergence in HE systems, policy and practice (Edwards et al., 2003). On the other, much of the management and policy literature characterises aspects of this convergence as manageable, bringing many opportunities for universities – particularly in the exploitation of international student markets – and is supportive of the revenue needs of HE in various contexts within Anglophone

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countries (Ortiz, 2004). In the same way, something of a conflation of conceptualisations of globalisation and internationalisation as contrasting or synonymous forces also emerges from the literature (Angus, 2004). Commentators have variously contrasted internationalisation with globalisation, characterising it as a more culturally contingent and sympathetic response to global economic convergence, one emphasising issues of diversity in international knowledge-sharing and transfer. On the other hand, some have characterised internationalisation as part of the subtext of HE globalisation and described it as a force acting upon universities and shaping their organisational responses from outside. In response to this dualism, however, others have also acknowledged internationalisation as counter-intuitive, acting both as an agent of and a response to globalisation (Vaira, 2004; Bartell, 2003). In spite of the difficulties imposed by such varying uses of the terms, this set of apparent contradictions and broad, sometimes inconsistent, uses of their conceptual frameworks can act as a helpful starting point for practical investigation and set a boundary within which to explore academics’ lived experiences. Beginning with an exploration of basic conceptions of the meanings of internationalisation within academic working practices helps to illuminate the diversity of its impacts on identity, orientation and experience, set as they are in a wide variety of local and particular contexts. Within the literature, such fundamental contradictions of meaning also touch usefully on the potential to explore the degree to which internationalisation is a manageable process or a force outside universities’ control, but nonetheless shaping certain of their organisational responses. This is useful in illuminating how far academics and university managers feel themselves to be victims of internationalisation or see internationalisation as a conscious part of their strategic and organisational toolkit in planning for the future and in which they are thoughtful and willing participants. Notwithstanding the fundamental contradictions which emerge from the literature, especially when contrasting it with conceptions of globalisation, generic characterisations of internationalisation tend to coalesce on themes describing universities’ responses to globalising factors within society. These discuss areas such as diversity of student and academic staff communities, international research-and knowledgesharing and the basis on which it is carried out and the internationalisation of the curriculum, reflecting the teaching and learning agendas which flow from the first two. These three basic areas – staff, students and knowledge or educational production – form the basic boundaries of theorising about HE internationalisation in terms of its practical

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focus and impacts on the orientation, policy and practice in universities (Welch, 2002). At the same time, underlying these basic factors, other more subtle debates are also present which have a bearing on any discussion about internationalisation and academic practice. For example, issues of convergence and the cultural nature of knowledge-transfer and its practices are important threads within the discourse – what has been characterised as ‘conceptual colonialism’ (Biggs, 2003; Humfrey, 1999). Powerful nations like the UK are at the forefront of the internationalisation of HE. They not only take the lead in international research exchange and student recruitment, but also effectively determine the rules by which the knowledge-transfer game is played, emphasising the cultural attributes of convergence. Yang (2002), for example, stresses the importance of intellectual reciprocity if effective internationalisation is to occur, superseding a one-way colonial flow of educational influence. Brown (1998) asserts the central role of culture in shaping educational practices and basic conceptions of teaching, learning and knowledge. Such discussions encompass all three of the key aspects of internationalisation as a force, culturally problematising both pedagogical and epistemological aspects of HE practices against specific organisational contexts. They emphasise the particularities of the socio-historic inheritance of the Modern University, enshrined as it is in distinctively European values. Importantly, they stress the degree to which that distinctive history actively creates a structural and intellectual framework which militates against educational and academic reciprocity. Such arguments assert the risks accompanying the marginalisation of indigenous cultures of learning and local knowledge traditions. They also discuss the effects of ideological counter-forces moving against European neoliberalism, such as have been seen in many, especially neo-Confucianist, countries, which are likely to interrupt the potential for reciprocal development and educational sharing in the future. Fundamentally, the variety of conceptions of internationalisation represents not only the range of different practice perspectives and institutional contexts from which the discourse emerges, but also identifies conceptualisations of internationalisation as ideologically contended. Drawing out academics’ understanding of the process and their reflections on an institutional context which is internationalising along certain lines, therefore, pulls out personal and institutional perspectives in ways that illuminate tacit partisan as well as explicit ideologically neutral conceptions of the process. For all the uncertainties about the scope and shape of globalisation and internationalisation and the labile composition of the basic concepts,

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nonetheless the literature shows a fairly clear consensus about the depth of the impact on HE and the breadth of its consequences for ‘policy-making, governance and academic work and identity’ (Vaira, 2004, p. 489). This lies partly in the emphasis within the globalisation literature on the Knowledge Society and the correlation between education (especially HE), knowledge production and economic development within a competitive world environment. Nonetheless characterising the nature of this impact on HE and deconstructing key themes and issues remains problematic beyond the most general terms outlined above. The majority of accounts to date have confined discussions to theoretical, policy or market areas rather than exploring the more varied concerns of academics, teachers and students. Yet if the impact of internationalisation is felt as profoundly as indicated in the literature, then it must be experienced keenly by those most intimately involved in the process. An exploration of academics’ experiences within an internationalising environment, therefore, makes a useful contribution to the broader discourse. Such aspects of the debate reinforce elements in the literature which discuss the gap between cited and actual motivations for conscious internationalisation. Welch (2002), for example, notes that often organisational and managerial discourse stresses educational reciprocity as the motivation in many Anglophone HE contexts, while the reality as organisationally planned and experienced by people within university communities relates more narrowly to revenue generation, markets and student recruitment. This aspect of the discourse resonates with other discussions within the sociology of HE, problematising the exclusive role of the Academy as repository and originator of knowledge within society and characterising HE as in a globalisation-generated crisis of identity (Deem, 2001; Watson, 2002). Some go further within the ideological context of internationalisation to explore the personal power relations of educational exchange more specifically. For example, Sanderson (2004) probes innate cultural values beneath surface claims of ‘Western’ academic openness and diversity within an internationalised educational context and discusses both ethnic and personal fears associated with ‘the Cultural Other’ in a globalised world. In doing so, he directly confronts the difficulties of implied racism in Anglophone universities and stresses the need for people in the Academy to make personal responses to bridge gaps of difference between community members in a reflective and open manner, something he terms ‘existential internationalization’ (p. 14). Only by doing so, he maintains, would it be possible for people in universities to overcome the intellectual constraints

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of locally structured historical knowledge traditions and progress in understanding as well as practice into a more globally inclusive intellectual and educational future. What is clear from the literature discussing internationalisation within HE is that it is very broadly bounded and touches upon many of the most important pedagogical and practical debates current within the sector. Notwithstanding a tendency to confine discussion to the instrumental, managerialist concerns of practice and organisation, nonetheless discussions about the subject refer to very broad themes and contested issues within basic epistemological and pedagogical contexts. Such debates highlight the somewhat inchoate and ambiguous character of the discourse and reflect some of the confusion and implied sense of threat that characterises much of what has been written about internationalisation to date (Meek, 2000; Enders, 2004; Feast and Bretag, 2005). The empirical work that we will now go on to describe reflects some of that sense of ambiguity and confusion as it emerges in a local British context. It represented part of an institutional attempt to map and structure a broad diversity of experiences and beliefs about internationalisation among its community members and to organise meaningfully around action agendas that both captured academics’ sense of internationalisation and offered the potential to channel those perceptions into organisationally functional directions.

1.4 The project This study represents the outcomes of a needs analysis project undertaken within a Humanities and Social Sciences faculty at a UK university in 2004/5. The project formed part of a broad range of work undertaken within the university to explore the progress and impact of internationalisation on its communities and organisational systems and to explore future priorities and action for the university as a whole. The context of the work lay in previous rapid increases in numbers of international (non-UK/EU) students and the institution’s strategic objective of further increasing international student participation by 2010. Reflecting the UK government’s stated priority of continuing to develop the UK as a provider of international HE, especially in the Asian region, and mirroring the experience of many universities in Britain, the presence of so many international students at the university was relatively novel and represented a change in focus from its traditional student community, young British nationals. In addition, the university had experienced a shift in programming, away from undergraduate

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courses (though the majority of students remained undergraduates) towards one-year-taught Master’s programmes. This programming shift was accompanied by a new disciplinary emphasis towards vocational and applied subjects such as Business and Education Studies, both of which were located in the faculty under exploration. In order to make an assessment of the impacts of these changes, therefore, faculty academic managers appointed two academics to investigate staff and student experiences of the processes of internationalisation as a precursor to targeting provision of support and assistance to schools to support them in making identified changes.

1.5 Institutional organisation The Faculty was composed of nine departments, ranging from Law and English to Business and Education Studies. It was responsible for more than 50 per cent of the university’s student population and for the majority of the international student community. Experience of working with international students and of internationalisation, however, was very varied. In the History department, for example, overseas students represented less than 1 per cent of the total student population and were predominantly composed of postgraduate researchers, reflecting a pattern common in many UK universities until about 10 years ago. The Business School, on the other hand, enjoyed the largest participation of international students, more than 25 per cent of the total, dispersed across the range of levels of study from undergraduate to postgraduate research, but predominantly studying on one-year-taught postgraduate programmes in Management subjects, where they made up more than 50 per cent of total student numbers.

1.6 Design and methods The needs analysis work took place over a period of 4 months. Data collection frameworks were conventional, organised by a combination of group and individual interviews with academic and administrative representatives from the schools in the faculty, together with input from specialists, such as international officers, education developers and representatives from student welfare services. The number of meetings was correlated to approximate with the number of international students in each school, reflecting a view that the impact and experience of individuals working within schools with a high participation of international students would be more far-reaching than for those

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Internationalisation, Conceptions and Implications

schools where very small numbers of students were present, but, in essence, a convenient device. In total 24 meetings took place, involving 33 people. The needs analysis formed the first stage of a longer project focusing successively on staff and student perspectives on the changes taking place in the university and then, more narrowly, investigating areas where participants identified key need for organisational action, for example, student support and induction or staff support and development. Given the open and investigatory nature of the work, the main focus for the interview questions were also very open, essentially: • What were participants’ experiences of internationalisation within their working context? • How would participants describe the internationalisation emphasis at institutional level (work unit/Faculty/University)? • How would participants describe future impacts of internationalisation for them and the institution? • What support did participants identify as necessary for them and their local community to respond to the university’s strategic international objectives? The format for the interviews was also conventional, using a semistructured approach to probe and explore individual perceptions at the same time as attempting to reflect broadly common themes across the schools and disciplines involved in the project. Meetings lasted from approximately 45 minutes to one and a half hours, largely influenced by the number of participants. The majority of sessions (90 per cent) were undertaken by the two researchers and a sole respondent, with group meetings having no more than six participants. The groups of people identified to participate in this early stage of the work were those who were most intimately involved with the university’s internationalisation agenda, either in a managerial, teaching or support capacity. Included in the sessions were the heads of each of the departments, programme directors for courses with a high participation or targeted growth of international students, international student support workers and administrators who had routine contact with international students. Given the relative novelty of the presence of large numbers of international taught postgraduate students in the Faculty, such programmes formed the main focus of the investigation, though a few others were involved, such as the Director of Undergraduate Studies

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in the Business School, which enjoyed the largest participation rates of international undergraduate students and whose area had experienced a high level of recent growth. Essentially an organisational action-based project, the advantage of this sample constitution was that each participant would have direct and immediate experience either of working with international students or managing schools towards the university’s strategic internationalisation objectives. The major limitation imposed on the work was the narrowness of the focus on students and programming rather than investigating the internationalisation of research or, explicitly, internationalisation among the postgraduate research group, though some discussions in these areas emerged during interview sessions. Certainly the particular focus of the work resonated with the scope and context of the results achieved, reflecting a broad concentration on students, teachers and their immediate needs and concerns. Given the organisational limitations on the terms of reference for the work, however – and its aim to target precisely these groups to identify and provide additional developmental and organisational support where needed – such a tight perspective was inevitable. It was also consistent with the kind of small-scale, qualitative investigation that we carried out. The results achieved by the case study may illuminate more general debates about internationalisation, therefore, but, given the particularities of both the project and the institutional framework, are unlikely to be more than very loosely generalisable.

1.7 Interpretation and analysis of results Notes were taken during each of the interviews, with the aim of both recording the particular items and issues raised by respondents and incorporating as much data richness as possible. The data were transcribed, with each of the interviewers encoding their own notes independently and using both sets of notes during analysis. For institutional purposes, the themes were then classified into priority concerns, incorporated into a paper and fed into a range of university policy and practice fora, such as teaching and learning committees, and management meetings for strategic and resource planning purposes. The paper was circulated to participating schools and a further meeting took place to discuss the results with Heads of Schools to identify action and resource agendas for the forthcoming academic year. For research purposes, the two sets of transcripts were re-interrogated to utilise the richest elements of the data, particularly to record the direct

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accounts of personal experience. These data were then used alongside the thematic classification of results to investigate similarities and differences that might exist between particular schools or people in different positions in the organisation as a means of exploring the impact that internationalisation had on them, as revealed in their contrasting accounts. The results reported below are organised to reflect representative thematic concerns raised by individuals and groups included in the process. The themes are illustrated with direct quotations from the transcript data to highlight particular issues and reinforce the directness of the impact felt by participants about certain aspects of the phenomenon of internationalisation. Given the small size of the sample and the identifiable institutional role of many participants, excerpts from transcripts have been anonymised to ensure confidentiality.

1.8 Results and discussion The content of the interview discussions was varied, according to the particular perspectives of the participants. Nonetheless a fairly tight series of themes emerged from the meetings, focusing on key areas such as conceptions of internationalisation, international student recruitment and admissions, the impact of internationalisation on professional life and working identity, teaching international students, including managing cohort diversity, staff development needs and support for international students, including induction. This set of themes broadly reflected the focus in the literature on staff, students and programmes.

1.9 Understandings of internationalisation One of the most striking elements to arise from the data was concerned with basic conceptions of internationalisation. Though the group universally accepted that something called ‘internationalization’ was a ‘fact’ of their working lives, nonetheless people felt uncertain about precise definitions of what internationalisation meant: ‘I don’t really know what you mean by internationalization.’ ‘For most people this would relate purely and simply to recruitment.’ Unsurprisingly, the majority of participants engaged with understandings of internationalisation that were complex, thoughtful and often contradictory. For example, they contrasted their definitions between

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institutional and local interpretations, between organisational and personal understandings and between the aspirational and the actual: ‘What do you mean by internationalization? The university view is a functional take, really. I doubt that it’s a scholarly take … I have no idea what the School’s take is on internationalization.’ ‘We have odd attitudes. Scratch the surface and we have a group of people whose view is that this is an unfortunate necessity.’ Intellectually, the majority of participants identified internationalisation as notionally a ‘good thing’, if defined as reciprocal and concerned with sympathetic cross-border engagement: ‘Most people enjoy having international students around – research and teaching is more interesting … We need to be really welcoming to different ways of thinking and different approaches.’ ‘The richness and the mixture [international students] add is wonderful. Educational, broadly. We should be celebrating that students from China are coming here. It puts it into perspective.’ This gradualist conception resonated strongly, participants felt, with long-standing internationalist academic values. Overwhelmingly, however, the direct impact of internationalisation within participants’ own experience focused on increasing numbers of overseas students and the university’s emphasis on recruitment in international markets. This reflected a managerialist agenda about which a number of the participants were overtly cynical: ‘This is a cynical exercise in money-raising and it will all end in tears.’ In spite of the varying conceptions of internationalisation, however, one thing that emerged clearly was the significance of the impact of internationalisation on people’s working lives and identities. Irrespective of position in the university, people characterised internationalisation as one of the most significant issues in their work and one which dominated other, more traditional concerns, especially research: ‘It’s an absolute nail in the coffin because there’s no time for research.’ ‘Research dominates. People with large teaching loads are told they have not got their act together.’

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They also identified that this perspective was not one shared widely in the university and that many colleagues, not directly involved with overseas students or internationalisation, though aware of the underlying influence, were not enthusiastic to acknowledge or accept its influence over the long-term environment in the university: ‘Not much conversation in the School about internationalization – some individuals are good, but the majority doesn’t want to know.’ Taken together, the sense of confusion and the relative impact that people identified, therefore, constituted a fairly negative conception of internationalisation as a force in university life: ‘At best we are resigned to internationalization. Basically people see it as work, it’s a problem, it’s a risk.’ ‘The majority cope, but all find it difficult.’ The majority of participants identified themselves as ‘victims’ of internationalisation in some ways. Teaching large numbers of international students or administering programmes populated by them was regarded as damaging to personal careers and promotion potential in the university: ‘[Some colleagues] are very concerned and spend a lot of time with the students. There is a closely intertwined combination of academic and pastoral. One colleague pretty well abandoned his research career to do this. You can’t do the two things – forget it.’ Certainly participants universally experienced internationalisation as something which was being ‘done’ to them, rather than a phenomenon in which they had initiated participation: ‘A failure of leadership – people are not taken along with us.’ ‘The culture among us is resigned acceptance at marketisation – varying degrees of resignation and disgust.’ This resulted essentially from the necessity of responding to policy and managerial imperatives from the centre of the university. Even in schools which had worked with a community of international students for some years, recent changes in programme and recruitment emphasis – especially towards mass recruitment from Asian markets – were regarded

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as undermining international reciprocity and openness rather than expanding it: ‘It doesn’t feel so international any more, to be honest … I used to think that it was incredibly rich because of all the international diversity and lots of international examples. Now it is less so.’ In addition to this unease about the particular institutional motivations towards a market-based internationalisation policy, participants also identified it as one force among many others, pressurising longheld expectations of life and work within the university community. Explicitly, therefore, they linked internationalisation negatively with work proliferation in the teaching, learning and student support areas, increasing commercialism in the university, and an undermining of traditionally valued academic identities in research and intellectual contexts. In this environment, therefore, the basic conceptions of internationalisation expressed by a relatively wide range of people in the university characterised it as part of the wider, implicit globalisation agenda, with its particular emphasis on changing academic work, corporatism and managerialism. They regarded concerns with markets as the strategic underpinning for HE activity rather than any interest in intellectual reciprocity or international openness. In a general sense, this view was expressed more explicitly in those schools which had undergone the most significant changes to the constitution of the student body, the nature of the programming and work organisation, for example in the Business School and in professional education programmes such as Architecture and Planning. Building on these early levels of concern about the impacts of internationalisation, within general discussions of the phenomenon, participants went on to express their perspectives about the institutional agenda. These discussions further compounded their earlier expressions of unease about the coalescence of internationalisation with other negatively constructed changes in the character of working life in the university. Participants recognised the relative recentness of the institution’s international imperative and gave some consideration to its motives. For most, in spite of the potential for the enrichment of the university community that thoughtful internationalisation might bring, they expressed concern about the narrow, reactive conceptualisation offered by the institution – especially about what they perceived to be an acute

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managerial focus on marketing and student recruitment to secure revenues: ‘The School’s message is more programmes, more students … There’s a general view that we can recruit more and more students … It’s numbers-driven.’ ‘We are not pushing the [internationalisation] agenda for purely financial reasons [in this school], though the pressure has been intense.’ They also expressed doubt about contrast between organisational rhetoric and their own experience of managerial intention in the institution, reflecting, for example, Welch’s (2002) discussion of internationalisation in the Australian context. Participants felt that such a strong focus on this particular agenda reflected a significant shift to short-term financial horizons at the centre of the university rather than consolidating around a more stable, sustainable position. Internationalisation was regarded as a fundamentally destabilising force in the institution, therefore. Though the majority, especially heads of schools, recognised the financial realities of British HE and the need to secure novel sources of funding, and most participants saw clearly the relationship between international student fee income and jobs, nonetheless the juxtaposition of these two issues – internationalisation and job security – was viewed as problematic, contributing strongly to the negative constructions associated with internationalisation itself: ‘We must recruit international students or we won’t be here. It’s a grim reality.’ Another characteristic of internationalisation as experienced by people in the university was as an inward-operating phenomenon rather than one that encouraged reciprocity or openness. To some degree, this reflected the institution’s historical focus on direct international student recruitment rather than investment in transnational or other international partnerships or projects. It also reflected the particular work concerns of the interview population. A number of participants both identified the desirability of more outward-looking perspective on internationalisation for themselves and also for the student population, however. They also expressed particular concern about a perceived parochialism of UK students which they regarded as problematic within the HE education experience:

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‘There are huge benefits to home students but I don’t think they see them … Where this all collapses is when Brits start to interact with [international] students and do group-work and then they retreat into their own comfort zones.’ For many participants, therefore, the strong marketing and recruitment emphasis that they perceived in operation in the university was doubly problematic, not only in its organisational short-termism but in limiting the potential benefits that more broadly conceived internationalisation might bring. The strong theme to emerge from the early parts of the interviews was that people across the faculty experienced internationalisation as frustrating and counter-intuitive. Aspirationally, they saw the clear benefits of international exchange and reciprocity for the whole community. They identified the particular focus articulated by the centre of the university and reflected in their day-to-day work lives, however, as dominated by specific, challenging and narrow concerns which militated against the realisation of the positive potential of internationalisation. In spite of all this, however, participants regarded internationalisation as something that would remain a long-term feature of their working lives. Their main concerns for the future were for more systematic planning to stabilise its effects in the university, together with provision of resource support and hypothecation to enable more sustainable international student recruitment and also the achievement of the broader benefits that internationalisation had the capacity to bring. As the interviews moved from an exploration of general understandings of internationalisation towards more specific, operational issues, further contradictory themes began to emerge. In particular, discussions about teaching and learning were dominated by both the explicit and implicit impacts of a shift in the university from its traditional domestic postgraduate student group towards much more diverse cohorts. In terms of routine working, managing and teaching large diverse cohorts featured as a key consideration for the practitioner interview group. Inevitably this subject featured less in conversations with managers and administrators, though all expressed a requirement for extensive staff development in some form, to support academic staff in a new teaching and learning environment. Practitioners, however, described at length their concerns about working with diverse cohorts of overseas students and the resultant challenges both for the students and for their

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teachers. Certainly the academic group identified overseas students as coming to the university with different and greater learning needs than their British postgraduate counterparts: ‘International students are a different breed, have different needs.’ ‘The big issue that comes with [international students] is that the amount of contact hours are high. This is where we need help and support.’ Driven from their sense of having more work to do in less time as a result of internationalisation, many participants expressed frustration that they were not able to meet the students’ needs fully: ‘We had set up a teaching model that hasn’t really changed. In the Autumn you enter; we teach you intensively; with luck you won’t fail and then a year later you’ll hand in your dissertation. We need either to change the programmes or bring the students up to speed before they begin.’ However, in some of the interviews rather darker concerns were expressed, focusing on the kinds of stereotypes particularly of Asian students that are well documented in the literature: ‘I don’t think it’s fair for students to come over with limited engagement with British culture and begin a Master’s degree … An English 17-year-old will have a greater ability … A negative culture towards Asian students is everyday talk.’ Such approaches to characterising overseas students as ‘different’ and ‘more demanding’ than their local counterparts both coalesced with the problematic undertow of HE globalisation discussed by commentators such as Sanderson (2004) and also linked in with the general sense participants expressed of feeling pressured and seeing internationalisation as prosecuted by the institution as problematic. Awareness of the limitations of their own perspectives and interest to engage with diversity in a more open manner, however, also underpinned participants’ identification of personal development in diversity issues as a key requirement for the future. Linking in to the difficulties surrounding a focus on overseas students and their participation in an institution which participants characterised

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as essentially ‘British’, a further theme emerged from the interviews as an omission from the transcript data rather than as an active point of discussion. In spite of the aspirational statements many of the participants made about the transformational potential of internationalisation in the university, the transcripts resonated with interpretations of overseas students and internationalisation very much within the ‘accommodation model’ or the ‘international student deficit model’ (Biggs, 2003). This emerged quite strongly from the emphasis in the interviews on the need to provide overseas students additional support to help them ‘overcome’ their differences and to engage in a positive manner with university life as currently constituted. On the other hand, when asked about the pedagogical challenges of internationalisation and how far participants were aware of or engaged with alternative pedagogies to acknowledge the shift from monocultural to multicultural groups, very few participants recognised the validity of such concerns. In some limited areas, people described how students were encouraged to introduce practice or their experience in their home countries to the wider student group. Others discussed internationalising staff groups, the curriculum or teaching content as a key concern: ‘It would be helpful to have more international people on the staff, to internationalise our community first.’ ‘[In this School] you would find people saying that they have already changed things but you’d have to explore what they mean because it will be technical/superficial changes, not cultural.’ Nonetheless, none of the participants recognised their day-to-day pedagogies as culturally constituted or that teaching methods as much as course content or curriculum design might change as a result of the shift in context. This omission highlighted an important limitation in the depth of participants’ immediate experience and reflections on the implications of internationalisation. While welcoming the notion of international exchange, being open to working with larger numbers of international students and willing to internationalise academic content in the teaching, nonetheless the underlying epistemological and pedagogical values beneath routine practices remained both implicit and culturally inviolate. Fundamentally, therefore, in spite of increasing internationalisation in practice, the people involved in the study remained indelibly linked to a locally articulated knowledge tradition fixed in its socio-historic context.

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To a large extent, this finding is unsurprising. The surface impacts of globalisation may be evident in much of international HE, but its deeper implications are yet little understood and less actively experienced. Knowledge systems tend to change either cataclysmically or incrementally, so the perceptions of participants in this small study are entirely consistent both with their own long-term experience and values and with the turbulent realities of their academic lives. Nonetheless, as discussed in the literature, for all the aspirational emphasis on reciprocity in practice and inclusivity in the classroom, deeper engagement with internationalisation must involve reflection about underlying intellectual values and educational norms if it is to take root (Yang, 2002).

1.10

Conclusion

The progress and experience of internationalisation in HE, illustrated by the case study, throws up a number of resonances with the globalisation literature. Certainly participants in this study experienced internationalisation as coalescing with other issues broadly characterised by globalisation that constituted additional workplace pressure and complexity. Their stories talked of anxieties about managerialist agendas within the institution, in spite of a reluctant acknowledgement of the decline of academic job security and the need to generate revenues to underpin their jobs. The accounts also described patterns of both conscious and unconscious resistance to the implied changes in work practice and identity, as internationalisation brought with it a greater focus on the identity of the teacher and less on research and intellectual development for those who were most closely involved with it. Taken together, these factors could imply some difficult undercurrents describing the limitations of academic openness to the processes of globalisation and challenging the real extent of liberal internationalism in British academic life. The overwhelming theme to emerge from the case study supported the sense of ambiguity and helplessness that characterises some of the literature in its assessment of globalisation as an irresistible force. At the micro level, however, the processes appeared complex. Themes of resistance and cynicism certainly emerged as potentially subversive counter-reactions to the sense of helplessness and confusion that compliance with an aggressive globalisation agenda implied. Nonetheless, in terms of the institutional agenda and the practice-based aspects of the work, there was clear scope for encouraging more positive engagement with both internationalisation and overseas students. There were also

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opportunities for engaging with more thoughtful development away from a narrow emphasis on locally valid knowledge agendas towards more inclusive and reciprocally negotiated forms of knowledge and teaching practices in this particular context. The fact that at such an early stage in the experience of explicit internationalisation these needs emerged so clearly from an organisational study is testimony both to the importance of this issue and the seriousness with which institutions are beginning to treat it.

References Angus, L. (2004), Globalization and educational change, bringing about and shaping and re-norming of practice. Journal of Education Policy, 19, pp. 23–41. Bartell, M. (2003), Internationalization of universities: a university culture-based framework. Higher Education, 45, pp. 43–70. Bennell, B. and Pearce, T. (2003), The internationalization of Higher Education: exporting education to developing and transitional economies. International Journal of Educational Development, 23, pp. 215–32. Biggs, J. (2003), Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does. Second edition. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Brown, K. (1998), Education, Culture and Critical Thinking. Aldershot: Ashgate. Deem, R. (2001), Globalization, new managerialism, academic capitalism and entrepreneurialism in universities: is the local dimension still important? Comparative Education Review, 37 (1), pp. 7–20. Edwards, R., Crosling, G., Petrovic-Lazarovic, S. and O’Neill, P. (2003), Internationalization of business education: meaning and implementation. Higher Education Research and Development, 22(2), pp. 184–92. Enders, J. (2004), Higher Education, internationalization and the nation-state: recent developments and challenges to governance theory. Higher Education, 47, pp. 361–82. Feast, V. and Bretag, T. (2005), Responding to rises in transnational education: new challenges for Higher Education. Higher Education Research and Development, 24 (1), pp. 63–78. Humfrey, C. (1999), Managing International Students. Buckingham: Open University Press. Meek, L. (2000), Diversity and marketization of Higher Education: incompatible concepts? Higher Education Policy, 13, pp. 23–39. Mortimer, K. (1997), Recruiting overseas undergraduate students: are their information requirements being satisfied? Higher Education Quarterly, 51 (3), pp. 225–38. Ortiz, J. (2004), International business education in a global environment: a conceptual approach. International Education Journal, 5 (2), pp. 255–65. Sanderson, G. (2004), Existentialism, globalization and the cultural other. International Education Journal, 4, pp. 1–20. Teichler, U. (2004), The changing debate on internationalization of higher education. Higher Education, 48, pp. 5–26.

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Vaira, M. (2004), Globalization and Higher Education organization change: a framework for analysis. Higher Education, 48, pp. 483–510. Watson, D. (2002), Can we do it all? Tensions in the mission and structure of UK Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly, 56 (2), pp. 143–55. Welch, A. (2002), ‘Going global’? Internationalizing Australian Universities in a Rome of Global Crisis. Comparative Education Review, 46 (4), pp. 433–71. Yang, R. (2002), University internationalization: its meanings, rationales and implications. Intercultural Education, 13(1), pp. 82–95.

2 Chinese Universities’ Motivations in Transnational Higher Education and Their Implications for Higher Education Marketisation Lin Zheng 2.1 Introduction The market for transnational higher education (TNHE) in China is moving nowadays from a traditional elite student market to a mass student market. Moreover, the number of Chinese universities engaged in TNHE partnerships with foreign universities is increasing day by day. This chapter provides a preliminary investigation of the motivations of Chinese universities in TNHE through in-depth interviews with Chinese universities’ staff. This chapter finds that the motivations of Chinese universities in TNHE depend on the types of students recruited or types of degree awarded and the types of the university. This chapter also finds that responding to the TNHE market’s needs has become a popular motivator for a big majority of the universities. The chapter concludes that Chinese universities’ motivations in TNHE reflect the needs of Chinese universities in becoming market oriented.

2.2 Rationale The demand for postsecondary and tertiary education in the People’s Republic of China (hereafter China) has continually increased. Like many universities in the Asia Pacific region, China with 1683 higher education institutions (the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE), 2007) has experienced a large increase in student enrolment due to various reasons such as increased output from secondary schools, female participation in higher education and development of life-long education (Hsiao and Yang, 2004). This can be seen from the student recruitment expansion in 1999 at Chinese public universities (hereafter Chinese universities), and more significantly from the increasing number of partnerships between 33

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foreign higher education institutions and Chinese institutions to deliver TNHE programmes. The meaning of TNHE is defined by diverse teaching or learning activities in which the learners are in a different country – the host country – and providing institutions are from different countries (UNESCO/ Council of Europe, 2000). TNHE is a super-ordinate term and it includes the following seven different sets of institutional arrangements, as given by the GATS (1999). • Articulation: This is a systematic recognition by an institution A of specified study at an institution B in another country. This model allows partial credit (or transfer credit) towards a programme at institution A. • Franchises: Institution A that approves an institution B in another country to provide one or more of A institution’s programmes to students in B’s country. • Twinning: This is an agreement between institutions in different countries to offer a joint programme (degree). • Branch campuses: Campuses set up by an institution in another country in order to provide its educational programme or training services to foreign students. • Corporate programmes: There are many large corporations that offer programmes for academic credit from institutions, and this often involves crediting across national borders. • Distance Education programmes: These distance education programmes are delivered through satellites, computers, Internet, correspondence, radio, or other delivery methods which cross national boundaries. • Study Abroad: In this model a student from institution A travels to take courses, credits, degrees and live instruction for a fixed period of time at institution B which is located in a different country. The sets of institutional arrangement are not restricted to the forms mentioned above. The new types also include advanced standing, external validation, double degree programmes and physical presence. • Advanced standing: Advanced standing is recognition of prior learning in terms of experience and/or prior studies. For example, a British university can accept a Chinese student having a certain qualification which the British Council or the HE institutions recognises or can be counted as equivalent.

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• External validation: Validation arrangements between institutions/ providers in different countries permit students to gain credit in the validating institutions for course or programmes offered or delivered by collaborating institutions/providers (Knight, 2005). • Double degree: This is the same as for an articulation, but students are awarded degrees from both sending countries and receiving countries and effectively mutual recognition of credit with dual registration. • Physical presence: Establish a physical presence in the country and obtain permission from the receiving country to offer ‘recognised’ qualifications. The GATS classification has been overtaken by events, and the proliferation of different collaboration mechanisms makes the definition of TNHE above too restrictive. Therefore, TNHE should include any collaboration arrangements for educational delivery that is (a) international level, (b) beyond secondary level and (c) includes the types of TNHE mentioned above. John Denham, the UK Secretary of State for Innovations Universities and Skills, said, ‘about 60,000 Chinese students are currently studying in the UK today (excluding those who still stay in UK after their studies), and visa applications of students from January to September have gone up by 12 percent year-on-year. More than 100 UK higher education institutions had established or were in the process of establishing partnership links with Chinese institutions’ (UK gets second highest number of Chinese students, 2007, October 30). Although studying abroad has been popular with Chinese students for decades, involvement of large numbers of Chinese universities in TNHE is quite a new phenomenon in the early 21st century. The Chinese government signed agreements in April 2002 and February 2004 on ‘Equivalence of Academic Degrees in Higher Education’ with the governments of Germany and UK respectively (Education Cooperation with European Countries, the Ministry of Education of China website, 2008). This is clear evidence showing China is currently actively pushing forward the progress of mutual recognition of academic degrees with other European countries. This raises initial questions. What are the Chinese government’s motivations in TNHE? What are the Chinese universities’ motivations in TNHE? What are the relationships between the types of institution and their motivations in TNHE? These questions set the rationale and aims of this chapter. This chapter is not focused on the government’s motivations in TNHE because the current literature, for example Zhang (2003), has

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provided a clear answer (see the later part of this chapter). Instead, this chapter is focused on the Chinese universities’ motivations and the relationships between the types of institution and their motivations in TNHE.

2.3 Background information The motivations for TNHE in China have varied over time and the ‘consumers’ have changed from the state to the individual with the universities in between. During the period 1978 to 1992, TNHE was motivated by a desire for realising the ‘Four Modernisations’ (of industry, agriculture, national defence as well as science and technology) of the country. In order to realise the ‘Four Modernisations’, education – especially TNHE – was prioritised for development. At that time, China had an urgent demand for professional staff and lacked new technology from overseas. China also had a desire for learning from Englishspeaking countries. As a result of that, the Chinese government sent thousands of Chinese students/scholars abroad to study. After 1992, the motivations were influenced by globalisation, worldwide competition and the achievement of mass higher education in China. From 1993, more attention was paid to the problem of the ‘brain drain’. Therefore the focus of the government shifted to how to encourage Chinese students and scholars to return to China, how to attract more foreign students to study in Chinese universities, and how to internationalise Chinese universities’ curricula. The growth and development of TNHE in China has progressed from an informal, incidental and laissez-faire activity from 1978 to 1995 into a currently more systematic and regulated activity, largely controlled by the Chinese government through ‘input’ – accrediting, registering and licensing TNHE institutions, and restricting curriculum development in particular study fields, as well as ‘output’ – controlling the types and levels of academic degrees (Huang, 2003). At present, USA and European countries (especially UK) are major ‘providing’ countries. In terms of TNHE, a country is regarded as a ‘providing’ country if its curriculum is adopted and degrees are awarded. The other party is called the ‘receiving’ country. For example, Chinese students study at British universities and are awarded British degrees, so the UK is seen as a ‘providing’ country and China is a ‘receiving’ country in terms of TNHE. But if British students study at Chinese universities and achieve awards from Chinese universities, China is regarded as a ‘providing’ country and UK is the ‘receiving’ country.

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The ‘providing’ countries are driven by both financial reasons and the desire for internationalisation. More importantly, the medium of instruction plays a direct role. For example, English-speaking countries are popular destinations for Chinese students. The ‘providing’ countries involved in TNHE are more business oriented. De Vita and Case (2003) contend that TNHE is a product of the marketisation of higher education and the competitive rush for international students. This view is supported by many researchers such as Alexander and Rizvi (1993), Matthews (2002) and Marginson and Rhoades (2003). The underlying reason that the ‘providing’ universities are diversifying their income is because the government has cut funding for individual universities and left universities to find their own ways to generate funding. As for China, as a ‘receiving’ country in TNHE, the rationale of TNHE at the present might be different. The rationale of TNHE, which can be found in the current literature, is to • optimise the Chinese educational curriculum, • improve Chinese educational methods, • invite world-class experts including Nobel Prize winners to teach in China, • foster a great number of up-to-date specialists and • share world-class excellent educational resources and save cost of studying abroad (Xiang, 1999). Zhang (2003, online) conducted that Research on why the Chinese government encouraged TNHE in China and agreed that TNHE in China is mainly expected to help improve the quality of China’s human resources and upgrade China’s educational system, meet the national educational demand, prevent brain drain, and attract foreign capital into education. Actually TNHE is ‘convenient’ for both ‘providing’ universities and ‘receiving’ universities. More importantly, TNHE is financially sound for both parties. For ‘providing’ universities, in most cases, foreign universities are motivated by filling the funding gap and the desire for internationalising the universities. For ‘receiving’ universities, Chinese universities are not only motivated by financial reasons but also by the market demand for higher education, especially for TNHE for the richer group. The interests of Western and Chinese universities coincide and, from a financial point of view, are similar and have similar causes related to the governments’ funding and the need to invest.

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The motivation of Chinese universities cooperating with foreign universities engaging in TNHE is much more complex according to the present research. Different types of TNHE have different motivations. The motivations will be explained and analysed after the research methods.

2.4 Research methods The information obtained for this chapter is part of a PhD study (Zheng, 2008). The research methods adopted in the PhD include interview, questionnaire, case studies and field research. The main research method for collecting information in this chapter is through in-depth interviews. Moreover, the interview quotes given here are selected for this chapter’s purpose only. All the informants given in this chapter are anonymous, known as Informant A, B, C … up to Informant S. Apart from primary data obtained from the methods above, secondary data was also collected from university websites, brochures and other university documents. The reason for adopting interviews as one of the research methods is because the interview is an extremely flexible research tool (Breakwell, 1995). It can be used at any stage of the research process. Moreover, interviews can be readily combined with other approaches in a multimethod design, which may incorporate, for example, questionnaire measures or observation. Interviewing, as with all research methods, is also open to a number of biases and shortcomings, the most critical of which is the difficulty of achieving reliable and valid results. Quantification and objectification of interview-derived data are the most powerful ways to remedy this, and highlight the importance of the researcher maintaining an objective stance throughout the research process (Brewerton, 2001). The interview has its advantages; for example, extensive opportunities for asking and probing, which questionnaires cannot reach, can be realised in the personal interviews. Moreover, additional questions which emerged in the process of the research can be addressed in the interviews. The interview enables probing for adequate answers and can ensure that complex instructions or sequences can be adhered to. Interviews are probably the most effective way of ensuring cooperation from most populations. A total of 124 Chinese university staff were interviewed in China and the UK when some of them visited the UK as visiting scholars. The interviews were conducted in both English and Chinese. Responses were given in both English and Chinese. Where the responses were in Chinese, the author has given her own translation. The reason is that

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not all the administrative staff or even some academic staff are fluent in English, especially in expressing deeper thinking and ideas. Using the language of their mother tongue can relieve them and draw more information from the interviews. The interviewees are from different types of universities in China in different regions. There are three types of interviewees in the research: academic staff, senior university managerial staff and staff from International Offices. Thus, information was triangulated. Part of the interview questions and their justifications are listed in the table in appendix. The questions for the interviews were divided into six groups covering the areas of • basic information about the university and the degree awarded, • motivations of the university and how their international partnerships have been developed, • the Chinese government policy on TNHE, • the university entry requirement on TNHE and • the benefits and difficulties of TNHE. The aim of asking these questions is to try to investigate more about the background information of Chinese universities and the internal and external environment they are operating within. This helps to understand the motivations of Chinese universities at a deeper level. Please see the appendix for the details of the questions and their justification.

2.5 Research findings 2.5.1 The type of students and the type of degree The findings of question group one show that the type of students recruited and the type of degree awarded in TNHE programmes are crucial in understanding the motivations of Chinese universities engaging in TNHE with foreign universities. The students recruited for TNHE are of two types: a) State-planned students: State-planned students refer to those who pass the National Entrance Examination to Universities and gain a place in the universities. b) Non-state-planned students: They are those who are not offered a place by the government in any universities or they may be mature students.

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There are two types of degrees awarded in TNHE. One is called ‘single degree’ and the other is called ‘double degree’: • ‘Single degree’ means only one degree is awarded at the end of study in TNHE, in most cases, single degree refers to a foreign university’s degree in TNHE programmes. • ‘Double degree’ means that two degrees are awarded at the end of study: one is a Chinese university degree and the other is foreign partner university’s degree. The findings of question group one and four show that there is a correlation between the type of students recruited and the type of degree awarded, according to the research findings. State-planned students are always awarded double degrees and non-state-planned students are always awarded a single degree, namely foreign partner university’s degree. But according to the findings, the single degree must be registered (see Section 2.5.2 for more details). The reason for this is that state-planned students are guaranteed a Chinese university’s degree if they meet all the academic conditions of the university. But non-state-planned students can never obtain a Chinese university degree but only a foreign university degree because they are not in the Chinese government’s quota. Due to these differences of student types and degree awarded, the motivations of Chinese universities in providing TNHE are different. 2.5.2 Registering with the MOE One of the biggest research findings from question group three is that not all TNHE programmes in Chinese universities are registered with the MOE, whereas in fact registering with the MOE is compulsory. The findings show that nearly all the single degree programmes are not registered with the MOE, double degree programmes of prestigious universities are registered and double degree programmes of less prestigious universities are not registered. Quite a substantial number of TNHE programmes offered by International Colleges are single degree programmes and unregistered with the MOE. In most cases, students recruited for International Colleges are not offered any places in Chinese universities according to the government’s quota. Students who have only certification but not a degree because of some failure also seek single foreign degrees. According to the respondents, registering with the MOE is very time consuming. The procedure of registering is very strict as well. The MOE encourages Chinese universities to cooperate with top world universities in subject areas which China is weak in. The MOE’s intention is not to allow the Chinese universities to become too market oriented. However,

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in reality, many less prestigious Chinese universities have become very market oriented by offering single degree programmes for nonstate-planned students. The research reveals that double degree programmes need to register with the MOE. Here are some comments: We must get approval from the MOE. Otherwise MOE will question us where are the students? We are different from those independent college or private universities because we don’t have much autonomy. However, we have more guarantees for our students. If they cannot meet the requirement of studying abroad, for example, they failed International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and cannot study abroad; at least they could stay in here and get a Chinese degree at the end. (Informant A, International officer, MOE University) Every single degree programme is encouraged to register with the government as well, although in fact not many universities do so. Chinese government is advocate cooperating with foreign universities. It can be found in China Higher Education Law: Cooperation education has independent right. Universities need to report to MOE for any recruiting out of national quota. (Informant B, Secretary of International Office, MOE University) The key universities may be at a disadvantage in joint programmes because they have to seek approval from MOE, while many provincial and local universities are not subject to such requirements. They may have a competitive advantage because they can develop programmes that national key universities are not permitted to offer. (Informant C, International Officer, Key Provincial University) Recently, some universities have started to use the state entrance exam to assess entrants to International Colleges offering non-degree foundation programmes. This, to some extent, reflects the government’s intention to regulate the current TNHE market in China. 2.5.3 Motivations of Chinese universities The research findings of question group two show that Chinese universities are responding actively to the TNHE market. The motivations for engaging in TNHE are much more complex than the traditional motivations as mentioned above. The state motivations are clearly valid for public consumption and to avoid loss of face. This research reveals the factors determining the motivations of Chinese universities. There are two main variables: (1) types of universities and (2) type of students

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recruited. There are other less important variables such as location of universities. Table 2.1 summarises the different motivations of Chinese universities with respect to the two main variables in terms of students recruited and university status. So it is probably fair to say that for double degrees, the common motivator is to expand national/international influence and for single degrees, the motivation of gaining financial benefit and catering to the market demand are clear (See Tables 2.2 and 2.3). Table 2.1

A comparison of Chinese universities’ motivations in TNHE

State-planned students/ double degrees awarded

Non-state-planned students/ single degree awarded

1) Developing curriculum and joint research 2) Marketing themselves 3) Developing staff 4) Internationalising the university

Table 2.2

a) Economic interest b) Catering to the market needs c) Developing curriculum and staff d) Internationalising the university

A summary of the questionnaire data

Number of MOE universities Number of general universities Total number of universities Number of questionnaire received Institutional response rate Individual response rate

Table 2.3 Type

28 40 68 210 44.1% 20.6%

Models of Chinese foreign cooperation programme Format

Meaning

1

Foreign curriculum, Foreign degree

2

Foreign and Chinese curriculum, Foreign degree Foreign and Chinese curriculum, Foreign and Chinese degree Foreign curriculum, Foreign degree, Chinese certificate

Foreign universities provide curriculum and confer degrees. No requirements on location. Both universities provide curriculum, but foreign institutions confer the final degrees. Both universities provide curriculum and the students are awarded double degrees.

3

4

5

Both universities provide curriculum, foreign university confers degrees, Chinese institution offers certificate. Foreign curriculum, Chinese Foreign university provides curriculum, degree, Foreign certificate Chinese institution confers degree, foreign institution confers certificate.

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2.5.3.1 State-planned students and double degrees programmes As stated, for state-planned students and double degree programmes, the motivations of Chinese universities are the above. 1. Some respondents said that developing curriculum and joint research are their priorities, for example: We hope we can develop more joint research opportunities with our partner universities abroad. This can provide excellent opportunities for our students to study abroad and become international talents. (Informant E, academic staff, prestigious non-MOE university) One of the biggest benefits we gain from cooperation is curriculum development. Through cooperation, Business English in our university is quickly developed. (Informant G, academic staff, prestigious non-MOE university) Since we have a joint programme with British universities, subjects like British Culture and Intercultural Communications are developed …’ (Informant H, academic staff, prestigious non-MOE university) 2. Nearly every respondent mentioned that TNHE is one of their marketing tools in improving the league table position or recruiting students, for example: If we cooperate with foreign universities in running joint programmes, it is a strong evidence to show our provincial government that we have the ability and potential to do it. Therefore, it is more likely to have more funding from the government. (Informant I, academic staff, key provincial university) The reason of expanding our influence in society is for recruiting. Actually we don’t have any financial income through cooperation programmes instead sometimes we have some expenditure on this. For example, for IELTS training, the teachers we need are special ones and they ask for more salary. This cost cannot come from the students because the students are only required to pay the tuition fees that Chinese government stipulates and the cost of studying abroad. (Informant J, academic staff, MOE university) 3. The respondents also mentioned that staff development is one of the motivators, for example:

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We are very brave and innovative in staffing. We have an administrative staff that is from U.S. When we have meetings, we must speak English. So far, I found it is quite good. To some extent, we realize the internationalization of our staff and the university. (Informant C, International Officer, prestigious non-MOE University) One third of our staff visited our partner universities in more than 50 countries and this has broadened the view of our staff. (Informant F, Head of International College, prestigious non-MOE university) 4. The theme of internationalising universities is heard frequently in the interviews (findings from question group five), for example: We are working towards to become a world-class university. We are hoping to attract more and more foreign students to study in our campuses. (Informant K, President, MOE University) The aim of cooperating with foreign universities is for the purpose of internationalizing ourselves, is for training the talents with international vision competitors, and is for internationalizing teaching staff, students, curriculum, teaching methodology and education ideology. (Informant L, President, MOE University) 5. Staff from universities, which provide state-planned students with double degree programmes, commented that their motivations are consistent with their mission statement, which includes internationalisation of the universities as well, for example: Expanding the influence internationally is consistent with our mission statement and the government’s policy of entering international academic community and becoming world class universities … (Informant D, secretary of President’s Office, MOE University) 2.5.3.2 Non-state-planned students with single degree awarded For non-state-planned students and single degree award programmes, the motivations of Chinese universities are slightly different with different priorities as well.

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(a) Economic interest ranks at number one, which is not a surprise. Some interviewees admitted it without any hesitation. For example: The main purpose of doing that is for profit. (Informant F, Head of International College, prestigious non-MOE University) It is for money problem and society interest and of course for introducing foreign teaching stuff, for example task based learning teaching method. (Informant N, academic staff, Provincial University) Some interviewees are indirect in answering this question. Instead, they said diversifying programmes and internationalising their universities instead. For example: The reason we recruit non-state-planned students is because we want to diversify our programmes and make good use of our excellent educational resources. (Informant I, academic staff, key provincial university) No matter what types of students we recruited, international programmes are good for internationalizing our university. (Informant O, academic staff, Provincial University) (b) The second motivator is national market demand. For example: Chinese society has a high demand in joining this kind of programmes. The basic reason is that Chinese universities do not have enough educational resources to accommodate large numbers of students. Many parents hope their children receive higher education. Sometimes their children are not able to squeeze through the Chinese entrance examination to universities, what can they do? So the demand in society is there, we can help the students find a solution through joint programmes. (Informant J, academic staff, MOE University) Students, especially mature students with some years of working experiences need professional development by enrolling with our international courses, which can give them a competitive edge in future employment market. (Informant P, administrator, Provincial University)

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(c) Some respondents mentioned the employment difficulties in China nowadays, which directly leads to the demand for TNHE, for example: Graduates with BA degree are a huge number in China nowadays especially after the recruitment expansion in 1999. With the increasing difficulty of employment, pursuing a higher degree is a trend among students. However, there are far less universities with the qualification of recruiting postgraduate degree such as Masters and PhDs. There are only about 200 universities out of 1517 with the qualification of recruiting Master’s students. Doctoral degree granting universities are even less. (Informant Q, administrator in student employment centre, MOE University) The students who have Bachelor associate degrees are not satisfied with their current qualification and there are a significant number of good students among them who want to develop themselves to international standard. (Informant O, academic staff, Provincial University) (d) Except for finding a solution for the students, curriculum and staff development are another two motivators, for example: A big percentage of staff in our university has the experience studying abroad. Nearly half of them study abroad through cooperative programme or foreign links. Now they are contributing in their own field using the knowledge they learned abroad. A subject like International Accounting is still undeveloped in China. We don’t have the ability to offer this subject. Cooperating with Australian universities can help us training our staff, developing our own subject. We have a lot of opportunities of sending our staff to foreign universities in joint programmes. (Informant R, Head of English Department, prestigious non-MOE university) (e) Internationalising the university is mentioned by nearly all the respondents, which is not restricted to the type of university and the type of degree awarded, for example: Through cooperation with foreign universities, we improved ourselves. And then we are trying to attract more international students to study in our university. (Informant F, Head of International College, prestigious non-MOE university)

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International students study in our university is not far away. Now we have many international students coming from other Asian countries. They not only learn Chinese, but also other subjects such as international trade. And we realize the real meaning of internationalization of the university. (Informant M, secretary of International College, provincial university) 2.5.4 The type of universities and the type of TNHE programmes Having noted that there are other less significant variables influencing the motivations of Chinese universities, for example regional variation, this chapter has focused on the relationship between the types of students, the type of degrees and the universities’ motivation in TNHE programmes. The research findings divide Chinese universities into roughly two types: prestigious universities and less prestigious universities: • Prestigious universities (in this chapter referring to MOE universities, national key universities, Project 211 universities, project 985 universities, and some provincial key universities in the top 100 in the league table). • Less prestigious universities in this chapter referring to the others not in the above category. The research findings show that prestigious universities mainly provide state-planned students with double degree programmes, but they are moving towards providing non-state-planned students with single degree programmes. For example: the reason we also provide international programme for non-stateplanned students is for making good use of our educational resources and it can also generate income for us. (Informant J, academic staff, MOE University) … yes, we have single degree programmes for non-state-planned students. The programmes are all in our College of Adult Education and the International College. The ‘key colleges’ do not provide that kind of programme. (Informant R, prestigious MOE University) We have an International College, which provides opportunities for non-state planned students. These programmes are becoming the major source of income for our university. (Informant F, Head of International College, prestigious non-MOE University)

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Motivations and Markets in Chinese Universities

The quotations above are from less prestigious universities. Nowadays even top MOE universities do higher national diploma (HND) routes, for example 1+3 and 3+1 programmes. The research also shows that less prestigious universities provide both types of TNHE programmes as mentioned above. Some less prestigious universities start with non-state-planned students with single degrees and gradually move on to state-planned students with double degrees and the other type of less prestigious universities and vice versa. Among all the targeted universities, a quarter of less prestigious universities said they are not keen on providing TNHE programmes for non-state-planned students for fear of becoming too market oriented. For example: We don’t want to go towards marketization; we are not worrying about our recruitment at all … (Informant S, staff in International Office, key provincial university) This person’s view represents the view of some provincial key universities. They are stuck in the middle between national key universities and other small provincial universities. They are not worrying about their survival and they do not want to be criticised for becoming too commercialised. They do not have the strength to see non-state-planned programmes as diversifying education programmes like prestigious universities and are reluctant to risk their reputation like small less prestigious universities. As a result of that, in some cases, they are the slowest in responding to TNHE, and in most cases are the least internationalised. However, articulation routes are not the only ways to internationalise. This can also come through research collaboration and receiving foreign students. MOE universities and top provincial universities are most concerned with prestigious research collaboration, visiting professors and cooperation on higher degrees. The other less prestigious universities all feel positive on TNHE and regard this type of TNHE as a way of internationalising their universities.

2.6 Chinese universities’ motivations and marketisation Chinese universities’ motivations in TNHE show that Chinese universities are becoming more like business entities; for example, we can see the increase in developing International Colleges providing non-state-planned students with single degree programmes to generate more revenues. TNHE is undoubtedly regarded as a way of generating financial income especially through TNHE for non-state-planned students. All these activities show the tendency towards the marketisation of Chinese

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universities. But MOE universities are constrained by regulations, reputation and so on although they have the biggest funding problem. As Mok (2005) proposed, there are two major forms of marketisation in education: the first involves attempts by educational institutions to market their academic wares in the commercial world, while the other involves restructuring educational institutions in terms of business principles and practices. But we need to note that the process of marketisation of Chinese universities is at an early stage. Clearly, according to the research, Chinese universities have marketed their academic courses in the commercial world, for example, courses for TNHE, adult higher education and self-studying higher education. Unlike previous practices, these courses are mainly now designed deliberately to cater to the demands of students. Moreover, as in the West, many Chinese universities have developed ‘non-core’ businesses on the basis of their core business. For example, universities may specialise in Science, but they also offer programmes in Business and Management. Universities may focus on Foreign Languages and International Trade, but they also offer programmes in disciplines such as Law, Management and even Computing. The examples above show that Chinese universities are becoming more market oriented. The ‘non-core’ businesses have developed rapidly in Chinese universities recently, for example TNHE, university-affiliated colleges and commercially based research. The purpose of developing ‘noncore’ businesses for business organisations is to maximise the profit for shareholders while for higher education institutions it is to maximise the contribution to funding overheads. This is mainly an issue of survival.

2.7 ‘University ideals’ and ‘financial reality’ Universities can be seen as ‘places of learning, research and service through the application of knowledge’ (Altbach, 2001) for the ‘public good’ and a collective investment for mutual benefit (Welch and Wright, 2004, p. 80). Ideally, the main concerns of a university should be to be a place purely for teaching, learning and research without major concerns for income generation. However, in reality, it is not like that and this has always been true. There is a sharp conflict between ‘university ideals’ and ‘financial reality’. This conflict arises today in all countries because of the rising costs and the limited funding from the government and because of increased participants in higher education and of which is poorly funded. So compromises are needed. Universities need to find ways of being both educationally sound and financially safe. TNHE has become one of the ways.

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What are the Chinese universities’ choices between ‘university ideals’ and ‘financial reality’? For example, do Chinese universities keep less popular courses just for cultural importance, for example, Ancient Chinese or Confucian Studies? Do universities close down those unpopular courses? The answers to the questions are ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Chinese universities keep the less popular courses for the state-planned students by reducing the entrance requirements in order to keep up the student numbers. But those courses have no attraction for non-state-planned students. Therefore, less popular courses in TNHE or other adult higher education programmes are just closed down. The problem has been highlighted in the UK by the case of Physics. Here there is a national need, but the recruitment market is limited. At the same time, the mass market is for other subjects. Similarly, in China very few colleges for non-state-planned students offer courses in Ancient Chinese for cultural reasons. The colleges, with no exception, are offering courses in popular subjects (mainly business and finance related). So this is clearly a market response. In a word, because of the funding gap, universities have to engage in income generation and consider the viability of courses. Even when universities do not prioritise financial issues, staff development and research have to be funded. So finance is often a linked issue underlying the relationship or it is hidden. For example universities may take most of their revenues for research and consultancy and support undergraduate studies from the main revenue generation. These examples above clearly show that Chinese universities are responding to the marketisation forces, especially on programmes for non-state-planned students. There is another example showing Chinese universities are actively responding to the marketisation here. The government stipulates that any state-planned TNHE programmes should be registered with the MOE to gain permission. However, the research findings show that quite a significant number of Chinese universities seek loopholes and do not register with the MOE in running TNHE programmes. This is because registering with the MOE means less curriculum design flexibility and therefore the universities cannot maximally respond to the market demand. Due to the fact that more and more Chinese universities seek the loopholes in government policies and they also have strong motivations for engaging in TNHE, the government gives certain quotas for each provincial government for recruiting non-state-planned students for TNHE every year. The changing policy of the government, on one side, shows

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the decentralisation of the management – one of the forces leading to the decentralisation is market demand – but on the other side shows the MOE is caught between quality control and demands for more flexibility, for example the recent increases in regulation show a reaction to the problem coming from unplanned and uncontrolled internationalisation earlier.

2.8 Problems in marketisation The marketisation of higher education is causing debates in China and elsewhere. For example, some people believe marketisation is progressive and evolutionary, while some people see it as damaging to the intrinsic values and ideals that education represents (Haddad, 2005). A similar problem arises here in the process of the marketisation of Chinese universities. Many Chinese universities are increasing their sizes by merging or developing university-affiliated colleges such as International Colleges providing non-state-planned students with single degree programmes. This can be seen as a direct result of marketisation because this development can allow a better response to the demand. However, the new organisation structure can lead to new problems. For example, in some cases, the International College was set up deliberately for responding to the market demand of TNHE in the local market and it has generated a majority of the financial income for the university. But according to the interview findings, students and staff at the International College do not gain the same respect and privileges as other academic colleges. This is because the marketisation of Chinese universities jeopardises the purpose of universities and most people cannot accept the fact of marketisation. Moreover, the consequences of the existence of International Colleges are wealth disparities and inequality in China. For example, students in International Colleges might well have better buildings, dormitories and staff–student ratios. Apart from that, students in International Colleges have gained another advantage in receiving higher education over those who are not in the Colleges just because they are rich enough. Therefore, the marketisation of higher education must be balanced by safeguarding the quality of education. But, Chinese universities cannot respond fully only by setting up a functional department. That creates an ‘us and them’ attitude. All departments need to be involved. Again the response is not complete: rather it looks like a way of separating the problem from the traditional departments.

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Motivations and Markets in Chinese Universities

2.9 Conclusion The forces of TNHE are so great that Chinese universities have already begun to change partly due to a conflict between education/learning as an aim and training/vocational study as an aim. Some universities seem to be going too far in responding to the needs of TNHE and are criticised by the public for their market orientation. As a result of that criticism, they are seeking policies to protect themselves. With more and more universities like these which are rapidly responding to the market and which need policies to support the process, the Chinese government will issue policies to regulate the market of TNHE in China. In fact this is already happening. For example, the MOE encourages Chinese universities to cooperate with the top world top universities in the subject areas that Chinese universities are weak in or not able to provide. This is a top-down response to the bottom-up initiatives. To some extent, the changes show the success of the transition from the planned economy to the regulated market economy. The MOE regulations seem piecemeal and reactive to Chinese universities. Chinese universities are in rapid transition and TNHE is definitely one of the fastest changing areas. Therefore, the motivations of Chinese universities cannot be seen out of the external and internal environment of Chinese universities. As stated earlier, there are other variables which influence the motivations of Chinese universities such as regional differences and the changes of the government policy. Therefore, these are going to be the directions for the future research.

State-planned full-time programmes

Educational Context

State-planned international programmes

Business Context

Both Chinese and foreign degrees

Figure 2.1

Programmes of Chinese universities

State-planned fulltime/part-time programmes for adults Non-state-planned international programmes

Single foreign degrees

Appendix Part of the Interview Questions of the PhD Study and Their Justification

Question group

Justification

Question group 1

Justification:

Do you have any Chinese foreign cooperation programmes in your university? Are all your international programmes of the same type or different? What are the types of your international programmes, for example at what level, in which subject areas, with which foreign countries/areas, how many years have you been cooperating with foreign universities in providing TNHE?

To initiate the interview; to understand the prima facie information on international programmes running in the university such as level, subject area, partner and time of cooperation.

Question group 2

Justification:

What are the motivations of cooperating with foreign universities in providing degree level higher education, known as Transnational Higher Education (TNHE)? How have your current partnerships developed; for example, do you positively seek your partner or are you contacted? What are your criteria for selecting a foreign partner?

Based on the question group 1, to understand the university’s different motivations on different types of international programmes; to understand how do the university set up its international links and what is its requirement on foreign partners.

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Question group 3

Justification:

Do you need permission to run your international programmes from the Ministry of Education (MOE) or your provincial educational authorities? What is the procedure of applying for the permission? Is it easy or difficult to obtain the permission? What are the difficulties? What are the benefits of having the permission?

To further understand the type of international programmes because not all universities have permissions; to understand the procedure of applying for permission, from which to understand the difficulties; to understand the benefits of having the permission. From question group 3, also to know the government policy on TNHE and the university’s management relationship with the authorities.

Question group 4

Justification:

What are your entry requirements for your international programmes? Do you separate your international programme from your non-international (traditional) programmes or not? For example, do you have an independent school/college for international programmes only or not?

From the entry requirements, we can confirm the types of international programmes and understand the quality of their students; the aims are to understand the operation preference of international programmes in the university because some universities mix international programme students with non-international programme students, while some have an independent school/college for international programme students; to understand the scale of their international programmes as well; this question can also lead to university structure change, therefore, it is natural to dig deeper.

Question group 5

Justification:

What are the benefits and difficulties/conflicts in your international cooperation? What do you think

To understand the benefits in cooperation and further understand their motivations; at the

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internationalisation means for your university?

same time to understand the current contradictions/barriers/ difficulties in cooperation with foreign partners; to help to interpret if it is due to the difference in culture/management system/ communication or other causes.

Question group 6

Justification:

What do you think about the TNHE market demand? Is the market competitive? Do you have a competitive advantage over other universities? What do you think about the employment market for TNHE graduates? How does Chinese society and employers perceive of TNHE degree?

To probe deeper into the market demand by the numbers of students enrolled every year; from their comments on competitive advantage, we can know if the market is competitive and if they think they are successful or not; it is natural to link the employment market of international programmes because it decides the competitiveness; from the question group 6, the TNHE can be understood from the market level.

Source: Zheng (2008), unpublished PhD thesis, University of Portsmouth.

References Alexander, D., and Rizvi, F. (1993), Educational Markets and the Contradictions of Asian–Australian Relations. Higher Education in Transition: Working Papers of the Higher Education Policy Project (pp. 110–23). Brisbane: University of Queensland. Altbach, P. (2001), Higher Education and the WTO: Globalisation Run Amok. International Higher Education. 23, p. 2. Breakwell, G. M. (1995), Interviewing in Research Methods in Psychology, edited by S. Hammond and C. Fife-Schaw. London: Sage Publications. Brewerton, P. M. (2001), Organizational Research Methods: A Guide for Students and Researchers. London: Sage Publications. De Vita, G. and Case, P. (2003), Rethinking the internationalization agenda in UK higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 27(4), pp. 383–98, November, ISSN 0309-877X. Education Cooperation with European Countries (2008), The Ministry of Education of China official website, retrieved 20 April 2008 from the website of http:// www.moe.edu.cn/english/international_8.htm.

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GATS (1999), Trade in Transnational Education Services. Washington, DC: Global Alliance for Transnational Education. Haddad, G. (2005), Now comes the time for action, action research dealing with the marketization of Higher education-new teaching and learning, University Number – 0208995, online resources, retrieved 12/04/08 from the website: http://www2. warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/research/fkuc/research/diss.doc. Hsiao, C. M. and Yang, J. F. (2004), Educational Marketing in Asia Transnational Education, Taiwan: Hsing-Kuo University. Retrieved 3 April 2005 from the website: http://www.chinagate.com.cn/english/200.htm. Huang, F. T. (2003), Transnational Higher Education: A Perspective from China, Higher Education Research and Development. Vol. 22, no. 2. Carfax Publishing. Knight, J. (2005). Borderless, Offshore, Transnational and Cross-border Education: Definition and Data Dilemmas, the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. Retrieved 23 April 2005 from the website: http://www.obhe.ac.uk/ products/reports/ Marginson, S. and Rhoades, G. (2003). Beyond National States, Markets, and Systems of Higher Education: a Glonacal Agency Heuristic. Higher Education, 43(3), pp. 281–309. Matthews, J. (2002), International Education and Internationalization Are Not the Same as Globalization: Emerging Issues for Secondary Schools. Journal of Studies in International Education, 6(4), pp. 369–90. Mok, K. (2005), Globalisation and Educational Restructuring: University Merging and Changing Governance in China, Higher Education. Netherlands: Springer. UNESCO/Council of Europe (2000), Code of Good Practice in the Provision of Transnational Education. Bucharest, Romania: UNESCO-CEPES. UK gets second highest number of Chinese students (2007, October 30). China Daily, retrieved 20 April 2007 from the following website: http://www.china.org.cn/ international/cultural_sidelines/2007-10/30/content_1230169.htm. Welch, P., and Wright, S. (eds) (2004), Markets, Corporations, Consumers? New Landscapes of Higher Education. Learning and Teaching in the Social Sciences, 1(2). Xiang, Q. (1999), An Analysis of the Development of Chinese Foreign Cooperation Programmes. Journal of Lujiang University, 7(4), pp. 74–7 (written in Chinese). Zhang, C. C. (2003), Transnational Higher Education in China: Why Has the State Encouraged its Development? Published dissertation, Stanford University, USA. Available online http://www.stanford.edu/dept/SUSE/ICE/monographs/Zhang. pdf. Zheng, L. (2008), The Responses of Chinese Universities on Transnational Higher Education and the Internationalization of Chinese Universities, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Portsmouth, UK.

3 The Internationalisation of Higher Education in China: The Case of One University Junju Wang

3.1 Introduction Internationalisation has become the main trend for the development of higher education worldwide. So is the case in China where it is not only a hot topic for higher education research, but also an issue that attracts increasing attention from scholars and experts of all circles. Using a case study approach, this chapter investigates the progress achieved in the internationalisation of Chinese higher education, and the opportunities and challenges facing Chinese universities in the process of internationalisation. It first discusses the social economic background for internationalisation of Chinese higher education, with special attention paid to the driving forces such as China’s opening-up and reformation, the information age, and knowledge-based economy. Then it examines the current situation and major forms of the internationalisation of Chinese universities from the perspectives of policy, strategies, measures, and outcomes. Possible approaches to the internationalisation of Chinese universities are finally discussed with regard to domestic and international collaboration and cooperation. This chapter concludes that Chinese universities have just started on the road to internationalisation. They need to draw on experiences of foreign universities in this regard and need more effort and support from all sectors of society. For decades, internationalisation has become the main trend for the development of higher education worldwide. In China, much progress has been achieved in the internationalisation of higher education with the implementation of the open-door policy and higher education reforms. Due to the influence of globalisation and knowledge-based economy, Chinese universities have become more and more integrated 57

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into the international academic community and are playing an important role on social development (Huang, 2005). Internationalisation has become not only a hot topic for higher education research, but also an issue that attracts increasing attention from scholars and experts of all circles. The internationalisation of higher education in China dates back to the latter part of the 1970s when China started opening up to the rest of the world. At that time, the internationalisation of Chinese universities was essentially motivated by a desire to realise ‘the four modernizations’ (Huang, 2003), for which the central government played a directive role in issuing various policies and strategies concerning internationalisation of higher education. Later in the1990s, the internationalisation of higher education in China was influenced not only by the economic reform but also by more diverse factors, including academic and cultural factors. During this period, China facilitated the pace of the transition to a market economy with Chinese characteristics, and a conception of competition with an international perspective was rapidly introduced into the development of China’s higher education (Yang, 2002; Huang, 2006a). Since the late 1990s, strategies for internationalisation of higher education have become more involved in searching for a response to challenges from globalisation. China, as a member of WTO, has higher education cooperation agreements with 160 countries and has become the world’s largest higher education market being active in 14 international organisations (Chen, 2003). Generally speaking, the internationalisation of higher education in China takes three major forms. One is to study abroad, including dispatching abroad Chinese students and faculty members for advanced studies or research collaboration. Another is to integrate the international dimension into Chinese universities, including the introduction of foreign textbooks and references as well as the development of both English programmes and bilingual programmes. The other is to provide transnational programmes in cooperation with foreign institutional partners in Chinese universities (Huang, 2006b, 2006c). Prior to the late 1990s, the internationalisation of higher education in China was mainly characterised by sending Chinese faculty members and students to foreign countries for studies or research work. Initially, almost all of them were dispatched abroad with a public funding and their numbers were quite limited, mostly selected from leading universities. However, after students were permitted to go abroad at their own expense, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of Chinese students studying in foreign countries since the end of the 1980s. For

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example, in 1990, only 7647 students and scholars were sent abroad, and nearly all of them were funded by central and local governments (China Education Yearbook Editorial Board, 1991). In 2003, the number of scholars and students who went to foreign countries for study or research rose to 117,300, among which the percentage of private students had amounted to 93 per cent (China Education Yearbook Editorial Board, 2004). Unfortunately, previous studies have primarily described the general situation of the internationalisation of Chinese higher education from either a historical or realistic point of view. Few have focused on a particular university for a closer examination of the process of internationalisation of Chinese universities. Therefore, for a deeper and better understanding of the internationalising process of Chinese universities, this study aims at adopting a case study approach to explore how Chinese universities have been pursuing internationalisation and what has been done in such a process. The practices of a Chinese university in the process of internationalisation will be described in details covering the policies and strategies adopted as well as the effects and outcomes. Challenges will be finally discussed together with some tentative suggestions for future practice.

3.2 Method Shandong Province is selected as the case to examine in this study for deeper understanding of the internationalisation of Chinese universities. This university is representative of Chinese higher education in the sense of internationalisation for the reason that all-round openness has been its strategic policy for several decades and much has been done in pursuit of internationalisation. Founded in 1901, Shandong University is a key comprehensive university under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. It is one of the oldest renowned universities throughout the country and one of the high-ranking universities whose development is given priority by the state. This university now has 42 colleges, six affiliated hospitals, 12 internship hospitals and a postgraduate institute, providing programmes at bachelor, master, and doctoral levels, covering fields of literature, history, philosophy, economics, management, law, science, engineering, medicine, pedagogy, and military science. Shandong University is one of the leading universities in the course of internationalising higher education in China. So far it has established an extensive transnational relationship in academic exchanges

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and cooperation with more than 100 universities in over 40 countries and regions, and has accepted international students from over 60 countries. Each year, it sends abroad about 150 faculty members and about 500 students for advanced studies or joint research work (Liu, 2007). Therefore, it is hoped that a close look at Shandong University and the process of its internationalisation would provide more detailed information on how Chinese universities are striving towards the goal of internationalisation, what strategies and measures have been taken, what effects and outcomes have been produced, and what are the challenges, if any, to meet for the future development.

3.3 Practices of Shandong University For Shandong University, internationalisation means multifaceted participation in international cooperation and competition as an active and influential member of the international higher education community. Stimulated by the global trends of economy, knowledge, and culture as well as the domestic needs of rapid development, it identifies its strategic purpose of internationalisation as becoming a high-ranking researchoriented university well known both domestically and globally, and hence strengthening its support for and even its role as guide to the society along with other universities (Zhan, 2006; Wang and Sun, 2007). 3.3.1

Policy and strategies

Along with other universities in China, Shandong University started its pursuit of internationalisation in the latter part of the 1970s when China adopted its open-door policy and undertook economic reforms. Its early policies for internationalisation in 1980s mainly touched on the issues of dispatching abroad students, scholars, and members of faculties for advanced studies and the practice of teaching and learning foreign languages, especially the English language (Huang, 2003). In the meantime, efforts were made to invite foreign scholars and experts for academic visits, and to introduce and translate foreign university textbooks primarily in the fields of science and engineering. Later in the 1990s, efforts were made in Shandong University to integrate international dimensions and perspectives into its educational programmes. The internationalisation of curriculum was stimulated. Although the term of curriculum internationalisation is defined in different ways (e.g., Altbach, 2004; Ren and Tang, 2008), teaching courses in English or bilingually was regarded as an important indicator of

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internationalisation at the time. The importance of English is therefore highly stressed and there is a growing adaptation of the medium of instruction to English language. In 2000, when it was merged with the former Shandong University of Science and Technology and Shandong Medical University, Shandong University officially declared its strategic policy of all-round openness and internationalisation. For its rapid development, people were urged to work for three ‘promotions’ of the university, including ‘the promotion of its academic competitiveness’, ‘the promotion of its social competitiveness’, and ‘the promotion of its level of internationalization’ (Zhan, 2004). The awareness of internationalisation became so strong among universities’ authorities that they made 2004 the year of international exchange and cooperation. Five aspects of internationalisation were strengthened to realise the objectives of the internationalisation of Shandong University (Zhan, 2004). According to the strategic planning of the university, ‘teaching’ should be internationalised with regard to curriculum arrangement, teaching mode and methods, and English as the medium of instruction. Second, ‘research’ should be internationalised by its faculty members participating in major international projects, jointly setting up research centres and involving world-famous experts into domestic research projects. Third, ‘learning’ should be internationalised by admitting more international students from more countries, dispatching students abroad in the form of summer schools and by means of short-term or long-term exchange programmes, offering more courses in English, and running international schools for overseas students. Fourth, ‘faculty’ should be internationalised by employing more overseas professors, recruiting more teachers with overseas experiences, and strengthening the awareness of internationalisation among all the faculty members to let them be at the frontier of international research and competent in conducting international cooperation. Fifth, ‘management’ should be internationalised by broadening the international vision of the management staff and enabling them to be familiar with and conduct international practices. According to the president of the university, Professor Zhan Tao, the youngest university president in China, The core of internationalization for Shandong University means more advanced international exchange and cooperation. Therefore, international vision, development strategy and the final realization

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The Internationalisation of Higher Education in China

of internationalization are the three important stages in the course of internationalizing our university. International vision means that universities should be developed in the context of international higher education and even the context of global political and economical environment. Development strategy is meant to make tremendous progress in international exchange and cooperation. For the realization of internationalization, it is the ultimate goal for which efforts should be made to build up the university in accordance with international standards. (Zhan, 2004) In 2006, Shandong University upgraded its strategic objectives of internationalisation. Goals in six perspectives were set to ‘build up a global network for cooperation, train its faculty members to be qualified and internationally competitive teams for global cooperation against the international benchmark, cultivate students with international vision and international competitiveness, introduce and spread Chinese culture to the outside world’ (Zhan, 2006). In addition, schools and functional departments were required to meet specific targets by 2010. As shown in Table 3.1, for each year, the university is expected to have long-term partnerships with 100 overseas universities and institutes, establish stable cooperation with 500 overseas scholars, dispatch 100 young teachers, 100 postgraduate students and 500 undergraduates to study abroad for international perspectives, employ 100 co-supervisors from overseas universities, invite overseas professors to teach 100 courses in English, enrol 4000 international students, and set up ten Confucius Institutes around the world.

Table 3.1

Targets of Internationalisation by 2010

Items long-term partnership stable cooperation people mobility each year

co-supervision course in English Confucius Institute

Targets

Specifications

100

with overseas universities and institutes with overseas scholars young teachers postgraduate students undergraduates international students by overseas scholars by overseas teachers around the world

500 100 100 500 4000 100 100 10

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Measures and outcomes

To achieve its strategic goals of internationalisation, great efforts have been made by Shandong University. Measures have been taken to strengthen its contact with the world, including developing international cooperative curriculum and degree programme, internationalising faculty development, promoting student overseas studies, attracting more international students, and enhancing international collaboration of scientific research. Meanwhile, the exchange of experts and scholars, joint training programmes for postgraduates and doctoral students, cooperative academic research, and joint holding of academic conferences have been carried out in a variety of channels at the levels of both school and university. More specifically, the cultivation of students’ international horizons has been strengthened by student exchange programmes in the form of mutual recognition and accreditation of academic degrees. On a long-term basis, the possibilities include mutual exchange with sister universities in a long-term or short-term mode, dispatching students to sister universities for credits or degrees, enrolling more international students for study or internship, co-supervising students together with overseas professors, and the offer of joint dual-degree programmes in 2+2 and 3+1 modes for undergraduates and 2+1 mode for postgraduate students. On a short-term basis, possibilities are to send students abroad to join international summer schools and visit partner universities, to accept international students from abroad for cultural visits, to start international summer school for students from sister universities abroad, and to host symposiums or seminars for both domestic and international students. For faculty international cooperation, both going-out and coming-in activities have been enhanced at school and university levels. Going-out activities include sending faculty members abroad for joint research, advanced studies, tour lectures, international conferences, and academic visits of partner universities. Coming-in activities include employing long-term and short-term overseas professors to offer courses in English, inviting overseas professors to jointly conduct research projects, pay short visits at intervals, co-supervise postgraduates, and advise on curriculum development. Especially, supports are provided to encourage faculty members to participate in major international research projects, to do research for overseas universities, funds and enterprises, to jointly apply for national and/or international research projects, to co-author articles for international publications, and to co-supervise overseas students.

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In addition, measures are taken to enhance the internationalisation level of management. Administrative and management staff are organised to take part in overseas training programmes, go abroad for advanced study, and join visiting delegations, so as to broaden their international horizons and familiarise them with international practices. Therefore, schools and research institutes are urged to update their current curriculum according to international standards, to import new syllabus design or courses, to jointly host international or bilabial conference or symposium, and jointly set up laboratories with overseas universities or enterprises. They are also required to develop cooperative educational programmes, offer courses extensively in English to attract international students, host international summer schools in a particular area, strengthen the contact with overseas alumni for exchange programmes, joint research and co-supervision of students, and to recruit high-level faculty members from overseas universities. At the university level, efforts are particularly made to develop and establish sustainable cooperation with sister universities and partner universities, find more support for faculty for international exchange and cooperation, provide more opportunities for students to pay visits to overseas universities, and organise overseas training programmes for administrative staff. Besides, emphasis is placed on holding international summer schools, hosting summit symposiums of university presidents, setting up overseas Confucius Institutes, inviting prestigious scholars, university presidents and governmental officials for short visits, in addition to raising money from overseas funds, international groups and individual donations, and coordinating alumni visits and international cooperative programmes at school level. Great efforts come with fruitful outcomes. For the past 5 years, Shandong University has made great progress in the course of internationalisation. By 2007, Shandong University has established international cooperative Table 3.2 Year

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Progress in receiving international visitors Overseas delegations 40 60 111 104 120

Delegation members 280 284 596 895 1271

Overseas university presidents and vice-presidents 11 10 24 28 33

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relationships with 113 overseas universities, 66 student exchange programmes, and 43 programmes for faculty international exchange and cooperation. As shown in Table 3.2, there has been steady rise in the numbers of overseas visiting delegations, overseas visitors, and presidents and vice-presidents of overseas universities. Figure 3.1 illustrates the steady growth in the numbers of delegation visitors for the past 5 years. In fact, in 2007, there were altogether 3000 people who paid visits of different kinds to Shandong University. Among these visitors, there are 420 overseas students and 403 academic visitors, including 81 long-term experts and professors. In the same year, Shandong University hosted 37 international conferences in different areas. The overseas participants amount to 793 persons. Figure 3.2 shows the annual changes in conferences hosted in Shandong University, indicating an increasing pattern for the past 5 years.

500

403

400 250

300 200

110

137 66

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In the meantime, there has been a growth in people’s mobility to go abroad for different purposes. In 2007, for example, 903 people from Shandong University paid visits to universities in other countries. Among them, 301 are students for short visits or long-term studies, 113 are young teachers for advanced studies and joint research work, 278 are faculty members for short academic visits, and 211 are for international conferences (see Figure 3.3). For those students visiting overseas universities, 99 of them are postgraduate students for credits and degrees, 117 are undergraduates for long-term studies, and 85 paid short visits to different overseas universities. Figure 3.4 illustrates changes in the amount of student mobility for the past 5 years. 903

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2007

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For the international training of its management staff, in 2007, the university sent abroad 17 visiting delegation and six academic delegations, in addition to 14 school deans, 22 directors of functional departments, and 12 administrative staff.

3.4 Discussion The practices of Shandong University indicate that economic reforms and the open-door policy have considerably affected the development of the internationalisation of Chinese higher education. Apparently, internationalisation has significant impacts on the development of higher education in China, not only on educational conception and management style, but also on faculty development and talent-training programme. First of all, new educational ideas, curricula, and mediums of instruction, as well as governance arrangements in many Western leading universities have been introduced into Chinese universities (Chen, 2003; Hawkins, 2000). They all have facilitated substantially the improvement of academic quality and standards of Chinese higher education institutions (Huang, 2005). In a sense, these activities play a significant role in making Chinese higher education institutions more competitive at an international level. Nowadays, Chinese universities have come to realise that internationalisation is an important feature of universities and an important factor for universities to gain and maintain the world-class status (Huang, 2007; Mok and Lo, 2007). In the context of globalisation, Chinese universities need to offer internationalised courses and carry out international exchange and cooperation among universities in the field of research. To achieve such a goal, they need to bring changes to the talent-training programme and produce more graduates with a wide vision and international competitiveness. However, the reality is that although a number of universities in China have made great efforts to meet the highest standards and build the universities into world-class ones, they are still a far cry from the first-class universities of the world. The training of top-level talent and first-class academic and disciplinary rewards are far from enough (Mok, 2006). To a large extent, China’s universities need faculty with an international horizon, academic evaluation mechanism, and criterion that comply with the international standards (Yang, 2002). Only with practices at the international level can they establish themselves in an invincible position in global competition and internationalisation.

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Therefore, it is understandable that despite the great progress made in the course of internationalisation Chinese universities like Shandong University are still confronted with a number of problems and challenges from different perspectives. On the whole, there is a long way to go before Chinese universities become competitive enough in the context of internationalisation and globalisation (Chen, 2003; Ngok and Guo, 2007). To gain a position against the benchmark of worldlevel universities, Chinese universities need to carry out international exchange and cooperation at a higher level, by establishing cooperative relationship with more world-class universities, and by inviting leading scholars in different fields, particularly those top-class professors in the world (Ngok and Guo, 2007). According to Liu (2007), there is much for Chinese universities to do to promote the internationalisation of faculty development. In most universities, for example, a large majority of Chinese teachers do not have overseas experiences and they are not proficient enough to offer courses in English or to jointly conduct major research projects with overseas scholars. In addition, for the past decades, Chinese universities have gone through a rapid growth, particularly in the enrolment of students. They have to work on how to resolve the conflict between quality and quantity in the course of internationalisation (Levin and Xu, 2005; Wan, 2006). The fact is that Chinese universities lag behind in terms of educational systems and operational modes and have a long way to go in the healthy development of disciplinary education and reasonable use of resources (Ngok and Guo, 2007). More importantly, the opening up of the higher education market will trigger off fierce competition for education resources, especially for gifted talents, and there is every indication that in the new round of international competition scouting for talents is more important than making money. With challenges often come opportunities. There is reason to think that if equipped with advanced concepts of education and training patterns, Chinese universities can make a refreshing change in the ideas about the development of higher education. If the flow of international education resources can provide favourable conditions for the establishment of a state-led multiple education investment system, individuals, social groups, and international institutions can all play a part in increasing investment in higher education. If frequent international exchange and cooperation can be achieved, the level of higher education in China will be raised, thus enhancing the competitiveness of Chinese universities. Consequently, Chinese universities will bring up a large number of outstanding graduates with a wide vision and cross-cultural communication

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ability to provide technical support and intelligence resources for the economic development of China.

3.5 Conclusion Generally speaking, Chinese universities have just started on the road to internationalise themselves. To achieve better results, they need to draw on experiences of foreign universities in this regard. First of all, Chinese universities need to further deepen and widen the scope of the openness of higher education. This means to put the universities into the framework of world education and culture in the aspects of teaching, researching, managing, and service. To proceed from the actual situation of China, learning widely from top-class universities and establish a university education with the Chinese characteristics is not only the goal to ‘gear China’s higher education to the world’, but also the right path to the internationalisation of China’s universities. Secondly, Chinese universities need to further raise the standard and level of exchange with the outside world. Internationalisation means much more than a concept, policies, or all kinds of measures. The level and standard of exchange with the outside world is an important measurement of the degree of internationalisation since mutual exchange and cooperation has almost become an indispensable condition for the healthy development of a university. If Chinese universities want to be accepted and acknowledged by other universities in the world, they need to establish universal standards that comply with international practice in the aspects of teaching, scientific research, management, and service. The setting of disciplines and specialty, teaching standards, record and credit systems and the connection in services and management standards are all important factors to gain the acknowledgement of other universities in the world. All in all, China has the largest number of college-age people. How to promote the development of higher education in a sustainable, quick, and healthy way has become the common concern of Chinese universities. In the context of globalisation, the information age, and the knowledge-based economy, it is safe to conclude that more and more Chinese universities have been encouraged and supported to enhance their quality in research and education with the aim of becoming world-class or world-famous universities. The internationalisation of these higher education institutions will be an inevitable result of the integration of the global economy and essential factors in the development of education in China.

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Finally, I want to point out a limitation of this study: Shandong University is one of the key universities directly under the jurisdiction of China’s Ministry of Education, and it represents only one sector of all Chinese universities. Considering the fact that Chinese higher institutions enjoy a wide variety in size, type, and level, the findings of this study cannot provide overall insights into trends and patterns of internationalisation of Chinese universities.

References Altbach, P. G. (2004). Globalization and the University: Myths and Realities in an Unequal World, in National Education Association (ed.), The NEA 2005 Almanac of Higher Education. Washington, DC: National Education Association. Chen, N. F. (2003). The Internationalization of Higher Education, available at http:// english.gdufs.edu.cn/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=178. Cheng, K. M. (1996). Markets in a Socialist System: Reform of Higher Education, in K. Watson, S. Modgil and C. Modgil (eds), Educational Dilemmas: Debate and Diversity. London: Cassell. China Education Yearbook Editorial Board (1991) China Education Yearbook 1991, Beijing: People’s Education Press (in Chinese). China Education Yearbook Editorial Board (2004) China Education Yearbook 2004, Beijing: People’s Education Press (in Chinese). Hawkins, J. N. (2000). Centralization, Decentralization, Recentralization: Educational Reform in China, Journal of Educational Administration, 38(5), pp. 442–54. Huang, F. T. (2003). Policy and Practice of Internationalization of Higher Education in China, Journal of Studies in International Education, 7(3), pp. 225–40. Huang, F. T. (2005). Qualitative Enhancement and Quantitative Growth: Changes and Trends of China’s Higher Education, Higher Education Policy, 18, pp. 117–30. Huang, F. T. (2006a). Internationalization of Curricula in Higher Education Institutions in Comparative Perspectives: Case Studies of China, Japan and the Netherlands, Higher Education, 51(4), pp. 521–39. Huang, F. T. (2006b). Internationalization of the University Curriculum: A case Study of China, Higher Education Research in Japan, 3, pp. 75–84. Huang, F. T. (2006c). Transnational Higher Education in Mainland China: A Focus on Foreign Degree-Conferring Programmes, in F. T. Huang (ed.), Transnational Higher Education in Asia and the Pacific Region. Hiroshima: Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University. Huang, F. T. (2007). Internationalization of Higher Education in the Developing and Emerging Countries, Journal of Studies in International Education, 11, pp. 421–32. Levin, H. M. and Xu, Z. Y. (2005). Issues in the Expansion of Higher Education in the People’s Republic of China, The China Review, 5(1), pp. 33–9. Liu, Y. B. (2007). Annual Report on the Internationalization of Shandong University. Unpublished Manuscript. Mok, K and Lo, Y. (2007). The Impacts of Neo-Liberalism on China’s Higher Education, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 5/1.

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Mok, K. H. (2006). Education Reform and Education Policy in East Asia. London: Routledge. Ngok, K. L. and Guo, W. Q. (2007). The Quest for World-Class Universities in China: Critical Reflections, Journal of Comparative Asian Development, 6(1), pp. 21–44. Ren, L. J. and Tang, Z. (2008). Studies on the Internationalized Higher Education, International Education Studies, 1(1), pp. 69–73. Wan, Y. M. (2006). Expansion of Chinese Higher Education since 1998: Its Causes and Outcomes, Asia Pacific Education Review, 7(1), pp. 19–31. Wang, Y. B. and Sun, M. H. (2007). How Do Universities Go Global: A Perspective on the Internalization Process of Shandong University, available at: http://www. stdaily.com/gb/zhongguoyq/2008-01/19/content_767060.htm. Yang, R. (2002). The Third Delight: Internationalization of Higher Education in China. London: Routledge. Zhan, T. (2004). Why Do We Need Three ‘Promotions’, available at: http://www. president.sdu.edu.cn/news/news/ddsk/2005-10-20/1129823309.html. Zhan, T. (2006). Global SDU 2010, How to Plan and Promote Our Strategy of Global Cooperation, available at: http://www.president.sdu.edu.cn/news/ news/wc/2006-09-07/1157599947.html.

4 Global Connections – Local Impacts: Trends and Developments for Internationalism and Cross-Border Higher Education Don Olcott, Jr 4.1 Introduction This chapter sets out to consider internationalisation of universities in the context of globalisation trends, in particular economic or market forces. These include factors such as student demand and mobility. The chapter reviews recent developments in cross-border Higher Education (HE), questioning and acknowledging other driving forces. It also reviews the financial and regulatory constraints of Western HE in the light of trends in cross-border HE. There are also many implications for university activities, quality issues, and distance learning strategies for management and student support. Globalism has served as a catalyst for increasing deliberation, dialogue, and consensus among government, business, and higher education to create, attract, and retain a highly competitive workforce that contributes to a national economic infrastructure that is sustainable, renewable, and responsive to shifts in the global marketplace. At the forefront of these deliberations is the role of universities, domestic and foreign, for creating this competitive edge for nations. The practice of cross-border HE is growing rapidly and is likely to increase in the future to serve a diversified global marketplace (McBurnie and Ziguras 2007). Today, nations are reassessing their mosaic of economic strategies for thriving, rather than just surviving, in a global economy and society (Olcott, Papi, and Newbould 2008). Driving this global transformation are diverse and complex forces, including economic competition, advances in technology, English as the global language of commerce, employee mobility, workforce development, multiculturalism, emerging markets, and global migration (Olcott 2008). University leaders are redefining the international dimensions of 72

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their institutions in response to globalisation. Globalisation may be viewed as the worldwide flow of people, technology, economy, ideas, knowledge, and culture. Internationalism may be viewed as part of globalisation by its focus on relations between nations, people, and culture (Knight 2005). Internationalism, viewed as a major response to globalisation, evolves in colleges and universities in diverse ways and for varying institutional reasons. Internationalism at the national, sector and institutional levels is defined as the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions and/or delivery of postsecondary education. (Knight 2005) The increasing development of campus-based internationalism and cross-border HE is, to a large extent, a direct response to this economic competitive edge that is driving the national agendas of many countries. For many nations, the short-term strategy of tapping into the expertise, research, and knowledge base of highly developed educational systems (e.g., US, UK, Australia, Germany, France, etc.) is preferable to expending exponential resources domestically to gear up. The long-term strategy is for these nations, particularly in East Asia and the Gulf States, to develop a high-quality, sustainable higher education system domestically. During the past decade, the international higher education landscape has changed dramatically. We have seen increased mobility among students and more universities engaged in cross-border delivery of higher education programmes through branch campuses, distance education, and blended approaches to educational delivery (Verbik and Merkley 2006). We have seen new providers, public and private, enter the global higher education arena. Cross-border HE has increasingly become a competitive feature of the international landscape. In some instances, home country students may forgo formal study abroad programmes if foreign providers are offering flexible, culturally sensitive, academic programmes in their home language and/or English via distance technologies or a hybrid of distance and face-to-face delivery modalities (Olcott 2007). Conversely, distance education and cross-border delivery inherently faces some major pedagogical, logistical, language, cultural, and social challenges in the delivery of these programmes. It truly is a brave new world in the international higher education arena.

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4.2

Playing on the international stage: The driving forces for higher education

What forces are driving this international transformation for higher education? First, the reductions in government funding for higher education in many countries have driven colleges and universities to become more entrepreneurial. This is certainly true in the UK, the US, Australia, and other major international players. The ‘Big Three’ host the largest numbers of international students and unsurprisingly are also the three major providers of cross-border HE (Verbik and Lasanowski 2007). Although institutional leaders are reluctant to articulate publicly that the pursuit of alternative revenue sources is a primary goal for their international programmes, it is certainly a driving factor for most universities (Olcott 2008). Leaders typically offer politically correct rhetoric that focuses on educational goals such as internationalising the curriculum, preparing students for a global society, collaborative research, and the value of exposing and immersing students (and faculty) among and within a diverse multicultural, global society (Olcott 2008). Indeed, these factors are also important and valuable dimensions for visionary leaders; however, attracting more international students who pay significantly higher tuition and fees is, in fact, a major motivation for many institutions. Similarly, cross-border programmes are also focused on revenue enhancement to strengthen institutional budgets. Olcott (2008a) sums up the challenge for institutional leaders attempting to build international programmes and placate stakeholders on their campuses. He writes: And, if you have to redistribute existing institutional resources to even contemplate supporting your internal or external international programme activities, who benefits and who loses? The academy is made up of competing interest groups all having a stake in institutional resources. Are you going to take resources away from academic programmes? No. Are you planning to limit faculty raises or professional development funds? No. Are you going to propose tuition and/ or fee increases for the fifth time in four years? Not if you’re smart. What are you going to do and how are you going to do it? Common sense suggests that your internationalism strategy must be an extension of your mission and long-term strategic plan. Paradoxically, the mounting pressures for universities to secure alternative funding sources sometimes means common sense does not prevail.

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A second factor is that the demand for higher education globally is outpacing capacity. Paradoxically, this demand over capacity is misleading because many qualified students often face various barriers and obstacles such as available resources, family obligations, employment commitments, and often selecting the ‘right time’ to go to university. The result is that despite the increasing pool of qualified applicants, the competition among institutions for the current market is very strong. For countries that charge major tuition and fees many leaders are concerned that providing affordable and accessible public higher education is becoming increasingly difficult. There are additional factors that are driving this global transformation. The growing interconnectedness of a global society and economy is creating a more diversified and mobile workforce. Today’s students are seeking international destinations for employment during their studies and upon completion. Moreover, they are analysing the global market for countries that recognise their credentials and provide employment opportunities. In Europe, the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Declaration are collaborative initiatives designed to create a European Higher Education Area and a European Credit Transfer System that will (in theory) facilitate the transfer and recognition of credentials across borders and the mobility of students for employment with Europe. The emergence of ‘English’ as the global language of commerce and a global society is also driving universities into the international arena. International students are increasingly exploring foreign institutions that offer a comprehensive English language programme that is offered throughout their university programme and supported by mentors and high-quality international student services. These programmes are growing particularly in the postgraduate area. International students see their future employability and career aspirations intimately tied to having English in their arsenal of skills and talents.

4.3 Trends in cross-border HE The delivery of cross-border programmes, research, and related services is a complex enterprise for most universities. Despite the growing number of international providers over the past 5 years, there are emerging trends that suggest this market will become increasingly competitive and that host countries will focus on partnerships with foreign institutions that can help them build their own high-quality,

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sustainable higher education system and economy. Some of the current trends include: • Host nations (nations and/or universities hosting foreign programmes in their country) are becoming more selective of entering foreign providers (Helms 2008). • Asia, the Middle East, and Gulf States are the most active crossborder regions, yet increasingly inter-regional partnerships are arising in these geographical areas (Fazackerley and Worthington 2007, McBernie and Ziguras 2007). • Cross-border research exchange is a rapidly growing priority among nations (McBernie and Ziguras 2007, Thomas 2007). • Quality assurance oversight agencies, internal and external, are paying increasing attention to universities operating abroad (Helms 2008, Stella 2006, UNESCO/OECD 2005, Woodhouse 2006). • Competition for internationally mobile students is growing more intense each year (Verbik and Lasanowski 2007). • New models of public–private partnerships are emerging in crossborder HE among business, higher education, government, and community organisations (McBernie and Ziguras 2007).

4.4

The dimensions of internationalism for colleges and universities

The various activities and functions that define internationalism have been categorised as either internal or external dimensions of internationalism (Knight 2003, Middlehurst and Woodfield 2007). The following are key dimensions of internationalism at home: • • • • • • • •

Internationalising the curriculum Study abroad programmes Internationalisation of research Comprehensive English language programmes International recruitment of staff International faculty exchange programmes Services and extra-curricular activities for international students Bologna Process and Lisbon Declaration

The external dimensions of internationalism focus on the extension of academic programmes, research, technology transfer, strategic partnerships,

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and related services and activities in the international arena. A few of the key external dimensions of internationalism of universities include: • • • • • • • •

Establishment of branch campuses or regional offices abroad International distance learning programmes Recruitment of international students Strategic alliances and partnerships with foreign universities, private corporations, and governments Overseas consultancy, exchange of curriculum and learning materials, QA and validation Staff and student exchanges International branding, marketing, and PR for the institution Joint research and publication

The scope and focus of these activities, internal and external, vary across institutions based on mission, resources, strategic goals, and international experience and expertise. The key strategic consideration, however, is that institutional leaders build their internationalism strategy in a coherent way that integrates the various internal and external activities into the educational mission of the institution. The pursuit of revenue, in and of itself, by recruiting international students to campus or establishing cross-border programmes is not a valid strategic or mission-related rationale for engaging in these activities by institutional leaders.

4.5 Lost in translation: The international distance learning enigma Institutional leaders often convince themselves that distance delivery will accelerate their welcome on the international stage. In some respects, this would be an excellent strategy if the rest of world would just see the value-added simplicity in this approach. The rest of the world, however, is not quite ready to play in this techno-sandbox. China, North and South Korea, Japan, the Gulf States, Eastern Europe, Russia, Malaysia, India, and other nations have publicly stated they want Western technology, academic programmes, research and technology transfer to help create sustainable economies, develop a multi-talented workforce, and ultimately build stable higher education systems at home (Olcott, Papi, and Newbould 2008). ‘At the same time, the credibility of these Western resources appears to be directly related to having real people (academics, researchers, business executives, etc.) on the ground in country’ (Olcott 2008, 2008a).

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The net result of these views is that the majority of cross-border HE is being delivered at branch campuses, corporate sites, and through unique public–private partnerships. There are, of course, exceptions and international students do take online and video-based courses, but proportionally these numbers are relatively small. From an instructional design perspective, it is not surprising that foreign universities and governments have been resistant to embracing external distance learning providers. Most faculty staff will tell you the inherent challenges in teaching foreign students and the potential for language, cultural and social miscommunication. Online teaching exacerbates these issues and creates a whole new range of challenges for teaching faculty (Olcott, Papi, and Newbould 2008). Technology is not culturally neutral and even English is contextual like most other languages with potential for miscommunications. The fact is we know very little about the interconnected dynamics of culture, language, and social norms of academic communications delivered via media. We have many assumptions but these do not equate to sound teaching and learning paradigms that are grounded in empirical research. Given that China, in fact, in the next few years may be the largest English-speaking nation on the planet it would seem prudent to begin addressing these pedagogical issues now rather than later (Helms 2008, Olcott, Papi, and Newbould 2008). These teaching challenges are also intimately tied to the quality assurance measures of international programmes (Helms 2008, Knight and de Wit 1999, 2003, Stella 2006, UNESCO/OECD 2005, Woodhouse 2006). We might argue that we employ the same quality standards for international student programmes yet we have not accounted for these language, cultural, and social differences. Going international through distance education will require these issues to be addressed in systematic and meaningful ways. This can only be accomplished through research and the development of new pedagogical models. Visionary leaders who desire to play on the international stage will take the necessary time to ensure these issues have been addressed. Factors Affecting International Student Destination Choices (Verbik and Lasanowski 2007). • • • •

Institutional and programme reputation Social and cultural opportunities of institution, country, and region Cost Financial assistance and employment opportunities during and following programme completion

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• • • •

Streamlined immigration and visa requirements and procedures Comprehensive and in-depth opportunities to master English Historical linkages between home country and the UK Research facilities and resources

The key, however, is predicting which combinations of these factors will drive international student choices for the future. More and more international students are looking regionally rather than internationally due to increasing costs and the proliferation of study abroad opportunities in their region. As this market becomes more competitive, assessing the relative importance of these choice factors will become equally important.

4.6 Managing international partnerships: Strategies for success Colleges and university leaders negotiating international partnerships, either internal or external, will be faced with many critical decisions during the process. There are implications for the management of international partnerships which should be considered in the establishment of such programmes and agreements. The Appendix provides a summary of key strategies to assist leaders in these discussions (Olcott 2008b).

4.7 The 3S global village on campus: Socialisation, support and services The East Asian region includes the countries of China, North and South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, and eastern Russia. East Asian students comprise a large sector of the international student populations in the US and the UK and these numbers are likely to increase over the next decade. What must you do on your campus to ensure a quality education experience for these students? The socialisation process is the first major challenge. Most East Asian students will align with their peers from their home country or region even when attending an institution in the US or UK. This is natural of course, but somewhat antithetical to creating a dynamic learning and living environment for East Asian students. Campus administrators, faculty, and staff must help these students ‘reach out’ to English students and engage in mutually rewarding intellectual, social, and cultural activities. East Asian students are thousands of miles from home

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and they need both home connections and new connections with the campus community. Universities must equally provide high levels of personal support for East Asian students. Counselling, advising, employment opportunities, academic tutors, health services are all important ‘personal’ support issues to these students. Moreover, university staff must educate the local community about their East Asian student population and build international bridges between the university and the community. Given the often-controversial issues arising over immigration policy in the US and the UK, the university must embrace its responsibility for ensuring their international students feel welcome in their new living environment. Campus support services are also a major component for serving East Asian students. Developing an agenda of social activities, clubs, travel excursions, and cultural celebrations all send a message to these students about the value the university places on their welfare, education, and assimilation into the local campus and community.

4.8 Summary The revolution in internationalism and cross-border HE is changing the face of global higher education. Today, universities have more opportunities for serving campus-based international students and extending their programmes and research on the international stage. Students also have more choices than ever before in navigating their educational future. In conclusion, Olcott (2008) sums up the future for universities. The internationalism of your university is an opportunity to strengthen all aspects of your educational programme. Indeed, many large, research-based universities will have comprehensive international and cross-border programmes and research exchanges. But even the smallest institution with limited resources can incrementally build the international diversity, services and curriculum of their campus. We in higher education are given the privilege and responsibility for educating tomorrow’s citizens and contributing to our local community, our nation, and the global village. Our primary responsibility and commitment as educators must be to our students. This golden rule of our profession must be embraced and applied to all aspects of developing an internationalism strategy that places the education of students’ front and centre.

Appendix Managing International Partnerships: Strategies for Success

Colleges and university leaders negotiating international partnerships, either internal or external, will be faced with many critical decisions during the process. The following provides a summary of key strategies to assist leaders in these discussions (Olcott 2008b). Getting started before you get going (a) ‘You never have a second chance to make a first impression.’ Do your homework before, not after, you establish an international partnership. Research your partner organisation, its culture, language, history, current partners, partnership record, financial stability, and how the organisation is perceived in their own country. What do they bring to the table that you need? What are the potential benefits for all partners? (b) Build partnerships that complement your organisational strengths? Does your potential international partner view these attributes as your strengths? Why or Why not? Do not attempt to be all things to all people. (c) Establish formative and summative performance review processes – managerial, programmatic, and financial from the outset. Presume from the start that you will need to make adjustments, modifications, and perhaps major alterations to your partnership strategy. Global economic, cultural, political, and social environments can change rapidly, can you? How do you create partnership sustainability? (a) Create a diversified investment strategy – one partner but additional stakeholders who perceive value in the endeavour and may invest money, people, and time. Remember, international partnerships 81

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particularly in higher education must be approached as a business venture. (b) Build contingencies into your budget planning. Every higher education budget on the planet looks good on paper, when it hits the real world is when the problems start. Build your budgets based on real costs plus inflation and the projected costs of doing day-to-day business. (c) Conduct extensive market research on your customer (s) base. If your financial plan is highly dependent on student enrolment tuition and fees, analyse the changes that are occurring in this sector for the partnership country and surrounding region. Students are becoming more mobile and more selective with more higher education choices. Collaboration and the curriculum (a) If your university-department is the primary content provider, you retain control of the curriculum, period. From a practical standpoint, however, connecting your faculty with international faculty in the partnership country can be beneficial and strengthen partnership collaboration. (b) Align curriculum delivered abroad with the process of ‘internationalising’ the curriculum on the campus. Developing curriculum that is culturally, socially, historically, ethnically, and gender accurate and sensitive are prerequisites for all international curriculum. (c) Diversify your delivery modes. Can you deliver a significant part of the curriculum via educational technologies (distance learning)? How do you present your partnerships to internal and external institutional stakeholders? (a) Leaders must be able to articulate how the partnership aligns, strengthens, and enhances the mission of the university. How will the partnership impact on specific stakeholders? (b) Benefits – benefits – benefits? What are the benefits from the partnership? How will these be assessed and by whom? (c) Provide status reports to all key stakeholders, particularly academic deans, faculty, and board members. (d) What is your exit strategy if the partnership must be terminated? Do you have an answer? Indeed, this question will be asked by multiple stakeholders. Have you considered this from a public relations, reputation, and marketing perspective? Universities are talented at creating things such as knowledge, research, partnerships, policies,

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procedures, logos, curriculum, and services. Conversely, universities are infamous for their inability to cut their losses and exit from partnerships. From a risk management perspective, your exit strategy needs to be formulated in advance and built into the contractual negotiations with all international partners. Staff diversity to reflect the partnership (a) Foreign-based partnerships – hire local staff to strengthen instruction and support services. Take advantage of the culturally and language rich human resources available to support your programme and partnerships (b) Campus-based – ensure you have diverse staff with the communication, language, cultural awareness, and social skills to interact effectively with your international students. (c) Ensure that partnership staff, faculty, and students have multiple opportunities for sharing comments, suggestions, and recommendations. This should be an essential part of the partnership and programme assessment.

References Fazackerleby, A. and Worthington, P. (eds) (2007) British universities in China: The reality beyond the rhetoric. URL: http://www.agoraeducation.org/pubs/docs/ Agora_China_Report.pdf, p. 1. Helms, R. M. (2008) Transnational education in China: Key challenges, critical issues and strategies for success, The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. London: OBHE. Knight, J. (2003) Internationalization: Developing an institutional self-portrait, readings for EOTU Project, available electronically at www.etou.uiuc.edu/events/ illinoisnovfinal.pdf. Knight, J. (2005) Borderless, offshore, transnational and cross-border education: Definition and data dilemmas, The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. London: OBHE. Knight, J., and de Wit, H. (eds) (1999) Quality and Internationalization in Higher Education. Paris: IMHE/OECD. McBurnie, G. and Ziguras, C. (2007) Transnational Education: Issues and Trends in Offshore Higher Education. London: Routledge. Middlehurst, R. and Woodfield, S. (2007) International activity or internationalization strategy? Insights from an institutional pilot study in the UK, Tertiary Education and Management, 13, pp. 263–79. Olcott, D. J. (2007) ‘Global trends in international and borderless higher education. Presentation to the Wales International Consortium, Powys, Wales, United Kingdom, 14 December 2007. Olcott, D. J. (2008) (in press) Back to the UK future: Trends in internationalism and cross-border higher education, AUA Perspectives.

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Olcott, D. J. (2008a) (in press) Rock n’ on the international stage: Commentary on internationalism, cross-border higher education and distance learning – Lessons for presidents who care enough to do what is right, Distance Education Report. Olcott, D. J. (2008b) ‘Managing international partnerships. Strategies for success’. Paper presented at The Guardian Higher Education Summit, London, UK, February 2008. Olcott D. J., Papi, C., and Newbould, D. (2008) Building Global Bridges to the Future: Opportunities and Challenges for Cross-Border Distance Education, Proceedings of the 2008 European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal. Published by EDEN Secretariat, Budapest, Hungary. Stella, A. (2006) ‘Quality assurance of cross-border higher education in Australia’, UNESCO Seminar on Regulation in Cross-Border Higher Education: Issues and Trends: 21–22 September, New Delhi, India. Thomas, E. (2007) Defining the global university. The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. Position paper from the OBHE-WUN conference ‘Realising the Global University’, London, November 2007. UNESCO/OECD (2005) Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education. Paris: UNESCO and OECD. Verbik, L. and Lasanowski, V. (2007) International student mobility: Patterns and trends. The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, www.obhe.ac.uk. Verbik, L. and Merkley, C. (2006) The international branch campus – Models and trends. The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, www.obhe.ac.uk. Woodhouse, D. (2006) The quality of transnational education: A provider view, Quality in Higher Education, 12, 3, November, pp. 277–81.

5 Using Policy Initiatives to Support Both Learning Enhancement and Language Enhancement at a Hong Kong University Carmel McNaught and Andy Curtis 5.1 Introduction This chapter, set in the context of a bilingual university in Hong Kong, illustrates that learning enhancement and language enhancement are inextricably intertwined. The chapter describes the Teaching and Learning Policy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and explores its undoubted impact on a recent articulation of the Policy on Bilingualism. The Teaching and Learning Policy is designed to focus primarily on learning enhancement through reviewing programmes and courses. However, it has also inevitably focused on students’ language capabilities in both Chinese and English. The subsequent articulation of the Policy on Bilingualism shows some shifts that exemplify the relationship between the two policies. Hong Kong has a highly complex linguistic environment and the Policy on Bilingualism operates within a framework of liangwen sanyu – two written languages (Chinese and English) and three spoken languages (Cantonese, Putonghua and English). A number of new initiatives for the implementation of the Policy on Bilingualism are integrated into the University’s Teaching and Learning plan, so as to enable such planning to be holistic and seek synergies between various initiatives and units.

5.2 Graduate outcomes at The Chinese University of Hong Kong This chapter is set in the context of CUHK. CUHK is a comprehensive research university with a bilingual tradition and a collegiate structure. In December 2007 there were 10,500 undergraduate students, of

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which approximately 90 per cent are Hong Kong Chinese. Most of the remaining 10 per cent come from Mainland China. There is a small (but growing) number of exchange students. Most of the 2000 research postgraduate students come from Hong Kong and Mainland China in roughly equal numbers. In addition, there are over 4000 students in taught postgraduate programmes, a number that is increasing quite rapidly. In 2003, the University adopted a Ten-Year Vision Statement and, in 2006, a Strategic Plan which set the agenda for a concerted effort for excellence, as a leading university in China and the region. CUHK’s philosophy and mission is to produce well-rounded graduates well trained in their major studies and, in addition, possessing a range of skills and values appropriate to the 21st century, including a capacity for lifelong learning. Bilingual proficiency, an understanding of Chinese culture and an appreciation of other cultures are core components of the curriculum and designed to prepare our students globally as citizens and leaders. The best description of the desired outcomes for CUHK graduates can be found in the University’s Strategic Plan. The University expects that its graduates should have acquired an appreciation of the values of a broad range of intellectual disciplines as well as general knowledge, and within that wide spectrum, have gained a depth of knowledge within a specialty, not only as an end in itself but also as a vehicle for experience in serious study and enquiry. They should have a high level of bilingual proficiency in Chinese and English, and a basket of skills including numeracy, analytic skills and IT capability appropriate to the modern age, and above all the ability to continue with life-long learning and professional development – in this day and age, that ability will be far more important than factual knowledge acquired during university studies. They should have cultivated a habit of reading widely, learnt to be critical and independent; they should be effective in communication and working in a team. Our students are also expected to have a deep understanding of Chinese culture and with it a sense of national identity and pride; they should also have an appreciation of other cultures, and with that appreciation also a high degree of inter-cultural sensitivity, tolerance and a global perspective. They should have an attitude of compassion, honesty and integrity in relation to self, family and society, and the ability to contribute as citizens and leaders. They should have a sense of

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purpose, responsibility and commitment in life, a desire to serve, as well as taste in their pursuits. (The Chinese University of Hong Kong Strategic Plan, 2006) Individual programmes articulate these attributes or capabilities in a contextualised fashion. Two examples will illustrate the diversity of these instantiations. English Through the course of their studies, CUHK English majors learn 1. to read, understand, and appreciate literatures in English, specifically in the major genres of poetry, fiction, and drama (K/S/V); 2. to understand and apply the systematic study of language (K/S); 3. to develop an understanding and appreciation of the local and global dimensions of English, including multilingualism and multiculturalism (K/V); 4. to produce creative and scholarly work in high-quality written English, using a variety of styles, both formal and informal, academic and non-academic (K/S); 5. to communicate effectively in spoken English in a manner appropriate to the communicative and cultural context, including making effective oral presentations using appropriate technology (S/V); 6. to continue building upon their knowledge and skills after graduation, with an interest in learning as a lifelong process (K/S/V). Categorisation of desired learning outcomes: K = Knowledge outcomes S = Skills outcomes V = Values and attitudes outcomes (Revised 17 April 2007) Information Engineering The purpose of this document is to put forward ideas and proposals for defining the Information Engineering programme objectives and outcomes. Programme Objectives define what our graduates will be able to achieve in a longer time frame (e.g., five years), while Learning Outcomes define what our graduates will be capable of immediately after graduation.

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Programme Objectives Objective one: Our graduates should excel in engineering and professional positions in industries and organisations that design, develop, deploy, or employ information systems, networks, and services. Objective two: Our graduates should develop a global perspective of the impact of information engineering to commerce, industry, and society, and be able to contribute to or lead interdisciplinary engineering projects. Objective three: Our graduates should continue their personal development through professional studies and lifelong learning, and some will pursue and excel in graduate schools worldwide. Learning Outcomes Outcome one – Foundations: Students will understand the fundamentals of mathematics, science and engineering and be able to apply them to the design, analysis, and implementation of engineering systems. (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, ABET, http:// www.abet.org/) Criteria 3a, 3b, 3c, 3e, 3k: Outcome two – Breadth: Students will have exposures to and understand the impact of other science and engineering areas as well as nonengineering areas such as social, economic, environmental, health and safety issues. (ABET Criteria 3a, 3c, 3d, 3h, 3j) Outcome three – Depth: Students will be able to develop one or more in-depth specialisations within the IE programme. (ABET Criteria 3a, 3b, 3e, 3k) Outcome four – Curiosity: Students will appreciate the value of and develop the ability to lifelong learning. (ABET Criteria 3i) Outcome five – Creativity: Students will develop problem-solving skills and the ability to innovate new engineering solutions. Outcome six – Integrity: Students will understand the importance of professional, social, and ethical responsibilities in engineering practice. (ABET Criteria 3f) Outcome seven – Communication Skills: Students will develop the skills to communicate effectively both orally and in writing. (ABET Criteria 3g) (Revised 12 January 2007)

5.3

Developing a quality assurance framework for teaching and learning at CUHK

So, at University level and at the level of individual programmes, we promise the earth! Do we deliver on that promise? How do we measure these attributes or qualities? These are quality assurance questions that

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CUHK needs to be able to answer. When we move beyond rhetoric, does the University have appropriate and effective policies, processes and support structures to ensure that its mission is enacted? When quality assurance measures are introduced as mandated measures there is a tendency for passive compliance or avoidance on the part of those who have not taken the need to heart. Bryman, Haslam and Webb (1994) examined the imposed introduction of staff appraisal into UK universities. They concluded that appraisal was widely disliked by both appraisers and appraisees and felt that the operation of the schemes could best be characterised as ‘procedural compliance’. They also found scant evidence of the expected benefits of appraisal. As this effect is well known, it was important that CUHK avoid the same trap. Educational quality literature highlights the centrality of beliefs in the organisation of effective quality assurance schemes. Harvey and Knight (1996) argued for quality assurance being a power for transformative change. Freed, Klugman and Fife (2000) discussed quality as being an element of the culture of universities and described how a culture for academic excellence can be engendered by a holistic implementation of a set of quality principles. In formalising CUHK’s Teaching and Learning Policy, members of the Senate Committee on Teaching and Learning (SCTL) took the view that policy should have a quality enhancement perspective and not a quality control one. The Teaching and Learning Policy was launched in March 2004 after wide consultation. The document, titled ‘The Integrated Framework for Curriculum Development and Review’ (Integrated Framework), has as its main objective ‘to ensure that teachers and programmes engage in reflection about teaching and learning, that such reflection is rooted in evidence and leads to action for improvement, and that incentives be provided for such efforts’ (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Integrated Framework, 2004 and 2006, Section 3.1.1). The principles underlying the Integrated Framework have an outcomes-based approach focus: curriculum elements should align with desired learning outcomes to ensure fitness for purpose. To ensure local adoption and relevance, accepted principles and practices were refined with input from those CUHK academics judged to be the best through being awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Exemplary Teaching. A set of principles for good teaching was derived from interviews with 18 of these teachers (Kember et al., 2006). These teaching principles relate to a curriculum development model (Figure 5.1) in which student learning needs lead to five key interlocking elements: desired learning

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Student learning needs

Desired learning outcomes

Learning activities

Feedback for evaluation

Cycles of reflection

Content

Assessment

Actual learning outcomes Figure 5.1

A model of an aligned curriculum

outcomes, content, learning activities, assessment and evaluative feedback, which are incorporated into procedures for course development, course review, programme development and programme review. Evaluation or feedback is central as it informs reflection upon practice. Review outcomes impact budget allocation, albeit indirectly. The Integrated Framework requires courses and programmes to be planned and documented, broadly following a standard template. The ongoing cycles of reflection are captured in action plans which are refined through a series of review and reporting activities, including a brief annual progress report on teaching and learning, a three-year cycle of internal course reviews, and a major review every six years involving a self-evaluation document and review by a panel (appointed by SCTL) that includes the external examiner. Assessment of quality assurance and improvement is made by the panel on the basis of firm evidence. The panel’s report leads to an action plan to deal with challenges and

Carmel McNaught and Andy Curtis 91 Two-way process of minor clarifications as needed

Review process

Follow-up during 6year cycle

* Programme drafts selfevaluation document

Review panel meets teachers, students & alumni

* Panel produces review report

Meeting of review panel & programme staff

* Programme response & detailed action plan

* Annual brief report

Consideration by SCTL & recommendation to RAC

* Midcycle full report

Data used inself-evaluation documents * Student Engagement Questionnaire (programme-level) * External examiner reports * Feedback from student panels/ forums/ Internet forums * Shading denotes * Assessment patterns and diversity document trail * Balance of learning activities * Departmental reflection * Reports from professional accreditation * Course questionnaire(s) SCTL-Senate Committee on Teaching and Learning * Alumni surveys RAC - Resource Allocation Committee * Other data from alumnior employers

Figure 5.2

Programme review process stipulated by the Integrated Framework

improve the quality of teaching and learning within the programme. The overall process is shown in Figure 5.2. At the undergraduate level, 24 programmes have been reviewed since 2005. The Integrated Framework also stipulates the requirement for professional development for teaching assistants and for junior teachers who are relatively new to CUHK.

5.4 A conceptual change model for quality assurance As noted above, effective quality assurance schemes need to address deeply held beliefs about teaching and learning. The pioneering work of Lewin (1952) on bringing about social change through group decisionmaking focused on considering how to change deep-seated beliefs. He suggested a three-step procedure: unfreezing, moving and then freezing at the new position. Others have subsequently utilised this work in educational contexts, mostly in science education. Nussbaum and Novick (1982) described a similar three-phase process for bringing about conceptual change in these terms: • a process for diagnosing existing conceptual frameworks and revealing them to those involved; • a period of disequilibrium and conceptual conflict which makes the subject dissatisfied with existing conceptions; and

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• a reforming or reconstruction phase in which a new conceptual framework is formed. Let us examine how the programme-review process, which is a central component of the Integrated Framework, fits the three-stage model of conceptual change. Table 5.1 shows how the design of the programme reviews fits this model. It is widely accepted that teaching is a multidimensional phenomenon (Marsh, 1987); consequently, evaluation of teaching quality and student learning needs to consider a wide range of factors in the teaching and learning environment at both course and programme level. If evaluation data like this is available, a diagnosis can be made of strengths and aspects which need attention. Relying on one or two overall ratings does not give this diagnostic information. Each programme review has the support of a senior education professional from the University’s Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR) who assists programme coordinators to gather and reflect on a range of evaluation data. The most sensitive of the three phases is the second one. The framework incorporates the standard approach to ‘confronting the situation’ which is a meeting between a review panel and representatives of the programme team. If the advice of the review panel is seen as collegial, constructive and useful, these meetings are very productive. Almost all

Table 5.1 model

The Integrated Framework and the three-stage conceptual change

Stage Evidence of the need for change

Confronting the situation

Reconstruction of a new approach

Activity The course and programme review guides in the Integrated Framework outline how quality assurance evidence can be collected. The data for this evidence can include a number of sources such as questionnaires, student panels and forums, reflections of teachers, assessment results and peer review from colleagues. A consideration of the programme review report by a meeting of the programme review panel with teachers responsible for the programme is integral to the process. The requirement for an action plan sets an agenda for change. The reviews are cyclical and this encourages progressive trials and evaluation.

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the 24 programme review meetings have been positive occurrences. Being helpful but not prescriptive; being rigorous but not nit-picking; providing expert advice but not pre-empting local wisdom: these are some of the tensions that are negotiated in implementing a programme review. Overall, the crux of the success of this strategy is whether departments see that an evidence-based approach to quality assurance brings real benefits in terms of student satisfaction and improved student learning outcomes. Instances of good practice are shared across the University (McNaught, 2006); this has heightened awareness and encouraged collaboration.

5.5 Links between language challenges and learning at CUHK Overall, CUHK has been very pleased with the quality of its offerings demonstrated by these programme reviews. In this section we will focus specifically on the language challenges noted during the reviews, rather than on a balanced appraisal of CUHK’s quality. Our intention is to explain how programme reviews have been a useful parallel process to the work of the Committee on Bilingualism, appointed in February 2005, to review CUHK’s language policies and make recommendations on how CUHK should uphold its long-cherished policy of bilingualism. Hong Kong’s linguistic landscape is very complex. In Hong Kong English can be classified as an ‘auxiliary language’ (Luke and Richards, 1982), though it is also argued that this overall standard positions English as being a foreign language (Falvey, 1998). In addition, Putonghua (Standard Mandarin; translates as ‘common speech’) has become increasingly prevalent. Only a few years ago, Cantonese and English were the main languages in Hong Kong, and relatively little Putonghua was spoken. In recent years, the situation has changed and many of our graduates expect to need to be relatively fluent in English and Putonghua as well as their home language of Cantonese. While Cantonese and Putonghua share a common written form, they are quite distinct spoken languages. It would be surprising if students’ language competence did not feature in reviews of teaching quality in a bilingual university in Hong Kong. In all 24 reviews, language issues emerged. These issues can be seen as being in three categories.

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The first relates to students’ English language competence in terms of developing the communication skills they may need after graduation. A typical quote from a programme review report is: • Many students seem to need assistance in the development of additional skills in the areas of English language and presentation skills. There were concerns about reading and writing as well as oral skills: • Students’ concerns about the workload associated with the laboratory reports seem genuine. Completion of laboratory reports appears to demand at least the same amount of time as the time needed to work on the lecture-based courses. • Students felt that more guidance might be useful on how to find and read scientific materials. Secondly, there are curriculum challenges in terms of how students develop conceptual models of key concepts in the discipline when they are working at a linguistic interface. • One alumnus commented that he would have appreciated more exposure to the use of English in professional [discipline] contexts. As the diversity in CUHK’s student body increases, the Department may wish to consider how it might incorporate [discipline] discussions in English and also in Putonghua. Finally, there was a great deal of debate in a number of programmes about how best to preserve the ‘Chinese’ character of CUHK in an increasingly diverse linguistic and cultural environment: • The programme has demonstrated an ability to meet the needs of a heterogeneous composition of students from local, mainland and international backgrounds. One strategy has been the introduction of English and Cantonese sections for required quantitative courses. • There was a great deal of discussion with teachers, students and alumni about what might be an optimal language policy. This open and pragmatic approach is welcomed. The students and alumni that the panel spoke to all were in favour of English for most lectures and readings, except where the content suggests that Chinese is needed. They welcomed the switch to having a majority of English-medium courses. However, the panel had the perception that we were speaking with the top ‘half’ of the class, and we are not sure that all students would share this view.

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Whole university

T&L policy

Language policy

Figure 5.3

Feb 2003 10-year Vision Statement

Feb 2006 CUHK Strategic Plan March 2004 The Integrated Framework T&L policy

24 programme reviews of undergraduate programmes

Feb 2005 Committee on Bilingualism established

Sept 2006 Draft Bilingualism Report

July 2007 Final Bilingualism Report

Feb 2008

Dec 2007 First meeting of the Senate Committee on Language Enhancement

Timeline for policy development at CUHK

These reviews have provided a mechanism for the University to examine some aspects of language and learning in context. By emphasising graduate outcomes as a broad range of capabilities, some of which relate to language and communication skills, the Integrated Framework has positioned language as a curriculum matter. Being able to discuss more pragmatic aspects of medium of instruction and language competence in the context of programmes has enabled the debate about language to take place without being overwhelmed by important, but highly emotive, matters of cultural identity and regional character. In this way, the Integrated Framework and programme reviews contributed to setting the stage for a clear articulation of CUHK’s Policy on Bilingualism. Figure 5.3 shows the evolutionary relationship between the learning and language policies. While the links between the two streams of policy development were not overt, ‘cross-fertilisation’ was inevitable in a campus-based university with a strong local community. In the remainder of the chapter, the wording and intention of the language policy will be scrutinised carefully to see how CUHK intends to strengthen students’ language development as part of their overall learning experience at the University.

5.6 Links between language learning and language policy at CUHK The relationships between teaching, learning and language policies at the tertiary level have been discussed in few works on university education in Asia. One example of a discussion linking secondary and tertiary education policy was presented by Hargreaves (1996, p. 105), who advocated ‘blurring the boundaries between research, policy and practice’ in the context of a ‘complex, diverse, and rapidly changing postmodern world’, which happens to be an accurate description of the language teaching and learning context in Hong Kong today.

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When discussion of language policy and education at the tertiary level does occur, it is often focused on English in a post-colonial context. For example, Granville et al. (1997, p. 1) asked the critical question: ‘What does it mean to be an English teacher and an educator of English teachers, in a country where the power of English has a colonial past but a global future?’. Although Granville et al. were referring to the situation in South Africa in 1997, the year that Hong Kong finished serving its time a British colony and reverted to Chinese rule, the question asked by Granville et al. is as current and as relevant in Hong Kong today as it was in South Africa more than a decade ago. More examples of the potentially problematic positioning of English in relation to language planning and policy have been provided by Phillipson (1992), whose work on ‘linguistic imperialism’ has become a standard text for those challenging the position of English in pre- and post-colonial contexts. Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1999) also coined the term Englishisation in their work on the ‘Englishisation as one dimension of globalization’. Set against this backdrop, in September 2006, CUHK made available a draft document for consultation, titled the Report of the Committee on Bilingualism. This 17-page draft document for consultation eventually led to the 30-page final Report of the Committee on Bilingualism released in July 2007. This part of the chapter will, then, consider the Executive Summaries in the two versions of the Report to help illustrate how CUHK is using policy initiatives to support language enhancement at the tertiary level in Hong Kong. As the draft Report notes in its introductory letter from the Chair of the Committee, Professor Ambrose Y. C. King, a former Vice Chancellor of CUHK who retired in June 2004, the Committee on Bilingualism at CUHK was set up in February 2005. The introduction from Professor King also explains that the Committee was made up of 22 members, ‘including representatives of teachers, students, alumni, council members and university administrators’ (p. 2) and that the draft Report was based on ‘very thorough discussion at 21 meetings’ (p. 2). The consultation period for the draft report period was from early September to mid-November 2006. These four facts and figures – a former VC as Committee Chair, a diverse committee of 22 different stakeholders, 21 meetings and a lengthy consultation period – are all indicators of how the University attempted to create a high-level, broad-based, inclusive approach to policymaking regarding bilingualism at the University. One of the first points of the 23 points of the Executive Summary of the draft Report explains that the bilingual policy of the University is

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based on liangwen sanyu, which translates into English as ‘two written languages and three spoken codes’, which has been ‘a distinctive characteristic and strength of the University’ for more than 40 years (p. 4). One of the most potentially important statements of this part of the Executive Summary is the reference to past language policy as it relates to future language policy: ‘The policy on bilingual education at the University and its objectives should remain unchanged’ (p. 4). This statement indicates that this is not a departure from previous policy, but a formalising and an articulation of what has been happening – or what is supposed to have been happening – as well as a consolidation of previous work, on which plans for further developments can be based. The liangwen part of the University’s liangwen sanyu bilingual policy refers to written Chinese, Zhongwen, and written English, Yingwen, while the sanyu part refers to spoken Cantonese, Yueyu, Mandarin Chinese or Mainland Chinese, Putonghua, and spoken English, Yingyu. This multiplicity of written and spoken languages and codes makes the linguistic environment in Hong Kong one of the most complex and complicated of any of the British post-colonial contexts, making the development of language policy perhaps even more challenging than in many other mixed-language settings. This complexity is illustrated clearly and concisely in the last part of Point 6 of the Language of Instruction part of the Executive Summary: ‘There can be variation among Departments in the proportion of the use of Cantonese, Putonghua and English.’ This is where a closer look at the language of language policy can be revealing. The online Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary gives more than 50 meanings of the word ‘can’. However, three of the main meanings are to be able to (ability), to be allowed to (permission), and ‘can’ used to express possibility. In this sense – or these senses – the University’s departments are able to have permission to and have the possibility of using both languages and all three codes. The feasibility of this depends on many factors, such as the language make-up of the teaching staff in each department and faculty. However, by including such statements in the Report, the University is attempting to create policy which helps to maintain a delicate balance between the ‘two written languages and three spoken codes’. One of the other ways in which the University is attempting to maintain this balance is by giving the different department’s language-code choices, based on the relationships between the academic subjects and the language-codes used, as set out in Point 7: ‘For academic subjects of a universal nature, such as the natural sciences, life sciences, engineering, English will, in principle, be used at lectures’ (7.1), whereas ‘For subjects

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related to Chinese culture, society and history, Chinese will, in principle, be used at lectures’ (7.2) and for the third linguistic possibility, ‘For subjects related to local culture, society and politics, and those related to philosophy of life, Cantonese will, in principle, be used at lectures’. Setting aside the local, Hong Kong English use of some prepositions, in this case, ‘at lectures’ rather than ‘in lectures’, the most important phrase in Point 7 is not ‘in English’, ‘in Chinese’ or ‘in Cantonese’. The most important phrase, and the only one that appears in all three subpoints, is ‘in principle’, highlighting another delicate balance, in this case, between principles and practices. It is also worth noting that Subpoint 7.1 refers to English being used for ‘academic subjects’, whereas Chinese and Cantonese are for ‘subjects’. However, the academic versus not-academic subject division may be somewhat balanced by the position and place given to the local language, Cantonese, which is to be used for subjects ‘related to philosophy of life’, as all subjects may be related to this extremely broad area. One of the potentially most important parts of the Executive Summary is on exit tests for Chinese and English, as set out in Point 12, in which the Committee advises the continued use of the IELTS test (International English Language Testing System) for English proficiency and the continued use of the China State Language Commission test for Putonghua proficiency. The Committee concluded that ‘Test results serve as indicators of linguistic proficiency in Chinese and English’ (p. 4). However, this may be a significant oversimplification, and part of the Hong Kong preoccupation with exams. As Fullilove (1992, p. 131) has noted: ‘Hong Kong is an examination-mad town. Public examinations dominate its secondary education system … Teachers plan and conduct their lessons with an eye fixed firmly on the requirements of the examinations in their subjects’. It is unusual to see reference to a specific examination in a Report such as this, as the IELTS test is one of a number of possibilities, such as the TOEFL test (Test of English as Foreign Language), which is a more widely used English language examination than IELTS. Also, none of the research on IELTS, from the early work by Dale (1990), Ingram (1991) and others to the more recent work on IELTS, carried out by Chalhoub-Deville and Turner (2000), Cheng (2005) and Hawkey (2006), shows IELTS to be a more accurate, more reliable or more valid test of English than any of the other possibilities. In fact, Hawkey (2006, p. 9) has expressed concern that ‘Language tests such as IELTS are more and more frequently used in a ‘gate-keeping’ role in decisions of crucial importance … Thus they earn the label of ‘high stakes tests’. The social consequences of test use are a growing concern’.

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Chalhoub-Deville and Turner (2000, p. 523) provided advice on what to look for in ESL admission tests, including the IELTS and TOEFL tests, and they concluded that test-users such as universities ‘need to be cognizant of the properties of the instruments they employ and ensure appropriate interpretation and use of test scores provided’. However, it is not clear whether universities in Hong Kong are aware of these aspects of IELTS and other standardised English language proficiency exams. Chalhoub-Deville and Turner (2000, p. 523) also pointed out that ‘Test-users need to carry out local investigations to make sure that their admission requirements are based on an informed analysis of their academic programs and the language ability score profiles necessary to succeed in these programs’. However, such ‘local investigations’ have yet to be carried out in Hong Kong. A more detailed discussion of the potential limitations of language tests, including the critical differences between Learning English for Examination Purposes (LEEP), learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and language learning for communicative purposes, is beyond the scope of this chapter. However, there does appear to be a pressing need for some form of standardised assessment of language learning outcomes, using the IELTS or TOEFL examinations, or using some other system, that will enable the English competencies of learners graduating from CUHK to be clearly and concisely stated, using valid and reliable means. The last part of the main body of the Executive Summary, Point 16, looks to the future in terms of credit-unit requirements of language courses in 2012 and beyond, when the current British three-year, firstdegree model coverts to a North American four-year model. It is worth noting that for CUHK this will be not only a conversion but also a reversion, as CUHK for many years was the only tertiary intuition in Hong Kong to have a four-year degree programme, which it eventually and reluctantly gave up, after bowing to government pressure to adopt the same model as other tertiary institutions in Hong Kong at that time. Point 16 states that ‘Upon reversion to a four-year normative curriculum, consideration may be given to increasing the Chinese and English language requirement from between three and six units to between 12 and 15 units’ (p. 5). This potentially confusing reference was recently clarified, when the University announced that the required number of credits of English language courses will be increased in the four-year degree from its current three to nine, thereby tripling the English language requirement. At the same time, the number of credits of Chinese language will double, from its present three to six in 2012. What the

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University has not yet made clear is how this enormous increase in required language courses – with a 150 per cent increase, from six units to 15 units – will be resourced, staffed or funded. Under the miscellaneous section of ‘Other’ in Summary, the Committee recommended that CUHK establish a committee on language enhancement, under the Senate ‘to coordinate, review, improve and promote the policy on bilingual education at CUHK’ (Point 21, p. 5). This recommendation was recently acted on and the Senate Committee on Language Enhancement held its first meeting in December 2007.

5.7

Comparing the Executive Summaries of the first and final drafts of the Report

One of the main differences between the two Executive Summaries is the addition of a section in the final report on the Objectives of Bilingual Education, and one of the most significant points in this new section of the Summary is Point 9, which states that ‘As society evolves, the functions of liangwen sanyu will change, and the relative weight of each language as a medium of instruction will also need to be adjusted accordingly’ (p. 4). This is a potentially important change/addition in relation to the statement in the first draft of the Report, as discussed above, which states that ‘The policy on bilingual education at the University and its objectives should remain unchanged’ (Point 2, p. 4) and this statement appears in much the same form in the final draft. This, then, highlights another delicate balancing act that will need to take place: keeping CUHK’s bilingual policy ‘unchanged’ while at the same time allowing it to ‘be adjusted’ to take into account the shifting ratios and relationships within the liangwen sanyu approach. In this same section on the Objectives of Bilingual Education another important addition was made to the final draft, as Point 11 of that draft states that ‘All undergraduate students [emphasis added], local or nonlocal, regardless of their linguistic and cultural backgrounds, should receive training in both Chinese and English during the course of their study at CUHK’ (p. 4). This addition may constitute a major change as it ‘levels the playing field’ for native and non-native users of English and Chinese, so regardless of what language the students consider to be their first language, or ‘mother tongue’, regardless of how proficient they are in Chinese or English, all undergraduate students should be required to develop their language skills. With this kind of policy statement, CUHK may be doing what it can to not only encourage the

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learning of English by Chinese-speaking students, but also the learning of Chinese by English-speaking students. Another way in which the University is trying to develop policies which maintain and build on the use of ‘two written languages and three spoken codes’ appears in Language of Instruction section of the Executive Summary of the final draft, which does away with the distinction between ‘academic subjects’ and mere ‘subjects’, instead referring to courses ‘that are highly universal in nature’ (Point 14.1, p. 4) versus courses ‘that emphasize cultural specificity and have Chinese as the predominant medium for academic expression and publication’ (Point 14.2, p. 4). Another major difference between the two Executive Summaries is the addition of a section in the final report on Caring for the Chinese Language and Promotion of Chinese Culture (Points 18 and 18.1–18.5, p. 5). It is possible that such a section was conspicuous by its absence in a report by a Chinese University, but whatever the reason for its addition, in terms of a close reading of the language of language policy, the language of the main point, 18, is telling in its use of English: ‘In the face of the diversification and internationalization of higher education, and confronted with the increasing dominance of the English language, which may affect the roles and functions of the Chinese language in academia, CUHK should take up the responsibility of caring for the Chinese language’ (Point 18, p. 5). Three phrases – ‘in the face of’, ‘confronted with’ and ‘increasing dominance’ – may indicate an awareness of what Phillipson (1992) and others refer to as ‘linguistic imperialism’, which was also conspicuous by its absence in the first draft of the Report, especially in such a postcolonial context as Hong Kong. In fact, in Point 18, the final draft of the Report uses similar language to that used by Phillipson (1992, p. 1), when he refers to his analysis of ‘how the language [English] has become so dominant and why’, and the work of Canagarajah (1999), who used Phillipson’s work as the basis for his Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Language Teaching. As well as additions, there were some significant deletions, one of the most significant of which was the omission, in the final report Executive Summary, of the earlier section on Exit Tests for Chinese and English (Point 12, p. 4). Although it is not possible to know the details of why some sections and points were included and some excluded between the two versions of the Report of the Committee on Bilingualism, it is possible that some of the limitations of language testing discussed above

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were bought to the attention of the Senate Committee on Bilingualism during their 21 meetings with the 22 different stakeholders.

5.8 Conclusion The paper by Granville et al. (1997), discussed above, was titled ‘English with or without g(u)ilt: A position paper on language in education policy for South Africa’, which may have an unexpected relevance to Hong Kong today, as noted above. In the conclusion to their paper, Granville et al. answer the questions they posed in their introduction by proposing ‘a strong language-as-subject policy’ (p. 22) as a way of enabling English teachers in South Africa ‘to teach English as a subject without guilt’ and to help their students understand that ‘all languages are valuable and are a national treasure’ (p. 23). At the risk of overworking the metaphor, Granville et al. (1997, p. 23) go on to explain that ‘Gilt is not a property of the dominant language alone, all languages are distinctive. The real pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will only be reached when all South Africans are multilingual’. This may well be the case for Hong Kong too, and especially so for The Chinese University of Hong Kong, as a bilingual university in the ‘new’ Hong Kong, with an ‘open’ China. In this chapter, we have attempted to show how policies and practices related to learning enhancement and language enhancement at CUHK are inextricably intertwined within a systems approach to the development of both learning and languages, in which each informs, enables and supports the other. Although it may be too soon to conclude that this approach has been a complete success, it is clear that by aiming to align learning enhancement and language enhancement in a complementary juxtaposition, CUHK is hoping to be one of the leading bilingual tertiary institutions, not only in Hong Kong but also perhaps within China as a whole. Given the scale and scope of tertiary education in China, the realisation of the University’s aspirations may well rest on how well it is able to use policy initiatives to support both learning enhancement and language enhancement in Hong Kong in the future.

References Biggs, J. B. (2003) Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does (2nd edn). Buckingham, UK: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. Bryman, A., Haslam, C. and Webb, A. (1994) Performance appraisal in U.K. universities: A case of procedural compliance? Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 19 (3), pp. 175–87.

Carmel McNaught and Andy Curtis 103 Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Online document at http://dictionary. cambridge.org/ (Accessed 1 May 2008). Canagarajah, S. (1999) Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chalhoub-Deville, M. and Turner, C. E. (2000) What to look for in ESL admission tests: Cambridge certificate exams, IELTS, and TOEFL. System, 28 (4), pp. 523–29. Cheng, L. (2005) Changing Language Teaching through Language Testing. Studies in Language Testing, 21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dale, D. L. (1990) Assessing Language Proficiency for Credit in Higher Education. ED321588. ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics Washington DC. Online document at http://www.cal.org/resources/archive/digest/1990assessing. html (Accessed 1 May 2008). Falvey, P. (1998) ESL, EFL, and language acquisition in the context of Hong Kong. In B. Asker (ed.) Teaching Language and Culture: Building Hong Kong Education (pp. 73–8). Hong Kong: Addison Wesley Longman. Freed, J. E., Klugman, M. R. and Fife, J. D. (2000) A Culture for Academic Excellence: Implementing the Quality Principles in Higher Education. San Francisco: JosseyBass. Fullilove, J. (1992) The tail that wags. Institute of Language in Education Journal, 9, pp. 131–47. Granville, S., Janks, H., Joseph, M., Mphahlele, M., Ramani, E., Reed, Y. and Watson, P. (1997) Paper presented at The English Teachers Connect International Conference, 12–14 July, The University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Online document at http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/ cslplc/documents/guilt.pdf (Accessed 1 May 2008). Hargreaves, A. (1996) Transforming knowledge: Blurring the boundaries between research, policy, and practice. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 18 (2), pp. 105–22. Harvey, L. and Knight, P. T. (1996) Transforming Higher Education. Buckingham, UK: SRHE and Open University Press. Hawkey, R. (2006) Impact Theory and Practice: Studies of the IELTS Test and Progetto Lingue 2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ingram, D. E. (1991) The International English Language Testing System (IELTS): The Speaking Test. Working Papers of the National Languages Institute of Australia, 1 (1), pp. 101–14. Kember, D., Ma, R., McNaught, C. and 18 exemplary teachers (2006) Excellent University Teaching. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. Lewin, K. (1952) Group decision and social change. In G. E. Swanson, T. M. Newcomb and F. E. Hartley (eds), Readings in Social Psychology (pp. 459–73). New York: Holt. Luke, K. and Richards, J. (1982) English in Hong Kong: Functions and status. English World-Wide, 3, pp. 47–64. Marsh, H. W. (1987) Students’ evaluations of university teaching: Research findings, methodological issues, and directions for future research. International Journal of Educational Research, 11, pp. 253–388. McNaught, C. (2006) Instances of Good Practice in Teaching and Learning Noted in Programme Reviews 2005 & 2006. Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Online document at http://

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www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/download/ProgReview-GoodPractice.pdf (Accessed 1 May 2008). Nussbaum, J. and Novick, S. (1982) Alternative frameworks, conceptual conflict and accommodation: Toward a principled teaching strategy. Instructional Science, 11, pp. 183–200. Phillipson, R. (1992) Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Phillipson, R. and Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1999) Englishisation: one dimension of globalization. English in a Changing World, AILA Review, 13, pp. 17–36. Report of the Committee on Bilingualism. Draft for Consultation. The Chinese University of Hong Kong 7 September 2006. Online document at http://www. cuhk.edu.hk/bilingualism/en/pdf/report.pdf (Accessed 1 May 2008). Report of the Committee on Bilingualism. Final Report. The Chinese University of Hong Kong 16 July 2007. Online document at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/v6/en/ bilingualism/images/cob_report_e.pdf (Accessed 1 May 2008). The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Integrated Framework for Curriculum Development and Review. (March 2004. Revised December 2006) Online document at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/v6/en/teaching/images/rev_integf_ug_ 2007.pdf (Accessed 1 May 2008). The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Strategic Plan (2006) Online document at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/v6/en/cuhk/strategicplan/images/strat_plan_eng2. pdf (Accessed 1 May 2008). The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Ten-Year Vision Statement of CUHK (2003) Online document at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/v6/en/cuhk/info/mission/ mission_vision.html (Accessed 1 May 2008). West, L. H. T. and Pines, A. L. (eds) (1985) Cognitive Structure and Conceptual Change. New York: Academic Press.

Theme II Student and Staff Perspectives

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6 Cultivators, Cows and Computers: Chinese Learners’ Metaphors of Teachers Martin Cortazzi, Lixian Jin and Wang Zhiru

6.1 Introduction This chapter presents a model of the teacher in China. The model is constructed by examining Chinese learners’ ideal expectations of teachers through a study of the metaphors they use to characterise teachers. Broadly, we adopt the Lakoff approach to conceptual metaphors but with a cultural focus. Two main data sources are used to analyse Chinese metaphors for teacher: traditional sayings and texts in the Confucian heritage which have had a continuing influence on Chinese educational values, and nearly 3000 metaphors elicited from 496 university students in China. From resulting networks of interrelated metaphors and learners’ interpretations we construct a cultural model of the Chinese teacher. This should be of interest to those teachers internationally who work with Chinese students and to Chinese (or other) students themselves, as a means to raise comparative educational awareness and reflect on teacher– student expectations and roles in China or elsewhere. The model highlights the roles of knowledge, cultivation and morality – and unexpectedly the role of sacrifice – but these and other key features characterising the teacher in Chinese cultures have particular resonances of networks of meanings located in cultural contexts. The chapter includes quite a few quoted metaphors, including those of cultivators, cows and computers which give insights into Chinese learners’ appreciation of teachers. ‘Teachers, not only teaching us knowledge but more importantly teaching us how to become a person through the model of their behaviour’ ‘They teach us knowledge and give us love’ ‘Teachers help us to realize our dream’ (Students in China, 2005) 107

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An important part of an effective learner-centred approach to working with any particular group of students is to try to understand their conceptions of learning and teaching. This is part of a baseline analysis of learners’ needs and their learning styles and strategies. At a deeper level it should be indicative of their educational values and the cultural or cognitive models that inform how they learn and how they interact with teachers. In the case of the significant number of Chinese students who now study outside China in English-medium universities and schools it is important for both their teachers and the learners themselves to understand the nature of Chinese traditional and current expectations and values about learning and teaching. These expectations and values are commonly represented by metaphors which occur in traditional sayings or classical texts and can be readily heard in the speech of students and teachers. Such metaphors often have a cultural basis which may be different from those found in the cultural contexts where Chinese students study when they study abroad. For instance, in talking about teachers a Chinese student may say, ‘My teacher is an old cow’. British students or teachers are likely to understand this remark with the cow metaphor as a gender-based insult: the teacher is apparently portrayed as unpleasant, stupid or ugly. However, the Chinese metaphor is intended to convey praise or admiration: the teacher is seen as hardworking, productive and self-sacrificing. In the 23 expressions of this Chinese metaphor in our data, a cow or ox tirelessly pulls a plough, suffering in silence to help with plant growth, which is the development of students and their learning. The use of metaphors generally presumes common ground: cultural knowledge is needed to understand what the Chinese speaker means by cow. In fact, the cow metaphor is part of a network of metaphors representing clusters of expected characteristics of Chinese teachers. These metaphors have traditional roots but within this continuity some are changing with the rapid socio-economic development of China in which the education system – the world’s largest – is also changing. This chapter seeks educational insights into the ideal expectations of Chinese students about teachers. We examine the details of Chinese metaphors for teachers in order to develop a cultural model of ‘good’ Chinese teachers. We believe this is the first time such a model has been constructed using an extensive database of metaphors and, because of the extremely wide use of these metaphors in China, the model may have a particularly strong representation of the teacher, as envisaged by large numbers of students, and others. Awareness of this model can help to establish greater common ground between Chinese learners and

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teachers or learners outside Chinese contexts although a model may be modified in the intercultural experience of studying internationally. The metaphors should be insightful in terms of perceived gaps in teaching practices between different countries; ‘Western’ education systems can learn from East Asian ones (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). This study is thus part of an ongoing stream of work in applied linguistics, psychology and pedagogy focused on Chinese learners (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996 a, 1996b; Watkins and Biggs, 1996, 2001; Coverdale-Jones & Rastall, 2006). For Chinese teachers and learners the detailed consideration of metaphors presented here may provide an evidence-based way of raising their awareness of their own educational and cultural expectations, while for others this analysis gives a rich picture of ‘good’ teachers in Chinese terms which should provide a framework to reflect on their own values and expectations about teachers. The chapter first gives a brief theoretical background on conceptual views of metaphors found in linguistics and introduces the notion of a cultural model. Subsequent sections are based on data which we use to answer the overall research question of what is a good teacher in Chinese terms. As a first data source, we present some metaphors of teaching and learning in the Confucian heritage in the form of proverbial sayings and citations from authoritative classic texts. This historic dimension is important to consider continuity and change. A second data source comes from our analysis of metaphors elicited from university students in China. This major section of the chapter analyses data from the 1990s and 2005, and shows both continuity and change in a detailed picture of Chinese learners’ views of teachers, distilled into a cultural model. The Chinese metaphors and model represent insights into education which can stimulate teacher reflection and development.

6.2 Cognitive views of metaphor and cultural models Current linguistic research into metaphors emphasises that metaphors are pervasive and normal in the everyday use of language. They are not just a stylistic decoration. In one of the most influential theoretical orientations, through metaphor we experience one thing in terms of another and this partly, or largely, structures our everyday thought (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Lakoff & Turner, 1989; Lakoff, 1993). The proposed relationship between metaphors and concepts is that abstract ‘target’ domains are structured in our minds in terms of simpler, more familiar ‘source’ domains. This can be illustrated taking the classroom example of how teachers talk about the moment of a breakthrough

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in children learning (Cortazzi, 1991, pp. 40–63):‘The light dawns …’; ‘He’s seen the light …’; ‘Oh, the light in his eyes …’; ‘Her face just lit up, this sudden spark …’; ‘This sort of flash going straight through …’ Here, the target domain (or topic, in traditional terms) of learning is spoken about, and arguably thought about, in terms of a series of linguistic expressions using metaphors about light, a source domain (or, traditionally, vehicle). The Lakoff view holds that here the conceptual representation of learning is constituted by a series of systematic mappings or correspondences between the range of linguistic expressions featuring light which can be subsumed under a conceptual metaphor, which can be named and conventionally capitalised for mnemonic purposes as LEARNING IS LIGHT. This conceptual metaphor might then be closely related to metaphorical expressions for teaching or teacher, which also centre around light, as emerges in our study of Chinese students: ‘My teacher is the sunshine in winter …’; ‘A teacher is a warm light …’; ‘A lighthouse guiding us to sail in the sea of knowledge …’. These expressions are part of a set which could be mapped towards A TEACHER IS A LIGHT and the range of expressions could be re-examined to ascertain the entailments for Chinese speakers (for instance, to understand the light as teacher warmth, energy, knowledge and guidance), and implications for cultural practices might be drawn. A series of related conceptual metaphors, each realised by mappings of many different linguistic expressions, might then be proposed as a more abstract cognitive model, or mental representation, of learning. There have been a number of arguments raised against this view that metaphor is fundamentally conceptual. ‘Metaphor’ might be understood at several levels of analysis and the circumstances of use may determine whether speakers are using metaphors as deeper conceptual representations or not (McGlone, 2001) and such aspects of contextual dependency indicate that metaphor cannot necessarily be reduced to cognitive processes but, rather, that the role of social practices, experience and culture must be considered (Leezenberg, 2001). However, empirical data can support the cognitive view (Gibbs, 1994). While recognising that there is some tension in the discussion of whether and how far linguistic metaphors reflect, or constitute, conceptual metaphors and cognitive models, proponents have also systematically developed linkages between linguistic metaphors and cultural models, notably in the conceptualisation of emotion (Kövecses, 1999, 2000), including emotional concepts in Chinese (Yu, 1998). There is clear recognition here that metaphorical mappings vary across cultures: some seem to be universal; others are apparently culture specific (Lakoff, 1993). This allows that

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any cultural variation may be both within and across cultures (Kövecses, 2002). This chapter can be seen in the context of this more culturally aligned research on metaphors, with an orientation to applied linguistic research (Cameron & Low, 1999) and education (Cameron, 2003), focusing on Chinese learners views of teachers, which we analyse to build up a cultural model. We take a ‘cultural model’ as a constructed mental representation of knowledge which is learned, transmitted and shared in a cultural community, formed and transformed in daily social interaction, which functions as a sociocultural constraint on how community participants attend to and interpret their environment and socially significant others (Duranti, 1997; Foley, 1997; Lantolf, 1999; Holland & Quinn, 1987). Cultural models of teachers will thus include the roles and characteristics of teachers expected in a given society by families and educational institutions, especially the expectations held by their students and other teachers. Aspects of these cultural models should be visibly enacted in classroom practices. They are likely to be directly transmitted in teacher education and indirectly in the early socialisation of learners in schools or in transfer across institutions. They may embody some dissonances between traditional or modern, professional or public expectations as cultural conceptions of teacher change. Different cultural communities might be expected to have different cultural models of teacher, although we may also expect some universal features. The present metaphor-based study of Chinese models of teachers complements cross-cultural studies of Chinese models of learning in psychology based on word association and categorisation (Li, 2001, 2002b, 2003; Szaly et al., 1994); however, by analysing data from larger numbers of participants and by including historical perspectives there may be a clearer claim to cultural models. In our proposals for a cultural model several caveats should be noted. First, cultural models are distinct from personal models: the latter are based on an individual’s unique experience, beliefs and values, but cultural models represent socially distributed knowledge widely shared and transmitted in a community. Second, cultural models are complex and they cannot be easily reduced to simple labels or to mnemonics; what is important is the network of conceptual mappings and the cultural entailments behind the metaphors. Consequently, third, we do not imagine a one-to-one correspondence between a cultural model and particular individuals; that is, the models allow for some diversity within a cultural community for which the model is proposed. This reservation is particularly important when we use the label ‘Chinese’, which as a

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cultural term encompasses an enormous diversity of beliefs and practices, even though Chinese participants identify themselves linguistically, ethnically and culturally as Chinese. In this chapter, therefore, ‘Chinese’ relates to apparently common ground regarding models of teacher found in Chinese cultures, which are plural.

6.3 Heritage metaphors: Confucian teachers and learning The Confucian heritage is well known as a defining paradigm in education in pre-modern China, with strong influences elsewhere in East Asia. As an educational term, ‘Confucian’ encompasses the teaching and learning of canonical texts, composed before Confucius (551–479 BC) and by him and his followers, in a range of educational practices for literacy, scholarship and moral education in schools, family and community. An important reason for the success of Confucianism over many centuries was its emphasis put on education (Chen, 1990), which was continuous within a developing dynamic tradition including Buddhist and Taoist strands. Favourite titles of Confucius are the ‘First Teacher’ and ‘the Teacher of the Ten Thousand Generations’ as arguably the first person to have made teaching a profession. As a self-characterisation, he is reported as saying that he would ‘learn insatiably and teach indefatigably’ (The Analects, or Sayings of Confucius, sections 7:2, 7:33; Huang, 1997). This bracketing of learning and teaching is significant, given the status of Confucius as an exemplar in education: the figure of Confucius has become a major metaphor for teacher in Chinese tradition, but this teacher was also a learner with a ‘love of learning’ (The Analects, 5:28; Huang, 1997). His birthday is still celebrated in Chinese cultures as part of the national event of ‘Teacher’s Day’ which honours teachers for their selfless devotion. In 2006, China began to establish 100 schools to teach Chinese language and culture worldwide within the framework of existing local universities: significantly, they are called Confucius Institutes. Thus Confucius is currently branded as a cultural emblem as powerful for modern China as Goethe, Dante or Cervantes are for the German, Italian and Spanish institutes. Also emblematic of the significance and endurance of the Confucian heritage is the civil service examination based on selected Confucian books taught in schools and academies. This meritocratic exam held sway locally and nationally between the 14th century and 1904, but was a significant influence between AD 600 and AD 1300 and was based on literary tests of textual knowledge as early as the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) – a world record in curriculum longevity. Commentators

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on this exam and on the Confucian heritage of learning often stress the apparent rote learning and learners’ subservience to the authoritarian role of the teacher, which can lead to a stereotypical view of Chinese learners as passive ‘Confucian’ memorisers who feed back textual learning to teachers (Watkins & Biggs, 1996, 2001). This is quite misleading as an overall picture: it ignores the depth and detail of educational studies (e.g. de Bary & Chaffee, 1989; Chen, 1990) which demonstrate the value of this heritage and its positive influence on Chinese cultures of learning which contribute to their achievement in education (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996a; Jin & Cortazzi, 2006; Shi, 2006; Watkins & Biggs, 1996, 2001). Further depth to the positive image of the Confucian teacher can be derived from significant metaphors in classic texts and well-known traditional sayings. The data below are from collections of chengyu (fixed four-character expressions), geyan (maxims, often quoted as guidelines in education), yanyu (common colloquial proverbs) and xiehouyu (enigmatic similes and truncated witticisms) (Chen & Chen, 1995; Gong & Fung, 1994; Hu, 2001; Rohsenow, 2002). These are widely used in speech and many are quotes from classic texts. Because they are easy to understand, remember and recite, they have been used for teaching early literacy for centuries. Characteristically, teachers in the Confucian heritage are held in respect for their knowledge: The teacher is a sea of knowledge. This kind of saying indicates conceptual metaphors, KNOWLEDGE IS A SEA and THE TEACHER IS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE. The respect for teachers is not blind, however, since Confucius commented that he (The First Teacher) saw himself as learning in humility from anybody, implying that everybody can learn something from anyone, so teachers can learn from students. Han Yu, a noted Tang dynasty poet (AD 768–824), citing this comment about Confucius’ learning, argued that students learn from the tradition, which is embodied by the teacher (THE TEACHER IS THE TRADITION). This shows an egalitarian modesty within teacher and student roles: ‘My teacher is the tradition. It makes no difference if someone was born before or after me … where the tradition is, there the teacher is … what separates the Sage and the fool is their different attitudes towards teachers … Confucius said, ‘When three people walk together, there will certainly be one who can be my teacher.’ So disciples are not necessarily better than their teachers, nor are teachers necessarily worthier than their disciples. One has simply learned the tradition earlier than the other or is more specialised in his scholarship and learning.’ (Han Yu, in Hartman, 1986, pp. 163–4). This can be put with other sayings

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clarifying the teacher–learner roles as embodying a close and enduring relationship of reciprocal responsibility; My teacher for a day is a parent for a lifetime and Heaven and earth are great, parents and teachers are to be respected. This relation is commonly characterised in Chinese as filial piety (xiao), a key Confucian virtue of duty and respect extended from parents to teachers. This virtue emphasises mutual care, closeness and concern in relationships rather than any arbitrary authoritarianism: ‘Filiality means ‘to care for’ and caring means according with the Way’ (Li Ji, a classic Confucian text, cited Sommer, 1995, p. 35). The conceptual metaphor in Chinese cultures, THE TEACHER IS A PARENT, therefore includes filial piety and a strong reciprocity of caring between teachers and learners, which is at the heart of teaching and learning. In this parental role of embodying knowledge and the Confucian tradition, a teacher does not simply transmit knowledge to students and require memorisation of it. The Confucian model of learning envisaged in the key texts such as The Analects (sections 1:1; 2:11; 2:15; 7:8; Huang, 1997) is active, creative and thoughtful. First, learning is associated with practice and application and it is not simply book learning: ‘To learn something and regularly practise it – is it not a joy?’ Second, learning creatively combines both previous and new knowledge, even for the teacher: ‘He who keeps reviewing the old and acquiring the new is fit to be a teacher.’ Third, thinking and learning are complementary and intimately related, so mindless learning or memorising misses the point: ‘Learning without thinking is fruitless; thinking without learning is perplexing.’ Fourth, Confucius urged his students to take initiative in learning; after being taught something, students were expected to draw their own inferences: ‘If I have brought up one corner and he does not return with the other three, I will not repeat.’ Fifth, the teacher guides students to think for themselves, ‘opening the way’. This is a phrase of great power, given that for Confucians ‘The Way’ (dao or Tao in Chinese) is a core idea of ‘humanity’ or ‘the proper course of human conduct’, and thus addresses the question of the ultimate meaning of human existence for individuals and as a communal, even transcendent, act (Tu, 1993). The imagery in The Analects of Confucius is dominated by the metaphor of travelling the road, as the right Way of life (path, way, walk, tracks, enter, leave, arrive, advance and so on – Fingarette, 1972, pp. 19). Han Yu (in Hartman, ibid.) stressed, ‘What I seek from my teacher is the Way.’ Scholars and teachers were carriers and keepers of the Way, and in the Sung dynasty (AD 960–1279) the dominant school of Confucian thinking called itself the Teaching of the Way (dao-xue).

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The role of teacher guidance in promoting student thinking is clear in classic descriptions of ‘a good teacher’: ‘In his teaching, the superior man guides his students but does not pull them along; he urges them to go forward and does not suppress them; he opens the way, but does not take them to the place. Guiding without pulling makes the process of learning gentle; urging without suppressing makes the process of learning easy; and opening the way without leading the students to the place makes them think for themselves. Now if the process of learning is made gentle and easy and the students are encouraged to think for themselves, we may call the man a good teacher.’ (Li Ji, cited in Lin, 1938, p. 247). Thus, the above expressions can be mapped onto a conceptual metaphor found in many cultures, LEARNING IS A JOURNEY, but the Confucian image includes powerful humane resonances of THE TEACHER IS A GUIDE and THE TEACHER IS AN OPENER OF THE WAY. Teaching is seen as a difficult, time-consuming, artistic activity that leads to a high-value product which is long-lasting and treasured, like carved jade: Things learned in childhood are things inscribed in stone; The only way for the superior man to civilise the people and establish good social customs is through education. A piece of jade cannot become an object of art without chiselling, and a man cannot come to know the moral law without education (Lin, 1938, p. 241). Confucius quoted a poem (The Analects, 1:15; Huang, 1997) which refers to physical elegance ‘like carving, like filing, like chiselling, like polishing’ jade, but Confucius, as an example of teaching, transformed the carving jade metaphor to moral refinement, which is how it is remembered now. Together with his characterisation of Zi-gong, a prominent student, as ‘a sacrificial vase of jade’ (The Analects, 5:4), this can be mapped as THE TEACHER IS AN ARTISAN CARVING JADE, which resonates with moral and social development of character. Students may expect teachers to be strict and critical, but this is for the students’ learning and benefit. However, there are inherent benefits also for the teacher. Teaching and learning are for mutual growth and improvement, that is, teaching is a way of learning and self-cultivation. A strict teacher produces talented students; To teach people you blame their weaknesses; The person who criticises you is often your teacher; Teaching and learning grow together; Teachers and students mutually benefit; To teach students for three years is to teach oneself; The processes of teaching and learning stimulate one another; Teaching is the half of learning. These are positive expressions: the negative example of pull up the seedling to help its growth shows that the cultivation has

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appropriate methods; it cannot be accelerated by pulling, since this destroys the plant. From these traditional sayings, several conceptual metaphors can be proposed: LEARNING IS GROWTH; TEACHING IS CAUSING GROWTH; TEACHING IS GROWTH; TEACHING IS LEARNING. The growth metaphors seem common in other cultures, but the mutuality and reciprocity of learning and teaching in growth are more particular, especially when seen in the network of jade, guide, parent and filial piety. The Confucian tradition, especially in the Sung dynasty (AD 960–1280) repeatedly stressed the growth metaphor as self-cultivation (xiu-sheng). Thus prominent educators like Zhu Xi (1130–1200) stressed that students ‘cultivate their own persons and then extend it to others’ (cited in de Bary & Chaffee, 1989, p. 203), and Zou Shouyi (1491–1562) commented, ‘The essential message of the school of the sages is to cultivate oneself with reverence … We lecture on learning so that we can cultivate virtue.’ (Cleary, 1991, pp. 66–7). Teaching here is not just for information but for transformation. This self-cultivation metaphor of learning entailed rigorous inner development of ‘the heart-and-mind’ (the Chinese term xin integrates the intellect of mind with the emotions of the heart), with constant commitment to the process of selfeffort (to the extent that the sincere learning of the Way is the Way) and a commitment to social action. The method of the Way is self-cultivation, which has a vertical dimension of sincere orientation to the Way (taking culture on oneself) and an investigation of things in the world with a horizontal dimension of cultivating respectful and harmonious relations with other people in order to be of service to others (Berthrong & Berthrong, 2000). Thus, LEARNING IS SELF-CULTIVATION. The role of the teacher is to develop this in learners through example, guidance and pedagogic interaction, so THE TEACHER IS A CULTIVATOR and, paradoxically, TEACHING IS CULTIVATING THE SELF-CULTIVATION OF THE LEARNER. The Confucian heritage has had its ups and downs since 1949, including notable criticism during the anti-Confucius campaign of 1974–5 in the Cultural Revolution, yet recent Chinese leaders and educators have readily acknowledged its value in a modernising context; as the slogan goes, ancient things for modern use (Li, 2004; Louie, 1984). Importantly, the Confucian heritage metaphoric expressions discussed here are quoted at children and students by Chinese parents and teachers to direct, exhort and encourage them as a part of socialisation into learning. These values have also influenced current teachers, as a moral foundation for their lives, for their professional development, and in the quality of intensely personal, often lifelong, relations that Chinese teachers have with students (Hayhoe, 2001, 2006).

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6.4 Chinese metaphors for ‘teacher’ since 1949 Since the founding of modern China in 1949 there have been a number of metaphors for teachers which have been widely promulgated in official documents and public campaigns (Buley-Meissner, 1991; Cortazzi & Jin, 1999). As Figure 6.1 shows, these can be roughly grouped into recognised periods of national development. The metaphors may reflect – or create – public attitudes towards teachers and to some extent they track changes in perceptions of teachers. Most periods here show a positive evaluation of teachers in socialist terms: labourers, producers, warriors. Some are mechanistic or technical: toolmakers, technicians, machinists, but it is important to recognise humane aspects of this, as in the recurrent metaphoric expression, engineers of the soul. The meanings of some other expressions are more holistic than may be apparent: ‘red and expert’ includes moral worth and exemplary behaviour to balance technical subject expertise, and while ‘teach the book’ (jiao shu) seems to indicate a didactic book-centred approach to teaching, the expression ‘cultivate the people’ (yu ren), which is paired with it, clearly indicates a more learner-centred humane approach. Noticeable deprecations of teachers are seen in the Great Leap Forward (teachers as obstacles) and particularly in the Cultural Revolution, when many teachers were

Periods of national development Reconstruction First five year plan

Dates

Official metaphors for teachers

(1949–1957) (1953–1957)

Great Leap Forward Retrenchment

(1958–1959) (1960–1965)

Cultural Revolution

(1966–1976)

Opening up

1980s

Market economy, Reform

1990s

Millennium economic development

2000s

Gardeners, brain-power labourers People’s heroes, advanced producers, engineers of the soul Obstacles; common labourers Machine toolmakers, engineers of the soul Freaks, monsters, or stinking number nines; warriors, weapons in the class struggle, red thinkers Technicians, machinists, people’s heroes,‘red and expert’, ‘teach the book, teach the people’ Candles, lamps, golden key-holders, engineers of the soul, ‘plunging into the sea’, ‘stir-fry night’ Cultivators of talents, ability and professionals

Figure 6.1

Official metaphors for teachers in China

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held to be representatives of bourgeois groups or of feudal aspects of Confucianism, which at that time was severely criticised: stinking number nines puts teachers in the ninth place in a list of ‘enemies of the people’ who were publicly shamed and often exiled to the countryside for ‘re-education’. Metaphors of the 1990s reflect a market economy and a period of low teachers’ salaries: plunging into the sea meant going into private business, as a second job, while references to stir-fry night or using a sieve or net showed some teachers moonlighting for extra money. Since then, teachers’ salaries have much improved. Teachers are again candles, a light metaphor to be discussed later, and cultivators of talents, cultivators of ability or in universities cultivators of professionals, an official metaphor with distinctly Confucian resonances which is used with 21st century scientific-technical overtones in educational reform and ‘rejuvenation’ (Li, 2004).

6.5 ‘Good teachers’ in China in the 1990s To investigate Chinese students’ ideas about a ‘good teacher’, Cortazzi and Jin (1996a, 1999) derived a questionnaire from a content analysis of 135 student essays on this topic, which was then administered to 129 students in a key university and 205 students in two British universities. The rank order of the statements characterising ‘good’ teachers (see Figure 6.2), based on significant statistical differences, shows quite different evaluations of knowledge (ranked first for Chinese students but not in the first 12 for the British), responsibility (ranked third and

In China a good teacher …(N=129)

In the UK a good teacher …(N=205)

has deep knowledge uses effective methods is a responsible person arouses students’ interest is friendly is warm-hearted, understanding helps students to study independently is patient explains clearly is a good moral example is humorous is caring and helpful

arouses students’ interest explains clearly uses effective methods is patient helps students to study independently is caring and helpful is a responsible person is sympathetic is lively organises a variety of activities controls students’ discipline is friendly

Figure 6.2 Characteristics of ‘good teachers’ rated by Chinese and British university students in questionnaires

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China 95 metaphors

Hong Kong 221 metaphors

Japan 41 metaphors

Lebanon 106 metaphors

Turkey 98 metaphors

a good friend a parent a source of knowledge a guide a model a gardener

a friend a parent a guide an advisor a saviour a lighthouse a sibling superman a gardener the sun

a friend an arouser a source of knowledge a model a parent

a parent a friend a source of knowledge a model a guide

a friend a parent a source of knowledge a sibling a sunny day a guide a comic a model

Figure 6.3 Metaphors for good teachers elicited from university students in different countries, in order of frequency

seventh respectively), being friendly (ranked fifth and twelfth), being warm-hearted and understanding (ranked sixth and unranked) and being a moral example (ranked tenth and unranked), among other differences. This research was complemented by analysing metaphors for ‘good’ teachers elicited from students in several countries in the 1990s (see Figure 6.3). They were asked to give reasons for the metaphors used. The most frequent Chinese metaphors are THE TEACHER IS A FRIEND (a good friend, a kind friend, a close friend) and the traditional THE TEACHER IS A PARENT. The third ranked, THE TEACHER IS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE, might have been expected to be first, from the questionnaire results, but items for friend (distinct from being friendly) and parent were not in the questionnaire. The Confucian metaphors, THE TEACHER IS A GUIDE and GARDENER (cultivator) show cultural continuity and are consistent with the Confucian tradition for THE TEACHER AS A MODEL (a moral exemplar and model of learning). Interestingly, the friend and parent metaphors are common elsewhere, although not in Britain (Cortazzi & Jin, 1999). The data shown in Figure 6.3 were not easy to get: it appeared that many Chinese students found it difficult to give metaphors and the range actually given is quite restricted. This changed noticeably by 2005, as shown in the student poem below with italicised metaphors for teacher. Teacher… a poem by a Chinese undergraduate (2005) Teacher, A lighthouse lighting up the sea of knowledge,

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A spring wind blowing away the fog in front of our eyes, A key opening the treasure-house of knowledge, A monument mounted on a meter-long stage, Standing in the hearts of learners; Yet, we believe A teacher is a bridge: After you cross the river, it will be destroyed. A compass, guiding our direction, A tree, evergreen, facing us with enthusiasm, The running water from the mountain, ancient and quiet. Teacher, you have suffered, But you are always the most lovable person. I move forward in the fearsome dark, for I can see your light. I encourage myself, survive, for I have your advice … All this from my beloved teacher, taking us to progress, caring for us in growing. ) (trans. L. Jin) This poem illustrates cultural continuity in its initial focus on knowledge and light, and in the final phrases on light and growth. Perhaps there are echoes of tradition in the teacher as running water coming from an ancient mountain and, humorously, standing on a stage (a teaching platform, actually three Chinese metres long, to be found today in many classrooms in schools and universities in China). There is a recognition of teacher guidance, enthusiasm and suffering, which, as the next section demonstrates, is widespread. Most striking is the appreciation of teachers and the emotional tone of closeness (loveable, beloved, standing in the hearts of learners), demonstrating a continuity of traditional values in teacher–learner relations.

6.6 More recent Chinese metaphors for teachers In 2005 we elicited further metaphors from students in a key in central China by asking them to write up to three metaphors for ‘a good teacher’: 644 students gave 1931 metaphoric expressions in Chinese, which were translated for comparison with 951 expressions given by another 496 students in English. Analysis of this database of 2882 metaphoric expressions from 1140 students showed a range, variety, and richness not evident in our previous data. Compared with the 1990s, there seems to be more awareness of metaphor. Students seemed give metaphors more easily, in either language (there are more metaphors

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per person), and metaphors were more elaborated, with greater individuality and creativity, although at a deeper level there was much commonality in the data and continuity with the past. Here, we give selected results to show some of the consistency and diversity of the metaphoric expressions before we present a cultural model of Chinese teachers derived from the overall results. In considering how to analyse the source domains for the target domain of teacher, it is crucial to consider the ground of the comparison, hence we asked students to give reasons for their metaphors. In this way the basis for the interpretation of the results comes from these elaborations of the participants. The importance for this can be seen in a teacher is a piece of ice or a teacher is a robber. These might be taken in English-speaking cultures as negative images, but for the Chinese students they are positive: ice refers to the teacher in terms of effort and sacrifice, ‘melting, running out herself to wet students’ dry hearts’, while as a robber the teacher helps moral development ‘robbing our bad things so that we can do everything to perfection’. A major conceptual metaphor, with 539 expressions, is THE TEACHER IS LIGHT. In order of frequency, source domains are THE SUN: the sun, a light, a lighthouse, a star, a candle, a light buoy, the moon, a mirror. Students used the metaphor of light to stress the importance of teachers in human life: they shed the light of knowledge; are sources of energy, hope, and love; they give guidance for progress in both knowledge and morality to help with a bright future. THE TEACHER IS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE emerges strongly as an overarching conceptual metaphor in many of the 179 expressions of THE TEACHER IS THE SUN, ‘giving us knowledge and warming our heart’, in 88 water metaphors, ‘spring water nourishing our heart and fulfilling our desire towards knowledge’, in 38 sea metaphors, ‘the Pacific Ocean with lots of knowledge in his heart’. Evidently some of these link knowledge with the heart as well as with the head, as expected if students consider the traditional aspects of the Chinese heart-mind (xin). THE TEACHER IS A BOOK: ‘full of knowledge’, ‘full of answers’, ‘the more we read the more attracted we are’ is also plainly oriented to knowledge. A further 35 non-traditional expressions of THE TEACHER IS A COMPUTER also focus primarily on knowledge: ‘full of knowledge’, ‘selflessly providing rich knowledge for students’, ‘constantly updated to bring in knowledge from outside’, or ‘a computer mouse which helps us to enter the endless Internet of knowledge’. Another set of 396 expressions compare teaching with another occupation; many occupations were mentioned as source domains but the underlying roles include 46 expressions of ‘engineering the soul’, reflecting

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the official metaphor, 36 for ‘entertaining’, 30 for ‘commanding’, 19 for ‘cleaning’ of character, 17 for ‘protecting’ from bad influences, 16 for ‘producing’ or ‘constructing’ knowledge and character. Like the light, occupation metaphors clearly combine knowledge with development of character or moral behaviour. This is clear in the major sub-category of 137 expressions for gardener where the teacher ‘nourishes new generations of students’; ‘spreads knowledge’; ‘cultivates’, ‘trains’, ‘develops’, ‘helps’ students to grow; ‘produces beautiful flowers – students – for the motherland’; ‘waters flowers with hard work, pouring their blood and sweat to us’, and ‘uses his sweat to cultivate our growth.’ The Confucian heritage can be seen as THE TEACHER IS A CULTIVATOR. Many of the metaphoric expressions show students’ deep appreciation and admiration for their teachers in a tone reminiscent of the Confucian relation of reciprocal care and concern. A teacher is a lamp which ‘indicates our future, pointing out the right path too carry out our beautiful dream’. A teacher is a superstar: ‘we all admire it, it gives us direction in darkness’. A teacher is a teardrop: ‘she takes our pain away, leaving happiness’. A teacher is the best friend to whom we may talk about anything, who can give you help when you are in trouble, caring about our health, getting along well with us, improving our knowledge’. That this caring is also from students to teacher is evident in a teacher is a snowman – ‘if we give him warmth like the sunlight, his heart will be soft and melt’. ‘A teacher is a happy angel sowing the seeds of knowledge, its inspiration gives everyone power and happiness, bringing students to heaven – I wish she were my teacher for ever.’ This sense of closeness is evident also in 48 metaphoric expressions of FRIEND and 34 PARENT metaphors. A good teacher is ‘our best friend who helps us in our studies and also in our life’; a friend who is ‘patient to help us, have fun and share ideas’, ‘cultivates our ability to survive in society’, ‘can talk heart to heart with students and become their friends’, ‘knows how to exchange feelings with us’ and ‘is most loveable’. Also, a good teacher is ‘a parent, taking care of us, playing an important role in our road’; a parent who ‘leads us to walk along the correct road’, doing everything for the benefit of students’ and ‘is fair, loving, strict but kind’, ‘repeating the same things a thousand times but remains the closest person to us’. Further Confucian resonances of CULTIVATOR and leading in the Way (road) are apparent here, and are also evident in 43 GUIDE expressions: a good teacher is a ‘guide for all my lifetime, leading us in the right direction is study and in life’, ‘leading us to a new world’, ‘cultivating the professions and having a high moral standard’, ‘a guide in the ocean of knowledge’, and ‘a guide in our thoughts’.

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In these metaphors there is also a strong sense of the teachers’ service to help student progress but this often entails sacrifice. This is exemplified in 59 LADDER metaphors, where the teacher is a ladder ‘helping students to climb to the highest place’, ‘sending students to the top’, ‘helping students go to the heaven of knowledge’, ‘letting students climb up to the peak of science’; a ladder because students can stand on it to go up and get success’, because we step on their shoulder to progress’, and ‘they take us to the highest place through their efforts’. Many other metaphors illustrate teacher sacrifice. This is the major feature in 81 CANDLE expressions, where, for instance, the teacher is a red candle ‘burning itself and enlightening us, lighting my desire for knowledge, sacrificing itself to give light to others’. Sacrifice also appears strongly in 43 expressions of THE TEACHER IS CHALK, which ‘writes out the whole world, but it gets used up itself’, and ‘consumes itself, transmitting the best to others’, 25 FALLING LEAF metaphors, in which the leaf ‘sacrifices itself, enriching the soil, burning his own youth, living an ordinary life with a moment of magnificence’ and in 22 SILK WORM metaphors, which picture teachers as ‘devoting their whole life to others, it sacrifices itself but gives silk to create the most beautiful clothes for far people’. The underlying conceptual metaphor apparent here is TEACHING IS SELFLESS SACRIFICE. The selfless element saturates many other metaphors: the teacher is the sun ‘selflessly offering its light’, ‘warming our hearts selflessly’; a busy bee ‘selflessly contributing, never asking for repayment’; a formula ‘representing wide and deep knowledge but it is selfless’. In contrast to previous data in which metaphors were entirely positive, there were some examples of negative metaphors, as explained in students’ comments on the source domains. While there were relatively few of these, they included the teacher as a tiger, ‘because they may attack me at any time’; a stone, ‘pressing on students’ heads, which gives them a headache’; an ordinary person, ‘who is nothing special in our life, bad, only distributing tedious essays’; or a ghost, ‘which has an angel’s smile and the methods of a ghost who give us so much pressures, especially at exam time’; and tiny grass: ‘lonely and sad, teachers are overlooked in our society’. Some negative metaphors were humorous: a mosquito, ‘its bite is a nuisance’; ‘a teacher is ‘class begin’ “class over”’. More interesting to observe was the critical evaluation apparent in some explanations, where positive and negative aspects were balanced. A teacher is a cup of coffee, ‘at first it is bitter, but it tastes delicious’, foul beancurd, ‘it smells foul but it tastes delicious’, a raindrop of grace – ‘we are grass, we grow up with the watering of grace but rain can be evil in floods’, a two-face man, ‘full of smiles, warm-hearted, a friend to you,

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with fixed words that bore you, but if you think long and deeply, you benefit’, and even a slave owner, ‘rich with much knowledge, but we are their slaves and we want to get a little spiritual food from them’ or a surgeon’s knife, ‘cutting off the cancer in us but also cutting off our creative cells’. These negative and mixed evaluations seem to be a change from the past. They may show development of student maturity in a more socially realistic view combined with creativity and humour: ‘A teacher is a god in primary school, all they said was right; a priest in the middle school, their words were correct but I began to have my own thinking; Satan in the university, I don’t want to be seduced by him, but angels before the exams – their words are gospel, every sentence.’

6.7 A cultural model From this study of Chinese students’ metaphors for teachers we have constructed a cultural model of core characteristics of teachers (Figure 6.4). Taking the target domain of teacher, the lower part of the model features some of the more commonly mentioned source domains in the present data, while the upper part of the model gives the common grounds, or students’ elaborations of the reason for comparing the target with the source domain. The model makes visible the wide range of metaphors and the range of characteristics expected of teachers. It clearly shows a complex network of mappings, rather than one-to-one correspondences between target and source domains and grounds. The present model is exploratory, but potentially the nodes with multiple mappings might indicate core expectations, though this would need to be balanced with a sense of frequency or significance. The cultural model (in Figure 6.4) embodies a wide range of roles which these Chinese students ideally expect in teachers, including caring, guiding, directing, cleansing faults, purifying character, being in a close relationship and giving friendship, understanding learners, controlling behaviour, entertaining, sharing knowledge, giving enlightenment, helping progress, nurturing growth, loving, protecting, sheltering, supporting, advising and beautifying life. However, the cultural point behind these roles does not emerge from this listing; the point is in the strength, feeling and expression in the connection with the metaphor and in the structural placing in the network of the whole model. Fulfilling these roles will help the learners to develop holistically: cultivating students’ head, heart, character, and present and future life. However, this complex list presents teachers with a challenge of how to fulfil the roles and, by implication, in their profession and person be a model of

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Characteristics of Teachers KNOWLEDGE, CULTIVATION, MORALITY

has deep knowledge

helps student progress

gives guidance, direction

is source of energy, love, hope, warmth, knowledge

has enduring effect

nurtures growth, protects

A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE: ocean, sea, water, stream, river, rain; rich soil, food, drink; computer, machine, transmitter; key, book, guide

A LIGHT: sun, light, moon, morning star, candle, light buoy, lighthouse, fire, streetlamp

is tireless, busy

is caring, close, shows friendship

selfless sacrifice

cleanses, purifies

A SACRIFICE: ladder, bridge, bee, cow, falling leaf, silkworm, chalk, ice, rainbow

GIVING CARE & DIRECTION, A PROFESSIONAL, A TOOL: parent, friend, a pair of glasses, spring, wind, gardener, flower, engineer of soul, eraser, soap, filter, tree, weapon

Figure 6.4 A cultural model of core characteristics of teachers in Chinese metaphors

knowledge, truth, goodness and beauty. Arguably, when teachers strive to reach this ideal they are teachers of the Way, cultivating learners in the Way. To attain these standards of values will be difficult and will entail sacrifice: a teacher sincerely striving in this tradition may perhaps be a sacrificial vase of jade.

6.8 Further observations and conclusions Overall, there is much long-term continuity in the values underlying these networks of metaphors. Metaphors used by Chinese students are probably on a continuum ranging from the most stable and traditional to recent ones reflecting rapid technical, social and educational change. The recent data have a strong tone of appreciation of teachers. Students

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show an awareness of the demands on teachers and of their own high expectations of them. They admire their hard work and sacrifice. An appreciation of teachers’ sacrifice is, probably, a useful insight for members of other cultures. Chinese students’ metaphors also show an insightful mixture of dependence and independence of learning: an awareness of the need for teachers’ guidance but also of self-study and of the need to go beyond teachers, as in ladder metaphors. The recent metaphors also demonstrate change in the development of greater individual expression, creativity and range; also in the thoughtfulness and analytical appreciation of teachers’ roles in negative and more balanced metaphors. These changes may reflect cognitive development and educational progress in which student thinking is more creative, critical and flexible – elements which receive more focus in recent College syllabus proposals (Jin & Cortazzi, 2006). The recent metaphors were elicited in both English and Chinese: the changes in English ones may reflect improvements in language learning and teaching, although many of the more creative examples were given in Chinese, as one might expect. The existence of negative metaphors for a teacher came as a surprise, partly because a few were so strongly worded (‘the teacher is my enemy’, ‘a Nazi’, ‘a murderer’, ‘a cold killer’). It may be that this reflects more extensive and broader participation in Chinese higher education; universities now admit students of a wider ability range, so students’ experiences of teachers are more varied compared to the more elite experience of previous generations. While appreciation – and expectations – of teachers in Chinese cultures is amazingly high, and lifelong, some current students may feel that their life will benefit more from other factors, such as parental wealth or influence. As this metaphor study shows, the moral expectations of Chinese teachers are high, but a situation of general social and moral change may also mean that some teachers exhibit less-than-expected standards. For those of a non-Chinese background who work with Chinese learners, the cultural model derived from the students’ metaphors provides an extensive network of students’ expectations of Chinese teachers: their academic roles, but more particularly their social and moral roles. There is a question of whether or how far teachers should adapt to meet such expectations, but the model is likely to be adapted or modified in contexts outside China. Still, some aspects will surely remain with most students, given the cultural depth and continuity of the values embodied by the metaphors. Taking a stance of cultural synergy (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996a) in which the emphasis is on mutual learning across cultures, including teachers learning from students, the cultural

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model may suggest points for reflection for teachers: what do teachers believe and do about caring, nurturing, parental roles or about warmth, energy and love or ‘beautifying life’ as well as delivering knowledge? How far is selfless sacrifice given or expected? What are the international metaphors for Chinese students (buckets as receivers, regurgitators as rote-memorisers, cash cows as fee-payers, academic stars or successors of Confucius) and how are they changing? And, particularly, what are the networks of metaphors that teachers have for themselves: what values or cultural models do they reflect?

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Martin Cortazzi, Lixian Jin and Wang Zhiru 129 Li, L. (2004) Education for 1.3 Billion, Beijing: Foreign Language and Research Press. Lin, Y. (1994/1938) The Wisdom of Confucius, New York: The Modern Library. Louie, K. (1984) Salvaging Confucian Education, Comparative Education, 20 (1), pp. 27–38. McGlone, M. S. (2001) Concepts as metaphors. Contribution in S. Glucksberg, Understanding Figurative Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 90–107. Rohsenow, J. S. (2002) ABC Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs, Hawai’i: University of Hawai’i Press. Shi, L. (2006) The Successors to Confucianism or a New Generation: a questionnaire study on Chinese students’ culture of learning English. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 19 (1), pp. 122–47. Sommer, D. (ed.) (1995) Chinese Religion: an anthology of sources, New York: Oxford University Press. Stevenson, H. W. & Stigler, J. W. (1992) The Learning Gap: why our schools are failing and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese education, New York: Summit Books. Stigler, J. W. & Hiebert, J. (1999) The Teaching Gap: best ideas from the world’s teachers for improving education in the classroom, New York: The Free Press. Szaly, L. B., Strohl, J. B., Fu, L. & Lao, P.-S. (1994) American and Chinese Perceptions and Belief Systems, a People’s Republic of China–Taiwanese comparison, New York: Plenum Press. Tu, W. (1993) Way, Learning and Politics: essays on the Confucian intellectual, New York: State University of New York Press. Watkins, D. A. & Biggs, J. B. (eds) (1996) The Chinese Learners: cultural, psychological and contextual influences, Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre/Australian Council for Educational Research. Watkins, D. A. & Biggs, J. B. (eds) (2001) Teaching the Chinese Learner: psychological and pedagogical perspectives, Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre/Australian Council for Educational Research. Yu, N. (1998) The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: a perspective from Chinese, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

7 The Dissonance between Insider and Outsider Perspectives of the ‘Chinese Problem’: Implications for One of the UK’s Largest Undergraduate Programmes Paul Vincent Smith and Xiaowei Zhou

7.1 Introduction This chapter problematises perceptions of mainland Chinese undergraduate students on a large broad-based social sciences course at a large northern university which admits large numbers of Chinese students. With the number of international students likely to increase, and Chinese students as the largest ‘minority’ group at this university, issues around academic support become increasingly important. There is a recognised ‘Chinese problem’ in the department in question surrounding issues such as academic culture, proficiency in English language, and diversity. In this study, focus group and interview data was obtained from students and staff about their perceptions of these students’ needs. The two sets of perceptions were compared to ascertain how much of a ‘good fit’ there was. The exploration of data was undertaken from the perspectives of insider-Chinese and outsider-institution (by the Chinese researcher); outsider-host and insider-institution (by the UK researcher). In the light of Holliday’s ‘small culture approach’ (1999), the ‘Chinese students’ were viewed in relation to the influences of a variety of cultures, such as national, institutional, and disciplinary cultures. It was concluded that the ‘Chinese problem’ did not inhere in common concerns such as retention or the student experience, but was rather related to how their approach to their studies cohered with notions of a UK education. Theoretical implications were also discussed with regard to the domains of academic literacies and acculturation. This study focused on a particular academic culture and did not seek to reach generalisations 130

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in broader contexts. However, its findings and recommendations could provide insights to understanding Chinese students’ needs in other disciplines or institutions. This chapter addresses the various situated perspectives of the perceived needs of Chinese students at a UK university. The rationale for the research that informs the chapter came from the mention of a ‘Chinese problem’, which had been encountered in professional conversation on more than one occasion. In one way the very notion of a ‘problem’ is dubious as the overwhelming majority of Chinese students pass their degrees and cause very few difficulties to staff in the process. The reverse side of this is that even ostensible problems require some form of investigation and, if necessary, solution. Hence, the first stage was to ascertain the nature of the problem and take the investigation from there. In this chapter, we aim to document this investigation, as well as discuss practical recommendations and theoretical implications that emerged. The students in question are studying for an interdisciplinary undergraduate social sciences degree, one of the biggest in the UK in terms of student numbers. In recent years, there have been around 150–180 Chinese students alone on the programme. The structure of the degree is such that interdisciplinarity is obligatory in the first year, but students specialise to a much greater degree in years two and three. It is important to note that nearly all Chinese students choose to specialise in the numerate subjects offered within this programme – e.g. Economics, Finance, Accounting, Business Studies – but that all students are confronted with a combination of these and qualitative subjects in their first year.

7.2 Methods In order to obtain information on the ‘Chinese problem’ from as diverse perspectives as possible, we undertook some empirical research with Chinese undergraduates, teaching staff, and administrative staff on the programme in question. Data were gathered from students through three rounds of focus groups (see Krueger 1994, 1998). We collaboratively conducted the first round in English with two groups of three students, which were followed by a second round with three students on interesting lines of enquiry. The third and final round of focus groups was divided into two sessions, which were conducted separately using the same interview schedule but in different languages (i.e. English and Mandarin). The answers given were then compared. In addition, we conducted some individual interviews with teaching

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and administrative staff, which were all conducted in English (see e.g. Gillham 2000). We defined ‘Chinese students’ as those coming from Mainland China. In addition, it became evident that we had to bear in mind the students’ pre-university profile and qualifications. In the focus groups and interviews, the dominant language was that of ‘problems’, ‘needs’, ‘threats’, and the like, focusing on factors that potentially presented Chinese students with obstacles in their social and academic lives.¹ We also attempted to investigate factors introduced by the students’ own experience and achievement. As Figure 7.1 suggests, the two researchers constituted a ‘research dyad’, conducting the research jointly but bringing a number of different identities and perspectives to the process. For this reason the same data are discussed below by the researchers in turn, and any differences in interpreting the data should be taken in this context. A ‘before and after’ method was employed, whereby each researcher detailed their prior impressions of Chinese students and then re-evaluated them in the light of the discussions with students and staff.

Figure 7.1

The research dyad

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7.3 Paul – Perspective as non-Chinese/member of staff 7.3.1

A priori

The impressions of Chinese learners held before the study were something as follows: Chinese students are hard-working, committed to their studies, polite, and respectful to those in authority. If these are positive characteristics, more negative ones might include the instrumentality that they bring to their studies (i.e. not learning for learning’s sake): lack of academic curiosity; passivity and lack of dynamism in class; unwillingness to mix with students from other backgrounds; less successful with literate or qualitative subjects, although highly numerate. If these latter characteristics are cast as ‘problems’, it is difficult to know exactly what to do to ‘improve’ matters. Other concerns were the self-inflicted ‘ghettoisation’ of Chinese students in terms of living arrangements, and the atrophy of their English language capabilities over time, largely as a result of this very lack of interaction with other, especially home students. However, these did not seem to be problems with any corollary consequences; i.e., although it would be a fundamentally good thing in terms of diversity for Chinese and home students to mix more, the lack of interaction does not seem to be a source of discord. So, although the dominant language is one of ‘problems’, there was no particularly noticeable drive to change. 7.3.2

Findings with students

When talking with the Chinese learners, it was difficult to pursue purely ‘academic’ issues. Any focus on ‘needs’ or ‘problems’ invariably brought up more quotidian topics. For instance, there was a stated desire to have more interaction with home students, and to be able to meet home students more outside of alcohol-centred contexts. There was a perceived lack of such opportunity. Similarly, any language barrier was imputed more to a want of mutually interesting topics rather than technical ability with language (many of the Chinese students have a good level of conversational English). Academic problems included: Language. Being lectured or tutored by non-native-English-speaking academic staff creates an additional language barrier. Epistemology. ‘Soft’ social science subjects in general – there are few equivalents to these subjects (sociology, anthropology, philosophy) in Chinese pre-university education. Even where Chinese students have taken A-levels in the UK, this does not necessarily provide the skills or approaches that they need to study these subjects successfully

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at degree level. The Chinese students interviewed do not enjoy these subjects and find it difficult to come to terms with the assumptions involved. Very often they are completely new to these disciplines and they have no basis for understanding what they are about, or, for example, what examination questions ask them to do. Writing. Similarly, Chinese students tend to have problems with essay writing, especially in the first year. They lack practice and seem to feel the need for more guidance and especially feedback. The extent of advice is often to produce the standard tri-partite structure (introduction, main body, conclusion). With essays, ‘it’s up to you’, i.e. there is a great emphasis on originality and personal contribution, which may seem like a strange way to gain knowledge to some Chinese students (‘why don’t they just tell you?’). Plagiarism. Plagiarism, and the risk of committing plagiarism, is a problem that was recognised by the students. They are aware of concepts such as regurgitation and consequently feel more comfortable with exams than essays. Some students are used to so-called communicative teaching methods, either in China or the UK, but these seem to make little difference in discursive assessment. One student said that she learned first and used her own words afterwards. Another said that plagiarism is ‘easy to understand, [but] difficult to do [avoid]’. He went on to say, of an essay that he was drafting, that ‘the first words that came out of my hand were just like the author’s’. There seems to be a choice on the part of the students between using their own words and using the words of authorities; they choose the latter and then try to reformulate them in their own words. Pastoral support. The Chinese students interviewed were critical of personal tutoring at university and cited their tutors in China who would give them immediate support on both academic and pastoral issues. They suggested one person should be made available who could be approached with all issues. Independent learning culture. There is far more emphasis on ‘independent learning’ in the UK: according to the students, in China lecturers will tell you what; here they tell you what to study yourself. It is then up to you to research it. This brings up a number of related study-skills type problems, including time management and personal organisation: ‘am I doing it right?’ 7.3.3

Findings with staff

The academic staff interviewed were not necessarily well acquainted personally with many Chinese undergraduates, for various reasons.

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Much of the following is then based on impressions and assessment of course work and examination performance. Chinese students are counted as among the hardest working of all students. Where there is material that can be learnt (in the sense of memorised), they almost invariably provide a competent response and even look beyond the answers to the principles involved. This, however, all applies to numerate, quantitative work, where there are more likely to be clear ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answers. A corollary of this is that ‘anything you tell them [Chinese students] is [the] truth’, which poses obvious problems in the context of a Western education. There seems to be a clear bifurcation between providing an answer and interpreting a question. One example given was the essay instruction: ‘outline and evaluate’. While Chinese students can provide an excellent outline, there is often little or no attempt at evaluation. Every assignment is approached as a closed question, which Chinese learners attempt to answer within familiar bounds. The problem here is that within higher education nearly every question is open to some degree. This explains why Chinese students rarely attain high marks for discursive work. Chinese students routinely plagiarise, and they seem to have a profound and genuine problem with the Western idea of plagiarism. One particularly insightful explanation was expressed thus: Chinese students do not see the assignment as an opportunity for them to demonstrate their own knowledge, but rather as a forum for demonstrating the best answer. Understandably, in many cases, this is unlikely to be something that they have originated themselves. Moreover, it is a compliment to return a lecturer’s (qua authority figure) own words to him/her. Chinese learners tend to hit a ‘glass ceiling’ that comes about through ‘reflecting back without assimilation or dispute’. When examination questions, then, are made slightly different from lecture material or practice questions, Chinese learners tend to miss the point. The programme in question does raise some inherent problems for Chinese students through its enforced interdisciplinarity, but the net effect is that they opt out of courses that would enrich their studies in economics, finance and so on: they do not take on knowledge that would allow them to make evaluative judgements on difficult political and economic issues. Is this a ‘problem’? It is in as much as it limits how much the Chinese students can achieve. Although there was some sympathy for Chinese learners – for example, that we must respond more to the plagiarism issue through more engagement with what it is and what it means – it was clearly felt that it is incumbent upon students coming to our education system to adapt, rather than for the system itself to change.

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Conclusions

One of the most noticeable features of the data is the willingness of Chinese students to treat knowledge as something discrete, packaged, and unproblematic, alongside their instrumental attitude to learning. They evince a high level of awareness of the same problems that are suggested by academic staff vis-à-vis plagiarism, essay writing in discursive subjects, and academic development. It is perhaps then a mistake to see these students as ‘cultural dopes’ (Garfinkel 1967), unaware of issues that confront them in international higher education and inextricably boxed in to reacting in set ways to certain phenomena or challenges. The Chinese students we spoke to seem to be aware of these issues and if anything expressed the need for more guidance, for example in the form of feedback. However, this was described very much in the spirit of passively receiving guidance, and there was no talk from students of them changing their approach to study of their own volition. There is a great deal of consonance between the Chinese learners’ self-perception and the perception of the academic staff, although the relationship between the practices of Chinese students and the ways in which they arrive at these practices is far from straightforward.

7.4 7.4.1

Xiaowei – Perspective as Chinese/ non-member of staff A priori

Some general impressions held before the study of ‘Chinese students on economics-related programs’ were 1. They tend to study with highly instrumental purposes. The intense competition in the job market in China allows little space for students to develop their personal interests. Obtaining a degree in economicsrelated subjects often outweighs gaining subject knowledge on their chosen courses. 2. They tend to have an initial wish for improvement in their English language skills and in their personal development, usually in terms of a ‘broadened horizon in an intercultural context’. 3. They are highly dependent on ‘Chinese enclaves’. For example, they rely heavily on word-of-mouth information from their co-nationals rather than seeking information through local media, such as newspapers, television, and websites.

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Most of the student participants had been in the UK for a year or two before they enrolled at the university. They were relatively young learners who were undergoing transitions from a Chinese school system to a British university system. Apart from the impressions outlined above, their personal growth was also a point of departure for an understanding of the ‘Chinese problem’ on the programme. At the start of this study, the staff interviewed tended to say that they did not feel any problems particular to Chinese students, and the students tended to summarise their experiences on the program as being ‘generally fine’. However, with more probing questions, complaints, disappointment, and ‘wishes’ in the subjunctive mood were heard. These were considered to be revealing points for an understanding of ‘Chinese students’ needs’. 7.4.2

Findings with staff

The staff’s impressions of Chinese students varied to some extent due to the different nature of their contact with the students in relation to their positions and responsibilities. For example, an undergraduate admissions officer expressed a sense of distance by repeatedly referring to Chinese students as people ‘coming from the opposite side of the world’ and was ready to talk about her impressions about this particular group of students. A lecturer stressed several times that he did not differentiate between Chinese students and British students or students of other nationalities, and hesitated to make any particular comments on Chinese students. The following are some issues emerging from the interview data with academic and administrative staff. 7.4.2.1

Biased academic competence

The school staff agreed on Chinese students’ academic strengths and weaknesses with regard to the structure of the programme. With the structure of quantitative courses and qualitative courses in their first year of study, Chinese students tend to choose, and seem to be keenest on, quantitative courses (e.g. economics, finance and accounting, and business studies). They demonstrate their strong ability in mathematics in such courses and attain high marks more easily. In contrast, they tend to avoid those qualitative courses, in which they are expected to formulate arguments and present logical thinking in organised essays. There are two factors that the staff perceived to underlie this biased choice of courses, the first factor being ‘prospects for well-paid careers’. This points again to the instrumental purpose of Chinese students, who

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are greatly concerned with the vocational potential of areas of study. In this sense, Chinese students actively make their choice by linking their studies with career planning. However, it was also pointed out that this was not particular to Chinese students. The second factor was the degree of linguistic challenge involved. As students’ performances in qualitative courses are usually assessed in the form of essay writing, many Chinese students turn to quantitative courses and avoid the qualitative ones, because they tend not to do so well in these courses with their relatively weak English language and essay writing skills. This pattern of course choice is understandable given Chinese students’ different academic competence in different subject areas. One lecturer said that this in turn exacerbates their unbalanced academic competence as the students give up the opportunity to develop their English language and writing skills. Although the tendency to specialise in quantitative subjects does not seem to cause a big problem to Chinese students in terms of completing their studies on the programme, they may have problems in the long term when they find themselves in a position where they have to write argumentative essays, such as studying for a master’s or doctoral degree. 7.4.2.2 ‘Rude persistence and deferential reticence’ Some administrative staff have the strong impression that Chinese students are very persistent in ‘seeking an answer’. When they make applications or other such requests, they are not satisfied with a ‘yes/no’ response when their applications or requests are rejected. They keep asking for reasons, hoping to make the staff change their decisions through persistent argument for their applications or requests to be reconsidered. Such behaviour is felt to be rude by the staff interviewed, who in turn have to be rude sometimes in order to make the students leave. The staff’s guesses about the reasons for such behaviour are based on their perceived cultural differences and the students’ ‘self-funding’ status. ‘Cultural difference’ often provides convenient explanations for what appears to be strange, although such explanations may be non-specific, oversimplifying, and misleading. The ‘self-funding’ status of all the Chinese students on the programme is most impressive to the staff. They believe that the students come from wealthy families so that they can afford their high tuition fees, which are expensive even for Britons. The students’ ‘rude persistence’ is perceived to be possibly associated with the wealth of their families, where they are likely to be spoiled and always tend to have their requests met.

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In contrast, in the classroom, Chinese students are observed by academic staff to be very quiet. Chinese students’ reticence in the classroom is well documented in the literature (Cheng 2000; Liu 2002; Zhou et al. 2005). In accordance with existing research findings, the staff interviewed attributed the students’ reticence to lack of confidence caused by language problems, shyness, and deference to adults and authority. In a sense, such reticence makes it more difficult for lecturers or tutors to teach when they expect interaction with students. The staff I interviewed expressed an explicit wish for the Chinese students to ‘overcome their shyness’. 7.4.2.3 Self-sufficiency and mistaken thoughts Self-sufficiency is another characteristic of Chinese students perceived by both teaching and administrative staff. It is related to the students’ shyness and reticence mentioned above, and is particularly related to the fact that Chinese students appear rarely willing to complain. They seem to be satisfied with what they are provided with, from teaching quality to living conditions, or view it their own responsibility to solve any personal problems. The students rarely raise their problems with the staff and tend not to use the support systems provided by the school. When they do speak about their personal problems to the staff, they tend to do it in an apologetic manner. One lecturer believed that the Chinese students ‘tend not to complain’, rather than really ‘having nothing to complain about’. He understood such a tendency as being based on some ‘mistaken thoughts held by the students’, such as they would be considered as bad students if they complain, their complaints may affect their exam results, and they believe that they do not have a right to complain. On the contrary, the staff are willing to help students by taking into account any personal difficulties that may affect their studies. However, they are not able to help unless the students let them know what problems they have. 7.4.2.4 They might need to change the way in which they think With the existing support mechanisms provided by the school and university, the staff are unsure about how much more they can do to help particular groups of students. Their concerns about Chinese students’ needs go beyond the improvement of the students’ specific skills such as English language and essay writing skills. There is a perceived need for Chinese students to ‘slightly change the way in which they think’. Some teachers were very cautious in commenting on Chinese students, trying to avoid suggesting that

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there is something wrong with the way Chinese people behave or think. However, they have clearly realised the effect of cultural assumptions on international education, and they expect more changes to happen on the part of the students. 7.4.3

Findings with students

From the students’ perspectives, there are the following issues with regard to their needs, problems, and/or difficulty in their studies. 7.4.3.1 What is a ‘good essay’? All the student participants indicated the difficulty they have with essay writing. Some of the problems were they knew little about the format of a good essay, they were aware of the issue of plagiarism but found it hard to deal with in practice, and it was difficult for them to fill the word limit (usually around 1500 words). Two points stand out with regard to these problems. First, the students seem to be confused about the meaning of ‘essay’ in context. In their prior education in Chinese schools, they were expected to be able to state a clear viewpoint in their essays, sustain the viewpoint through positive and/or negative argument, and ‘deepen’ the viewpoint by associating it with practical issues. Life experiences, deep thinking, association, imagination, and analogy were believed to be useful for the formation of one’s viewpoint. However, they find it rather different to write an English essay as a university student in the UK, where a more rigorous format is expected and techniques such as association and imagination do not seem to work well. Despite such awareness, they feel a lack of opportunity to learn how to write English essays; they are not taught enough about what a good essay should be like. Second, the students rely a lot more on lectures than on independent reading in studying a certain subject. In their earlier schooling in China, essay writing was usually practice for developing their Chinese language skills. A link between their argument in an essay and what they learnt from other academic disciplines was encouraged, but it was not the purpose for writing the essay. In this sense, they did not need to prepare any ‘substance’ before writing essays in terms of academic/disciplinary knowledge, as long as they were able to form their own viewpoints and arguments about the topics. When they write academic essays in English, they often find their works ‘too dry’, i.e. they have no substance to put into the essay. The students tend to focus their studies on lecture notes. They do not seem to consider it important to enrich their academic understanding through independent reading after class. In

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writing essays, they find it difficult to generate their own ideas, which are supposed to be informed and inspired by academic works beyond their lecture notes. 7.4.3.2 Lack of feedback from lecturers The students interviewed indicated a need for more helpful feedback from lecturers about their work and examinations. Especially in qualitative courses, the students wrote essays throughout the term for both assignments and examinations. However, they rarely received feedback from lecturers about their writing. When they did, the feedback tended to be too short to contain sufficient guidance about how the students can improve their writing. 7.4.3.3 Too specialised support mechanisms The main reason mentioned by the student for rarely using the support mechanisms provided by the school and university is that they are too specialised and convoluted. Each office has a single, defined responsibility. Students have to make appointments in order to speak to people in the office. Sometimes they find it too complicated and time-consuming to speak about a simple matter to the staff, as they need to identify relevant offices by trying irrelevant offices first and then wait for their appointments. What the students expect, as they reflected on their preuniversity experience in both China and the UK, is ‘a door which they can knock on at any time for any help’. 7.4.4

Conclusions

A summary of the staff and student perceptions of Chinese students’ needs reveals their different conceptualisations of ‘university education’ (see Figure 7.2). Related to this is the marketisation of education. On the one hand, the institution provides education, together with its student support mechanisms, as a kind of service. It expects students to come and consume its service and aims for improvement through its interaction with these ‘consumers’ (see e.g. Cooper 2004). Students are expected to be mature, independent learners who are able to think critically, complain, and actively use the resources provided to meet their needs. On the other hand, the Chinese students are young learners who came from a Chinese school system. They are used to being educated and fostered by authoritative and parental teachers, who are supposed to know each individual student well regarding his/her strengths, weaknesses and needs, and provide any help they consider necessary. During the

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Figure 7.2

Different conceptualisations of university education

students’ transition to the UK higher education, the challenges arise not only out of language barriers, new academic practices, and perceived cultural differences, but also from their socialisation into adulthood.

7.5 Recommendations Based on the findings above, several recommendations were suggested by Xiaowei, which are given below. However, these were somewhat contested in the context of the ‘research dyad’, and they should not be seen as unproblematic from an institutional point of view. More tutorials could be given to help Chinese students with the development of their essay writing skills, including problems and areas for improvement. Such work is understandably difficult due to the large number of Chinese students on the programme. A possibility is that more experienced research students participate in such work as assistants. When Chinese students are enrolled into this programme with students of other nationalities, all of them are supposed to be acculturated into specific academic cultures. However, the institution should also take into consideration their particular demographic and sociocultural backgrounds rather than leaving these young learners to solve the problems concerning cultural differences by themselves or leaving them to various support mechanisms that sound foreign and inaccessible to them. There could be regular informal meetings within the institution involving staff, students at different levels, and students of different nationalities.

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Although the Chinese students are perceived by the staff to be too polite to complain, the present study found that they do have concerns and are able to speak about them in focus groups. Therefore, regular focus groups could be conducted.

7.6 Theoretical implications This chapter has focused on the empirical data collected and the research approach taken (i.e. the implications of our identities as joint researchers), with the aim of shedding some light on what might be seen as institutional-level ‘problems’. The outcomes of our work also have some implications for various theoretical approaches that we have been working with recently. 7.6.1

Academic literacies

Lea and Street’s (1998) idea of academic literacies essentially relativises academic knowledge and modes of operation to the level of the discipline (epistemology). They prefer this approach to more generic ‘study skills’ and ‘academic socialisation’ approaches, where, it is assumed, there are overarching competences that inform all subjects equally. The notion of academic literacies, however, suggests that the competences learned in a given field do not necessarily transfer well to others. A case in point is their discussion of a student writing essays in both anthropology and history. ‘For the history essay, in which the emphasis had been on content and factual information, he received positive feedback, but when he attempted an essay for anthropology using a similar format, he was subject to strong criticism’ (ibid., p. 165). It is little wonder, when put in these terms, that a student who achieves success employing the assumptions of one discipline may struggle when he or she applies specific ‘ways of knowing’ (ibid., p. 163) to another, quite distinct discipline. Despite its value, the academic literacies model does have some shortcomings, which are yet to be fully investigated. Lea and Street make it clear that the three models mentioned above – study skills, academic socialisation, and academic literacies – all have valuable insights. However, in their view, ‘each model successfully encapsulates the other’ (ibid., p. 158), so that a natural visualisation of the three models is of a series of concentric circles with academic literacies outermost. The temptation, then, is to see the most encompassing model as one where knowledge is fragmented, as are the skills necessary to succeed in these disciplines. One of the complaints directed by the lecturers in our study towards the Chinese learners was essentially that they do not recognise the unity of

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knowledge, for example how one discipline may yield insights into another. The most successful students on this interdisciplinary programme seem to be able to operate some ‘higher order’ academic competence that allows them to negotiate, and even thrive on, the demands of diverse epistemologies. Could it be that the failings of Chinese learners are similar to those of the academic literacies model? At the very least, a more thorough consideration of the tension between disciplinary demands and more general competences is needed. 7.6.2 Acculturation through a ‘small cultures’ lens The Chinese students on the programme are undoubtedly undergoing an acculturation process. In order to achieve positive outcomes, it is important for acculturating individuals to make sense of the ‘culture’ in which their acculturation takes place and be competent in intercultural communication. In academic circles, there is little consensus on the definitions of three interconnected concepts: acculturation, culture, and intercultural communicative competence. Here we refer to ‘acculturation’ as the process in which individuals living in and interacting with a new culture becomes compatible with the culture at cognitive, behavioural, and psychological levels. An important question underpinning the understanding of acculturation is what ‘culture’ is. A paradigmatic divide with regard to the way of viewing culture, proposed by Holliday (1999), provides a useful tool for reconsidering the ‘default notion’ (ibid., p. 237) of culture. The divide is between a large culture approach and a small culture approach, which are based not on the ‘size’ of the culture but on the way or direction in which people understand it. From a large culture perspective, people tend to understand culture as an ethnically, nationally, or geographically distinct entity, predict other individuals’ characteristics based on the perceived essences of the ethnic, national, or geographical entities to which those individuals belong (i.e. a top-down approach), and assume that individuals from the same cultural background are homogeneous. A small culture approach, in contrast, sees cultures emerging from any social groupings or activities where there is cohesive behaviour. From such a perspective, people understand other individuals by starting from the individuals themselves (i.e. a bottom-up approach), learn about the cohesive behaviour of the grouping as it emerges, and situate their understanding of those individuals in particular contexts. In this study, the question is not as simple as Chinese students adapting themselves to the British culture. On the one hand, the Chinese

Paul Vincent Smith and Xiaowei Zhou 145

students have brought to their new study context elements from different small cultures, such as national cultures, disciplinary cultures, institutional cultures, the culture of a particular student cohort, and the culture of a particular age group. On the other hand, a small culture emerges in the new context in which they study, integrating elements that each participant brings into the context. Therefore, the Chinese students’ acculturation process is complicated and dynamic. They are supposed to be acculturated into the emerging culture by observing, making sense of, and engaging in the cohesive behaviour of that culture. Embedded in this line of thinking is how we understand intercultural communicative competence. The findings of this study have directed our attention to culture-general rather than culture-specific competence. It is desirable for acculturating individuals to acquire ‘tools’ that may help them function well in the specific target culture(s), which we term culture-specific competence. However, what is required first and foremost should be a relativised attitude towards other cultures in general and to the specific cultures in particular ( Jensen 1995), which is followed by an ability to make sense of and an enacted willingness to be engaged in the dynamic small culture which emerges as they negotiate.

7.7 Conclusions Any ‘Chinese problem’ does not reside wholly within the common concerns of student retention and the student experience. It is more a case of unease with how students approach their study and what they want to achieve, and how this fits with the norms and mores of UK education. However, the massification and commoditisation of education mean that those of us who work within the UK higher education sector have more or less abdicated the right to this unease. Chinese students take advantage of higher education in the UK as it is offered to them – and they are allowed to succeed on their own terms. However, vestigial concerns with academic literacy, practice, and culture mean that there is a remaining built-in obstacle to Chinese students’ achievement.

Note 1. We believe that language is an important issue in qualitative interviewing that influences the information given by the participant and the interpretation made by the researcher. An example is our different phraseology of one question in the third round of focus groups. For the question ‘What threats and opportunities do Chinese students face here?’, tiao zhan (meaning ‘challenge’) was used instead of threat in the Chinese session. The latter was

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believed to evoke in the Chinese mind the image of something terrifying or intimidating that puts someone in danger, which is too strong for our interest in needs, problems, and difficulty.

References Atkinson, D. (1999) TESOL and culture, TESOL Quarterly, 33(4), pp. 625–54. Cheng, X. (2000) Asian students’ reticence revisited, System, 28(3), pp. 435–46 Cooper, P. (2004) The gift of education: An anthropological perspective on the commoditization of learning, Anthropology Today, 20(6), pp. 5–9. Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in ethnomethodology, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Gillham, B. (2000) The research interview, London: Continuum. Holliday, A. (1999) Small cultures, Applied Linguistics, 20(2), pp. 237–64 Jensen, A. A. (1995) Defining intercultural competence: A discussion of its essential components and prerequisites, In L. Sercu (ed.), Intercultural competence: A new challenge for language teachers and trainers in Europe (vol. 1, pp. 41–52) Aalborg: Aalborg University Press. Krueger, R. A. (1994) Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research, London: Sage Krueger, R. A. (1998) Developing question for focus groups, London: Sage. Lea, M. and Street, B. (1998) Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies approach, Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), pp. 157–72. Liu, J. (2002) Negotiating silence in American classrooms: Three Chinese cases, Language and Intercultural Communication, 2(1), pp. 37–54. Zhou, Y. R., Knoke, D., and Sakamoto, I. (2005) Rethinking silence in the classroom: Chinese students’ experiences of sharing indigenous knowledge, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 9(3), pp. 287–311.

8 Decoding Students’ Value Orientations in Contemporary China Shu Yang

8.1 Introduction As China is undergoing dramatic changes structurally and economically, in Mainland China there exist worries that Chinese traditional values and Chinese identities might be threatened. The present study investigated Chinese university students by adopting a Chinese Value Survey (CVS) to ascertain their value orientations. The collected data allocations have revealed some varied features of Chinese student value changes, such as idealistic, pragmatic and realistic orientations, which are need-oriented on the one hand and more individually oriented on the other hand. It is assumed that foreign language and culture learning has provided a channel for the exposure to Western cultures, and the fast development of technology and easy access to variant information at home have paved the way for a more globalised value orientation. As a lingua franca in today’s global village, English is taught everywhere. China perhaps boasts the greatest number of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners.1 With the increasing boom in EFL learning, more and more EFL teachers in China have come to realise that learning a language does not stop at the ability to produce and understand grammatically correct sentences. They have consciously or unconsciously accepted what Hymes says about ‘the rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless’ (Hymes, 1972). Therefore, the teaching of the target culture has been supplemented into the national English teaching syllabus in China. As any language is a part of a culture and any culture a part of a language, the two are closely and intricately related. In EFL teaching and learning, two languages and, indeed, two cultures come into contact. A common metaphor used in describing contemporary foreign language 147

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education is that of building bridges of understanding between cultures. When a person learns English, for example, he/she is not merely learning the linguistic skills, but everything to do with English and Anglophone culture. To speak a language well, one has to be able to think in that language. A person’s mind is in a sense the centre of his identity. So if a person thinks in English in order to speak English well, one might say that he has in a way been influenced by English culture. That is the power and the essence of language. In the process of foreign language learning, English language learning in China, together with easy access to foreign films, TV programmes and the Internet, Western culture is expected to influence and change Chinese students’ value orientations. Also, contemporary China is undergoing dramatic changes with its fast economic development. The value system as an organic component of the ideological system in a society is always constructed on the economic basis of the society. The width and depth of the transformation appear to be enormous. Witnessing the immense benefits of economic change, some people at the same time show suspicion, confusion and bewilderment about ideological transformation. Some people began to worry that foreign culture acquisition might pose a threat to the national identity and would jeopardise traditional cultural norms and values. Many researches on this issue can be found in Chinese journals. A simple literature survey on China national knowledge Internet (CNKI)2 by searching ‘student’ and ‘value’ can locate 151 papers in Chinese, many of which express a worry that Chinese students today are under the influence of Western cultures, and some even call for people’s attention to ‘save’ our young people from this influence. The concept of values can be defined as one’s general beliefs about desirable and undesirable behaviours and goals (Rokeach, 1973). Values are assumed to be at the core of self-concept and to influence thought and action in many ways. They are assumed to transcend specific attitudes towards objects and situations, to provide standards or criteria to evaluate actions and outcomes, to justify opinions and behaviours, to plan and guide behaviour, to decide between alternatives, to compare one’s self with others, to engage in social interaction and to present one’s self to others. China is, to a large extent, governed according to moral values more than by the law. Moral values, which regulate individuals’ interpersonal relationships play a very important role in Chinese society. For example, one of the traditional expectations for Chinese youngsters is that they will support their parents financially, emotionally and physically

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when the parents reach retirement age. Therefore, the study of Chinese students’ value orientation is important in the understanding of the psychological makeup and life orientation of the youth today. It is expected that the present research can help better understand the Chinese students today and answer the following questions: First, are there obvious changes in students’ value orientation? Second, what is the underlying structure of the value orientations, and what are their causes?

8.2 Research method 8.2.1

Instruments

Many value surveys have been made at home and abroad, among which, however, RVS (Rokeach Value Survey, 1973) is the most influential one. Milton Rokeach (1973, 1979) developed (1) a theoretical perspective on the nature of values in a cognitive framework and (2) a value-measurement instrument, both of which are widely used and accepted by psychologists, sociologists, economists and others interested in understanding what values are, what people value and what is the ultimate function or purpose of values. RVS consists of 18 terminal and 18 instrumental values listed in alphabetical order. Terminal values are concerned with ‘end states of existence’, such as ‘a comfortable life (a prosperous life)’ and ‘a world at peace (free of war and conflict)’, while instrumental values are concerned with ‘modes of conduct’, e.g. being ‘ambitious’ (hard-working, aspiring) and ‘honest’ (sincere, truthful) (Rokeach, 1973, p. 7). The task of the research participant is to arrange the terminal values and instrumental values in order of importance to him/her, or as guiding principles in his/her life. Based on Rokeach’s value survey, a modified Chinese Value Survey (CVS) used by Clyde A. Warden and Judy F. Chen3 (2005) is popular among Chinese scholars, and is also used by the author in the present research. The CVS is designed to measure an individual’s preference of certain Chinese specific values as important guiding principles in people’s life. It consists of 40 value terms arranged in a random order. The present author adopts CVS as her major instrument, with RVS for reference, to investigate the value orientation of today’s Chinese students. By measuring respondents’ preferred items (the top ten) as well as the neglected values (the bottom ten), the present author tries to ascertain whether students’ life attitudes and value orientations have been changed, and to analyse the underlying structure and discuss the causal reasons for the students’ value orientation.

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8.2.2

Contemporary Students’ Value Orientations

Participants

A survey was conducted among some students at China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT, January, 2008), a key state university under the direct administration of China’s Ministry of Education, which recruits students from all over China. It is also one of the universities which hosts a graduate school and one of those in the national ‘211 project’, a government programme designed to support and improve top-level institutions of higher learning in China. A questionnaire consisting of 30 value terms (out of the original 40)4 was first given to 58 English major students, in classes when they were taking a course named ‘A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Cultures’. And to make the research more reliable, the same questionnaire with Chinese translation was given to 200 sophomore students chosen randomly of engineering disciplines at CUMT5, conducted either during class breaks or in the students dining hall. The total number of responses collected is 258, of which 253 are valid. Of the total subjects, 41 were female students and 17 male students among the English major group, and 142 males and 58 females among the engineering group. The average age of the participants is about 21.2, which suggest that they were born and grown up after China opened its door to the world. In addition, as CUMT is a university with strong disciplines in mining and technology, a relatively harsh field in terms of working conditions, about 64 per cent of students at CUMT come from rural areas, according to the report of the university annual recruitments. Thus, this sample of students could be regarded as representing ordinary Chinese students, rather than the richer few, since students at CUMT come from different socioeconomic backgrounds and different districts of Mainland China. The subjects were asked to tick ten items which they value most from the terms given in the questionnaire. In order to investigate the differences between the values chosen, the author calculated the chosen items and rearranged the value list according to the number of ticks by the students. Then a top-down ranking of the value terms was presented. In the identification of most preferred values and least preferred ones, the top ten were identified as sort of ‘most favoured values’, and those ten from the bottom with low scores were considered as ‘least favoured values’. Attention was given to revealing the underlying structure and analysing obvious changes of value orientation by comparing and contrasting these two groups. In addition, in order to reveal the factors that influence the value structure, the ‘most favoured values’ and ‘least favoured values’ were further analysed in terms of Western cultural influence and the impact of the globalised economy.

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8.3 Results The small size and a single university sampling place limits on the present research though, some changes discovered are statistically significant to demonstrate present Chinese students’ outlook and value orientations. Survey results were analysed according to the variance of ticks to find what value structures the Chinese students maintain. The overall results (all the valid responses: N=253) are listed in Table 8.1: To make a clear picture between the most favoured and the least favoured values, the top ten and the bottom ten, for comparison, are presented in Tables 8.2 and 8.3. At a first glance, the most favoured values reflect the long-cherished Chinese values and virtues, which are trustworthiness, filial piety, freedom, hard-working, family, friendship, happiness, love, knowledge and self-respect. The ten ‘least’ favoured values go to authority, content with one’s position, religion, chastity in women, power, harmony with others, thrift and collective. On closer consideration, some changes of value orientation can be identified. To see if foreign language study plays a chief role in changing students’ value orientation, a comparison between the choices given by English major students and non-major students would be of significance. The overall ranking of the ‘most’ favoured and the ‘least’ favoured by the English major students is on the whole similar to the non-English major students. Tables 8.4 and 8.5 illustrate the results given by English major students.

8.4 Discussion 8.4.1 Transformation of value orientation Value orientation refers to an individual’s preference for a value system. The preference is a psychological state and a behavioural pattern underlying all domains of beliefs, perceptions, opinions, attitudes, actions and lifestyle. In societies undergoing a dramatic transition like China, different value orientations will coexist. The data allocations collected have revealed some varied features of Chinese students’ value orientations. On the one hand, the top ten chosen terms show that the longcherished traditional Chinese values such as ‘filial piety’, ‘hard-working’, and so on are upheld; on the other hand, the bottom ten reminds people of some obvious changes of young people’s value orientations. A careful consideration can tell that there is an underlying structure, or underlying subset of values, within the survey.

152

No.

Chinese Value Survey results (N=253) Ticks

%

No.

Ticks

%

No.

Value Terms

Ticks

%

1. 2. 3.

Hard-working Freedom Privacy

Value Terms

154 159 44

62.85 62.85 17.4

11 12. 13.

Modesty Patience Competition

Value Terms

85 82 59

33.6 32.41 23.32

21. 22. 23.

93 151 30

36.76 59.68 11.86

4.

Knowledge

134

53

14.

Power

24

9.49

24.

27

10.67

5. 6

Religion Equality

7 122

2.77 48.22

15. 16.

Wealth Filial piety

69 165

27.27 65.22

25. 26.

137 21

54.15 8.3

7. 8.

Courtesy Achievements

92 70

36.36 27.67

17. 18.

Collective Friendship

42 149

16.6 58.89

27. 28.

134 51

52.96 20.16

9.

Trustworthiness

177

69.96

19.

Thrift

35

13.83

29.

4

1.58

10.

Self-respect

130

51.38

20.

Face

8

3.16

30.

Patriotism Family Respect for others Harmony with others Happiness Chastity in women Love A comfortable life Content with one’s position Authority

2

0.79

Contemporary Students’ Value Orientations

Table 8.1

Shu Yang Table 8.2 Rank 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6 7. 8. 9. 10. Table 8.3

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Top 10 most favoured values (N=253) Value Terms

Ticks

trustworthiness Filial piety Hard-working Family Freedom Friendship Happiness Love Knowledge Self-respect

177 165 159 154 151 149 137 134 134 130

% 69.96 65.22 62.85 62.85 59.68 58.89 54.15 52.96 53 51.38

Bottom 10 least favoured values (N=253)

Rank 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Value Terms

Ticks

%

Collective Thrift Respect for others Harmony with others Power Chastity in women Face Religion Content with one’s position Authority

42 35 30 27 24 21 8 7 4 2

16.6 13.83 11.86 10.67 9.49 8.30 3.16 2.77 1.58 0.79

Table 8.4

Top 10 most favoured values (N=58)

Rank

Value Terms

Ticks

%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Filial piety Love Family Trustworthy Happiness Friendship Knowledge Hard-working Patriotism Self-respect

55 54 53 49 45 44 41 37 35 29

94.83 93.1 91.38 84.48 77.58 75.86 70.69 63.79 60.34 50

In comparing Table 8.2 with Table 8.4 of the top ten most favoured values by both non-English and English major students, we can see that there is no big difference between these two groups. Their choices overlap or resemble each other to a large degree, with only one item ‘freedom’ in Table 8.2 replaced by ‘patriotism’ in Table 8.4. This either

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Contemporary Students’ Value Orientations Table 8.5 Rank 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Bottom 10 least favoured values (N=58) Value Terms

Ticks

%

Modesty Harmony with others Thrift Chastity in women Patience Collective Face Content with one’s position Authority Religion

11 10 9 9 9 6 3 0 0 0

18.97 17.24 15.52 15.52 15.52 10.34 5.17 0 0 0

demonstrates that foreign language input does not make a significant contribution to the psychological well-being in terms of value orientation, or, it has an equal influence on university students as a whole, since the students of other disciplines have received similar foreign culture input in terms of foreign language studies. In considering the resemblance of the two surveys, the author asked two English major students, who helped calculate the survey results, for their opinions about the results. To the author’s surprise, they said that they would have chosen more individually driven values if they had been completing the answers for this in-class survey. They said that people today do have become more realistic and pragmatic. As for the high percentage of patriotism for their group, they said that patriotism is the responsibility of all rational people, especially for the Chinese when the Olympics are to be held in China and all the people feel very proud to witness this event. This, in a way, suggests that the response given by the randomly chosen students of other disciplines might be more reliable, and value orientation is not static and may be stimulated by various factors. For example, the serious earthquake which happened in Sichuan recently once again has united the Chinese people, and it might be assumed that a collectively oriented value system might be strengthened, if given another survey. Value orientations can be divided into instrumental and terminal. Terminal values are concerned with ‘end states of existence’, which are the goals in life that we think are most important and that we feel are most desirable. Instrumental values are concerned with ‘modes of conduct’, which are basically the kind of personal characteristics that we think highly of (Rokeach, 1973, p. 7). Table 8.2 shows that there is

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a high percentage of terminal values, five out of the total ten in the overall survey. This shows that most Chinese youth regard freedom, love, happiness, friendship and self-respect as very important. For the instrumental values, trustworthiness takes first place, followed by filial piety, hard-working, family, knowledge/education and friendship, which is consistent with other research findings (Warden and Chen, 2005; Zhou, 2004) in which such values as above are said to be specific collective or traditional Chinese values. Although women and men may differ in the amount of importance placed on affiliation and achievement, within the context of this research, their preference in values agrees with the preference of the other gender to a large extent. Generally, male students tended to be more concerned with personal accomplishment, and competency related values, whereas female students were more attracted to family, moral, and more intrinsic kinds of values. To illustrate, by analysing the English major students’ choices, we find that priority was given to the following top five values (Table 8.6): However, if we analyse the bottom ten, it is not surprising to notice a big difference in students’ value orientations, in consideration of traditional Chinese cultural values. As is known to all, Chinese culture is featured in its orientation towards collectiveness, which gives priority to harmony, authority and face. Some discussion is necessary to establish this change. Traditionally speaking, ‘content with one’s position’ is one of the major value orientations in China. However, the research result shows that it is completely unimportant for today’s students. ‘Content with one’s position’ is considered as the least important; in contrast, competition, which used to be considered as a Western idea, ranks 13 in the survey. On the one hand, to meet the demands of the fast social development, one has to work hard and compete with others; on the other hand, people today lay emphasis on individual achievements, and would not dare to stay content with what they are.

Table 8.6

Gender differentiated top 5 (English majors)

Values Filial piety Family Love Knowledge Trustworthy

Males (N = 17) 15 15 14 13 13

88.24 88.24 82.35 76.47 76.47

Values Filial piety Love Family Trustworthy Happiness

Females (N = 41) 40 40 38 35 32

97.56 97.56 92.68 85.37 78.05

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As a high power-distance society, Chinese culture shows a strong sense of hierarchy. Signs of this dimension can be seen in nearly every aspect in communication. For example, traditional ideas teach students not to interrupt the teacher; they should show great reverence and respect for authority. However, the sense of hierarchy among current students is weakening (Table 8.3, 0.79 per cent). In addition, face-saving is another quintessence of Chinese culture. Chinese culture is grouporiented, in which the interpersonal relationship predominates. Giving face and saving face are important virtues in building up interpersonal relationships. Yet, the result of the research shows that ‘face’ is no longer an important issue to the young students (3.16 per cent). They have nothing to say about religion, as the young people today have grown up with very little influence of or contact with religion; thus the ranking of this value is very low. To the present author, the neglect of these values can be one of the manifestations of the changing value orientation. 8.4.2 The underlying structure of the value orientations On the whole, the total 30 items can be divided into three major categories, representing orientations of idealism, pragmatism and realism. If we borrow Maslow’s hierarchy needs theory (1987), these three orientations can be analysed in two dimensions. The first dimension of the value conceptualisation is need-oriented. Pragmatism is a direct response to the basic needs whereas idealism and realism deal with higher levels of spiritual needs such as the well-being of mankind or self-actualisation. The second dimension involves individualism versus collectivism. Both pragmatism and realism are individualistically oriented, whereas the overwhelming Chinese idealism is collectivism and communism. This perspective highlights the diametrically opposing relationship between idealism and pragmatism on the one hand, and the overlap between idealism and realism (in spiritual needs) and between pragmatism and realism (in individualism), as is shown in the figure6:

Pragmatism

Idealism

Individualism

Collectivism Realism

Communism Physical needs Spiritual needs

Figure 8.1

Underlying structure of the value orientations

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8.4.2.1

157

Idealistic value orientation

Idealism refers to the predominant value orientations for the Chinese populace for a long time, such as Confucian ideas and Communism. As a value system, idealism or communism in China, in the simplest operational terms, can be chiefly defined as selfless dedication to the well-being of society and others. This represents the mainstream culture and the students grow up under the influence of this value system. However, when China opened its door to the outside world, especially to the Western world, many traditional ideas were challenged by pragmatic materialism. Communism is regarded as a kind of ideal state beyond reach nowadays. In the present survey, of the top ten values (See Table 8.2), happiness, freedom, friendship, love, and trustworthiness can be grouped under the category of spiritual needs, terminal values in another term, while filial piety, hard-working, knowledge, self-respect and family belong to instrumental values. However, if we look at them from a different angle, of the idealistic values, happiness, freedom, equality, love, self-respect and trustworthiness are all driven with individualistic motivations, that is, the pursuit of personal satisfaction. Therefore, we might conclude that the most favoured values ticked by the Chinese students are geared towards individual development and pursuit. 8.4.2.2

Pragmatic value orientation

Pragmatism can be defined as an equivalent to materialism, a pursuit of immediate rewards and personal happiness. However, the concept of private pursuits, self-concern and self-rewarding behaviours used to be associated with capitalist ideas. Chinese people were not encouraged to seek well-being for themselves until the 1980s, when the economic and structural reforms and the improvement of living standard for the Chinese have unexpectedly invited the rise of materialism, in which the university students today are brought up. The Communist slogan ‘Looking Forward’ (Xiang Qian Kan) has since been replaced by the materialistic motto ‘Looking for Money’ (pronounced also as ‘Xiang Qian Kan’, a pun in pronunciation) throughout the nation. ‘Money is everything’, ‘One who wet-nurses the baby is the mother’ (It means that he who pays me is my master) and the like. This phenomenon is assumed to have mostly resulted from pragmatic value concepts. In the top ten chosen values, happiness, freedom, equality, love and self-respect are considered very individualistic, which were in the past regarded as the pursuit of personal interests, thus, seldom discussed in the public context. At the same time, wealth (27.23 per cent), a comfortable

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Contemporary Students’ Value Orientations

life (20.16 per cent) and privacy (17.4 per cent) (see the median ten in Table 8.1) rank higher than the terms like collective (16.6 per cent), power (9.49 per cent) and authority (0.79 per cent) – see Table 8.3 – also illustrate significantly that the students today are more oriented towards pragmatic values. 8.4.2.3

Realistic value orientation

Realism has emerged as a new alternative, even though the competition between idealism and pragmatism still occupies the public discourse. Realism is a way of life that downplays the importance of material rewards and emphasises harmony with people and situations. In other words, people with realistic value orientations are likely to make a compromise between material pursuit and social responsibilities. They do not want to live by the ideals they were taught with, and at the same time, they would not want to be regarded as self-interest driven pragmatists. Signs of realism among the Chinese can easily be observed in the survey. Results of the present study echo the long-standing Confucian idea that filial piety is the basis which culturally defines the inter-generational relationships. These values surpass all others given ethics (65.22 per cent, 94.83 per cent). Filial piety as a core ethic has been continuously practised, taught and appreciated in behaviour, attitude and belief throughout China. Research has shown filial piety to be a moral impulse in governing people’s behaviour and motivation. Chinese students have been found to show individualistic concerns as they value freedom, autonomy, self-respect, and personal accomplishment, and at the same time they did not necessarily subjugate the self to group requirements, nor did they welcome the restrictive control and domination from authority. 8.4.2.4 Individualism – Collectivism orientations Individualism can be defined as an individual’s self-orientation that emphasises self-sufficiency and control with value being given to selfaccomplishments, whereas collectivism can be defined as the subordination of personal goals to the goal of the group with an emphasis on sharing and group harmony (Ying, 1995). The collected data show some transformation of Chinese student value orientations. On the one hand, the overall layout of the choices reflect a general picture of the long-cherished Chinese traditional collective values; on the other hand, some self-interest-driven motivations emerge among the most favoured values. While some of the values in the bottom ten are equally

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important to the Chinese people, the students value them at a relatively low level, such as collective (16.6 per cent), power (9.49), authority (0.79 per cent), harmony with others (10.67 per cent), and respect for others (11.86 per cent). A careful analysis may further reveal relatively different cultural loadings for the top and bottom groups. While the favoured top ten include values of personal attainment and subjectivity at one pole (freedom, love, happiness), values of interrelationship dominate the other (collective, respect for others, harmony with others, power, authority) at the bottom. Invoking individualism–collectivism as the interpretive schema for the instrumental and terminal CVS dimension is consistent with other research findings in China, in which some values, such as cooperation, equality, and honesty, represent collective or affiliative values, whereas other values, such as a comfortable life, competition, pleasure and social recognition, are identified as individual oriented or achievement oriented (Zhu and He, 2002; Zhang and Kan, 1995). Additional factors linked to individualism are the need for achievement, self-sufficiency and the individual as the centre of his or her world. The high percentage of self-respect, happiness, knowledge, a sense of achievement, a comfortable life and wealth quite clearly represent individualism orientation in the survey. 8.4.3 Analysis of the value transformation In the light of the above analysis, the transformation of contemporary Chinese students’ value system, based on the momentum of the opendoor policy and construction of the market economy, as well as the exposure to Western culture learning in English Language Teaching (ELT), exposes roughly the in-depth characteristics and developmental tendencies as follows: Firstly, young people’s subjective consciousness of value is awakening. Subjective consciousness serves as the core of value system. Under the system of the planned economy, an individual largely displayed his/her functions through top-down obligation or control. Today, under the influence of market economy and Western culture, people’s sense of responsibility for themselves has been constantly enhanced. Everyone in this global era has to make the most of opportunities to seek for survival and development in order to satisfy their needs and realise their values. Secondly, people’s value orientation has been shifted from uniformity to diversity, and from illusion to reality. Along with the revival of subjective awareness and the shift of value focus, society permits a more tolerant environment for the aspiration of diversified pursuits since

160

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the reform and the adoption of the open-door policy. People’s value orientation has been increasingly diversified and life itself is highlighted with colourfulness, which presents an outlook of multi-directions, multi-levels and manifold dimensions, accompanied with their own conditions, competence and beliefs. Thirdly, under the influence of Western culture, Chinese students today seem to be more individualistic, while simultaneously not forsaking their Confucian ideals. This phenomenon can be called as ‘crossacculturalisation’, which does not mean that the Chinese adopt Western values, but that they internalise some aspects of Western individualism into the traditional Confucian-based value system. Thus, they develop a unique perspective or set of values that possesses facets of both cultures.

8.5 Conclusion A person’s value orientation is largely shaped by the environment during his/her socialisation stage. Once formed, the value orientation usually remains stable and enduring. However, for people living in a society that is undergoing dramatic changes, the value preferences may involve adjustment as the influx of changing realities challenge the existing value system. As the present research is only a spot study, the limited sampling can only show a glimpse of Chinese students’ value orientation tendencies, in comparison with the traditional value orientations ascribed to China in previous literature. Compared with other surveys conducted in China, this research shares similar findings in many aspects. Anyway, some conclusions can be made. First, the introduction of Western culture and the market economy has in a way changed people’s mind in terms of value orientation. With the development of economy and globalisation, the once firmly held national belief in Confucian or Communist ideas has been challenged, which in a way offers an opening for the input of other ideas. Secondly, people today, especially the university students who are able to use English, have an easy access to a diversified range of information, such as the use of the Internet. A great deal of exposure to a new culture alone can make a big difference in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, which will gradually change people’s understanding of the world. As a result, Chinese students do show some changes in their value orientation. Thirdly, value priorities of the students in the survey help explain that there is a tendency for people to become more individualistically oriented or pragmatically oriented in outlook. Last but not the least, the study has found a weak difference between students

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of different majors in terms of the impact of foreign language learning on value orientations, which suggests that the change of value outlook is a complicated process in which many other factors function.

Notes 1. English is a required subject from Primary three up to the first two years of tertiary study for non-English majors. There were about 224.10 million students at school in 2005 (Wen, Qiufang 2007). 2. CNKI: China national knowledge Internet, the biggest Chinese database for academic publications endnote. 3. Clyde A. Warden and Judy F. Chen: Cultural Values and Communication Online: Chinese and Southeast Asian Students in a Taiwan International MBA Class. 4. To make the questionnaire within one page, and convenient for the students to tick top ten items, the author chose only 30 out of the original 40 values and left those that seemed closer in meaning with other terms. 5. Thanks should be given to Shanshan Liu and Yingying Cao who helped distribute and collect the questionnaire (2008). 6. This is based on the idea given by Jonathan J. H. Zhu and Zhou He in their research ‘Information Accessibility, User Sophistication, and Source Credibility: The Impact of the Internet on Value Orientations in Mainland China’ (2002).

References Cileli, M. & Tezer E. (1998) Life and Value Orientations of Turkish University Students, Adolescence, 33, pp. 219–228 Spring. Feather, N. T. (1975) Values in Education and Society. New York: Free Press. Feather, N. T. (1993) Values and Culture. In W. J. Lonner & R. Malapass (eds), Psychology and Culture (pp. 183–9). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Hofstede, Geert (1980). Cultures Consequences – International Differences in WorkRelated Values, Beverley Hills, CA: Sage Publications. Hymes, D. H. (1972) Models of Interaction of Language and Social Life, in J. J. Gumperz & D. H. Hymes (eds), Directions in Sociolinguistics, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Kluckhohn, F., & Strodtbeck, F. L. (1961). Variations in Value Orientations. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson. Li, Hong (2002) Considerations on the Western Cultural Influence on Chinese Students, Youth Studies, 4, pp. 47–50. Rokeach, M. (1973). The Nature of Human Values. New York: Free Press. Rokeach, M. (ed.) (1979). From individual to institutional values: With special reference to the values of science. Understanding Human Values (pp. 47–70). New York: Free Press. Scollon, R. & Suzanne, W. (2000). Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Seligman, C. & Olson, J. M. (ed.) (1996) The Psychology of Values, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p. 3.

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Warden, Clyde A. & Chen, Judy F. (2005) Cultural Values and Communication Online: Chinese and Southeast Asian Students in a Taiwan International MBA Class. Business Communication Quarterly, 68(2), pp. 222–232. Wen, Qiufang (2007) Presentation given at conference in Fukuoka, Japan, Summer 2007. Weigert, Andrew J. (1981). Sociology of Everyday Life. New York and London: Longman. p. 36. Ying, Y. W. (1995) Cultural Orientation and Psychological Well-Being in Chinese Americans. Journal of Community Psychology, 23 (6), pp. 893–911. Zhu, J. H. & He, Z. (2002) Information Accessibility, User Sophistication, and Source Credibility: The Impact of the Internet on Value Orientations in Mainland China, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 48(4), pp. 49–53. Zhang, Daoli & Kan, Naihu (1995) A Survey of University Students Values, Journal of Anhui Agricultural Teachers College, 2, pp. 55–59. Zhou, Haiyan. (2004) Analysis and Strategies to Students Value Change, Journal of Jiangsu University, 1, pp. 36–39.

Theme III Practical Approaches

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9 Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural Barriers to Integration: An Investigation of Two Models Siobhan Devlin and Nicola Peacock

9.1 Introduction ‘Integration’ can mean the combining of elements in equal measure into a unified whole, or the act of integrating ethnic groups through behavioural and attitudinal change in order to ‘fit’ with dominant cultural norms. If Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are to properly embrace internationalisation, the former notion of equal participation is required so that international and home students and staff all engage in intercultural interaction and learning and work together to create new perspectives and values. This chapter addresses the reality of the international student experience: arriving with high expectations, students discover that where language and culture differ from the host nation’s, difficulties often arise. Previous research has analysed the barriers they face in entering Western social, academic and workplace environments. Here, we suggest that the need to overcome these barriers can be the motivation to increase knowledge of self and other, explore cultural identities and practise language. We argue though that opportunities for improving linguistic and intercultural competence must be created and managed in order to engage both international and UK participants in the interaction. Without deliberate intervention, international students may remain isolated, their achievements compromised and contribution unrecognised. We present two models of intervention and discuss the students’ perceptions of their impact. It is well documented that most international students experience some degree of ‘culture shock’ at the start of their stay (Kim and Ruben, 1988) and that adjusting to their new environment involves shifts in self-concept, worldviews, values and attitudes (Gardner, 1985; O’Malley and Chamot, 1990; Schumann, 1978). Students are under pressure to 165

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learn and adapt to new study methods, understand how things work on a practical level (money, finding a place to live, finding a job), decode ‘strange’ behaviours and develop new support and friendship networks often in a second or additional language. Consequently, many find themselves verbally and non-verbally challenged and experience stress, which may become chronic until adjustment is reached (Kim and Ruben, 1988). Most HEIs in the West have developed provision to facilitate the acculturation process, including pre-arrival briefings and orientation programmes on arrival. However, evidence suggests that extensive and intensive interaction with the host culture can also play a significant role in overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers to integration. Eller et al. (2004) found that greater contact with British people, often resulting in improved knowledge of British culture and higher levels of English language, led to more positive attitudes towards living in Britain. The ‘Broadening Our Horizons’ survey published by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA, 2004) similarly found that international students who had more UK friends were more likely to be satisfied with their stay in the UK. Ward (2006) found much evidence to suggest friendships with locals reduce stress levels, contribute to positive mood, reduce depression, increase life satisfaction, happiness and self esteem and generally enhance psychological well-being. Furthermore, she located studies which suggest that international students who have more contact with local students develop greater communicative competence, more confidence in use of English, positive attitudes to teaching quality and greater academic satisfaction. 9.1.1 The search for interaction There is no unwillingness on the part of international students to form friendships with their local peers. Indeed, contact is expected and desired (Ward, 2006; Zheng and Berry, 1991) particularly when seeking help to further themselves linguistically, professionally or academically (Furnham and Alibhai, 1985). In comparison, studies of host student populations have found that though domestic students are positive about the presence of international students they may lack the interest or will to develop or initiate contact, believing that it is the foreigners’ responsibility to integrate into the host community (Sanchez, 2004; Ward, 2006). It is no surprise then that the UKCISA survey (2004) reported that international students find it difficult to make friends with UK students and feel they are perceived negatively. Indeed, this and other studies have found that most international students form primary bonds with co-nationals, then with other internationals and to

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a much lesser degree with host students (Eller et al., 2004; Ward, 2006; UKCISA, 2004). Domestic students who are in the majority do not feel the need to integrate and thus deprive themselves of opportunities to learn, whereas international students are fewer, want to integrate, are forced to adapt (Caputi et al., 2000), and are thus motivated to seek interaction to better learn the language, understand the academic culture or seek advice on finding a job. 9.1.2 Cultural and linguistic factors in forming friendships Culture plays a significant role in determining intercultural interactions. The UKCISA (2004) survey revealed that students from East and South East Asia had many less UK friends on average compared to other nationalities, concluding that friendships are more likely formed where there is a perceived closeness of culture. This is supported by studies cited in Ward (2006) and research by Leder and Forgasz (2004, p. 194). Furnham and Alibhai’s (1985) study of British students in London found they were significantly more interested in developing co-national bonds. Where students did have international friends they were more likely to be European than Asian, African, South American or West Indian. Nor is this a peculiarly British problem. Domestic students in a Spanish study referred to the anxiety experienced when interacting with foreign students due to differences in culture, worldview and language (Sanchez, 2004). Many international students studying in the UK mention the drinking culture as a barrier to integration (UKCISA, 2004). In addition to culture, UKCISA (2004) also concluded that language is an issue as native English speakers are more likely to have UK friends compared to speakers of English as a second or foreign language. Communication with people of varying linguistic competences is challenging for host students and can affect international students’ self esteem and confidence, further compromising the likelihood of forming friendships. Moreover, in class, English speaking hosts may wish to interact with students with similar language competency in an effort to gain marks as quickly and efficiently as possible (Ward, 2006). 9.1.3 The need for deliberate intervention Where contact does exist with host students it is more likely to occur at university and inside the classroom (Eller et al., 2004). Patterns of social interaction differ significantly across cultures and many social activities enjoyed by UK students are culturally unacceptable to international students therefore exclusive of them. It is thus unlikely that contact will be made in pubs and clubs. Yet this is the environment in which

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friendships between UK students are often cemented. Furthermore, in institutions with strong Widening Participation remits, domestic students tend to be local, with established friendship circles and established work and leisure routines. They come to university to attend classes then return home. Little, if any, time is spent socialising at the university itself. Leder and Forgasz’s (2004) study of Australian and international mature students notes that local students ‘felt no need to get involved with fellow students socially, except for selected study activity because they had other support structures’. If international students rely on the classroom for contact with the host culture, postgraduate students often find themselves at a disadvantage. The current UK HE climate has resulted in a downturn in UK students studying postgraduate courses and consequently cohorts are often mostly or entirely international with many coming from South East Asia. Though the literature highlights the benefits of integrated residential facilities (Furnham and Alibhai, 1985), where students are housed according to their postgraduate or undergraduate status, segregation is further compounded. Even where class cohorts are mixed and there are opportunities for intercultural interaction. De Vita (2003) and Ward (2006) suggest it does not develop naturally. Indeed, Ward (2006) claims students perceive it to be the responsibility of HEIs to increase and enhance intercultural interactions. Mindful of evidence suggesting that unmanaged intercultural interaction can result in increased levels of threat rather than positive communication and relations, Spencer-Rodgers and McGovern (2002, p. 17, cited in Sanchez, 2004) recommend ‘structured opportunities for positive intergroup interaction’. Unfortunately anecdotal evidence suggests that there is less positive intervention on the part of academics than is desirable. At Sunderland an unpublished study found that in one department 61 per cent of staff who employed group work allowed the students to group themselves with 17 per cent varying between selfselection and allocation. Furthermore only 13 per cent used icebreakers to facilitate pupils getting to know each other in class and 19 per cent in the personal tutor group. Sixty-eight per cent never used icebreakers. In a Bournemouth focus group Chinese students recounted that they also had to self-select study groups and had little opportunity for classroom interaction with students from other cultures. While acknowledging the work needed to be done around developing learning and teaching methodologies for improving the experience of international (and all) students, the focus of this chapter is on exploring means of facilitating intercultural interaction beyond the classroom.

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If contact with the host culture does not occur naturally, the challenge then is to create a mutually acceptable space for interaction to occur and develop programmes of activity where meaningful interaction can ensue. This chapter introduces two programmes, one at Sunderland and one at Bournemouth, which attempt to bring international and UK students together and encourage learning about British culture. While one scheme is aimed solely at Chinese students and focuses on the culture and language of employment in the UK, the other is multicultural and has a wider remit of improving English language and awareness of British and other cultures. The chapter also discusses student responses and, mindful of the limitations of the initiatives, suggests ways forward for improved uptake and success.

9.2 The changing context of HEIs Since the 1999 Prime Minister’s Initiative, which gave UK universities the target of attracting an extra 50,000 international students by 2005, there has been a massive expansion in international student numbers in HE. At Bournemouth University and the University of Sunderland, the number of full time on campus international students has increased threefold to 2000 and 1500 respectively. While similar in some respects – both are post-92 universities located in English coastal areas – these two institutions have important differences in their student bases. Sunderland lies in an area of former heavy industry with an established reputation for Widening Participation. Most of its students are non-traditional, first generation HE students who are local to the area. Bournemouth meanwhile recruits predominantly middle-class students locally, regionally and nationally. Neither place is ethnically very diverse and this impacts on the profile and experience of the students who study there. With growing competition and a downturn in some markets, it appears that across the sector there is a growing awareness of the need to redirect resources to improve the student experience, and it is now beginning to be recognised that most international students come to study in an academic culture very different to their own and to live in a country of which they have little or no experience. International students face challenges that all new students encounter, but in many cases to a greater degree. For example, many postgraduate or ‘top-up’ students come to the UK to study for only one year. For them the need to integrate into or simply understand the new academic and social culture is particularly acute.

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Bournemouth Initiative: The English Conversation Club (ECC) Motivational background

Bournemouth University was among the institutions that took part in the UKCISA (2004) survey of international student experience in the UK. One strand of the survey concerned social life and friendship patterns, and at Bournemouth it was revealed that only 25 per cent of international students had both international and UK friends, and 70 per cent of taught postgraduates reported having no UK friends at all. These figures unfortunately reflect national trends. Further, a survey was conducted by the Global Perspectives group at Bournemouth in 2005 and included questions on perceptions of social integration among UK and international students. Both sets of students perceived limited integration opportunities, and believed that provision aimed exclusively at international students (e.g. orientation) reinforces separateness. Focus groups and interviews held with international students post orientation in 2005 revealed that they want help and guidance in getting to know UK students. One said: ‘tell us how to mix with UK people properly … because in fact there’s lots of barriers to get close to them’. Another admitted that, for her, contact was compromised by a lack of confidence in English: ‘I can’t talk to the Americans … because they know the language. … I get insecure, like really insecure that I will make a mistake. But international students, they make mistakes too. … I feel more confident [talking with them]’. More recently Bournemouth (and indeed Sunderland) used the International Student Barometer,1 the online survey tool developed by i-Graduate, to assess a larger sample of international students’ perceptions of and attitudes towards work, living and studying at university and in the UK. As part of this survey students can comment on an aspect of their experience they would change. Here they frequently mention the lack of dialogue and relationship between UK and home students and the need for better integration. One undergraduate Chinese student said, ‘sometimes I do feel English students do not like doing the courseworks with overseas students. When we do the group works, I do wish the teacher could give our opportunity to mix students from any regions’. A postgraduate Taiwanese student stated, ‘so far I haven’t experience what is British Culture since I’m here for 2 month. British people seem more to get together with their own people, dislike multi-cultural life sharing’. Other comments related to finding work. Students are critical of Careers Service and Placement Support at Bournemouth

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University and nationally. One Chinese undergraduate stated he wanted ‘more industry information increase opportunity for placement and working after graduation’. An undergraduate student from Hong Kong noted that ‘work placement and practice skill apply on the course will be useful to help student to understand the working culture in the UK’. There is evidently demand for managed intercultural interactions between international and host student populations and demand for more information about the UK job application process and working culture. Bournemouth offers sandwich courses at undergraduate level, and one of the challenges faced by all students is finding a placement in their third year. Anecdotal information suggests that Chinese students have particular difficulties securing UK placements and either return home to work, or progress directly into the final year. There was concern that the students’ expectations of the study/work package are not therefore being fulfilled and they return to China without the competitive edge that a year of work experience together with improved English language (as practised in the workplace) would have afforded them. Again, anecdotal information obtained from the Careers Service told us that employers felt the students did not have a sufficiently good level of English to take up employment in the UK. ‘Poor oral communication’ was cited in employer feedback on several occasions. 9.3.2

Preliminary study

Initially a focus group was held with Chinese students on the Accounting and Finance undergraduate (sandwich) programme to find out about their expectations and experiences of finding a placement. Five students attended (out of a total of 19). Discussions revealed that they all wanted to find a UK placement, being aware of the competitive advantage this would give them with Chinese employers on their return. Though they were not familiar with the job application process in either country they knew that competition was high and employers were looking for good academic grades, work experience and high levels of English. The students were ambitious and motivated when discussing their careers, but were less than confident of their language abilities. All agreed it was difficult to get to know UK students and even other international students and all mixed with co-nationals when in the classroom, studying, living and socialising. The students revealed that there was no management of intercultural encounters in seminars, the importance of which has been highlighted in De Vita (2003) among others, and which is a theme that recurs in the Sunderland scenario. Students were free to choose their own study groups which further encouraged co-national

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segregation. Two of the students in the group had part-time jobs. They had found it difficult finding work and ultimately found positions in Chinese restaurants through friends. They admitted they spent most of their time speaking Chinese and would welcome more opportunities to speak English. The findings reflected those outlined in a report from Victoria University (2005) which suggested student success, defined in terms of working competently in an international context, depends in part on a need to be fluent in written, spoken and aural English, to know how business is conducted outside of their countries and consider different attitudes and cultural assumptions. The report acknowledged that though many international students undertake study in English because it is the language of global communication and crucial for employment, the culture of Higher Education does not incorporate the use of spoken English in practical, informal situations except in group work (where multicultural groups are allocated by the tutor). Lack of social contact between international and home students means little or no chance for international students to practise their informal English and develop the confidence that employers seek at interview. In assessing Chinese students, the report found that most wished to work in multinational organisations and were keen to learn more about how business is conducted in other countries, but had little understanding of the complexities of the English language in the workplace. Students identified that continuous practice in listening and speaking with a foreign teacher or native speaker would be effective and suggested the establishment of an ‘English Space’ where they could access relevant English language materials and communicate informally in English with native speakers. 9.3.3

Description and implementation

The idea of an ‘English Space’ (Victoria University, 2005) provided the inspiration for the setting up of the ECC as a strand of ‘Working Worlds’, a facility introduced in 2004 by Bournemouth’s International Office and Careers Service to enhance student employability and help facilitate the transition from the academic space to the workplace, through workshops and online resources. Staff from the International Programmes Group were also involved, recognising the knowledge of English language teaching and learning they could bring to the project. The ECC would be made available to a total of 19 level one Chinese students, on programmes in the Institute of Business and Law, who were preparing to find placements as part of their sandwich degree. The aim of the ECC was to contribute to this process, providing students with an

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opportunity to improve fluency and confidence in English, learn more about UK work application processes and socialise with UK peers. The facilitators would be given opportunities to develop intercultural sensitivity and increase the intercultural competence sought by multinational companies. Thus the benefits to both parties were promoted in line with Ward’s (2006) assertion that in building confidence it is important that both host and international students should be made to feel they are bringing something to the process. Four speakers of English as a first language, with UK work experience, were employed to facilitate weekly conversation classes with small groups in an informal setting around themes relevant to seeking work, including networking and language for interview. British culture and slang were also included for discussion. All facilitators had some experience of teaching English as a second language. Where possible, managed intercultural interactions should overlap with students’ daily routine and not demand too much of the students, especially as international students may be studying in a second, or foreign language in an academic system that differs greatly from their own (Ward, 2006). Anecdotally, and from observation, Chinese students are difficult to engage in extracurricular activities and will not seek help from institutional support services unless they are convinced of the benefits. They are pragmatic, making efficient use of their time and cautious of informal programmes arranged by somebody they neither know nor trust. Many also come from institutions in which all activity, including leisure, is timetabled. Unable to make the ECC an integral and accredited part of the academic programme, it was a challenge to encourage students to attend in the first instance and then ensure that the sessions were relevant and engaging. Therefore, in order to promote the programme the following strategies were adopted: • Academic staff endorsement (enhancing credibility and reinforcing expectation that students should attend) • Close and current relationships with Programme Administrators and Placement Officers (for successful communication) • Messages in Chinese written by a Chinese colleague in the International Office (to ensure the correct expectations were being set) • Making use of personal contacts and understanding that this would be acceptable in Chinese culture (e.g. phoning one of the students to talk to her about the programme) • Making use of peer networks (e.g. encouraging the above student – the ‘leader’ – to promote the programme to the other students).

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After talking to the students to find out the best course of action, the first two sessions were timetabled between lectures and the following sessions were arranged by the students on an informal basis for one hour per week over a period of 8 weeks. 9.3.4

Outcomes

A total number of 14 Chinese students out of a possible 19 attended the first session which reduced to nine in session two. This group eventually attended the club regularly over the remaining weeks. At the end of the project, two focus groups were arranged; one with the facilitators and one with the attendees. Of the nine regular attendees, five attended (the same five who had attended the original focus group). Discussion revealed that they had understood the objectives of the programme and their original expectations matched our intended learning outcomes: that they would improve their fluency and confidence in English, learn more about UK work application processes and have an opportunity to socialise with a UK student. Students were less interested in learning about UK culture generally in contrast to the Sunderland experience. Our overall aim was to help them to find a placement in the UK through English language practice and acculturation. But many had the expectation that the ECC would help them to secure a position. One student comment expresses disappointment that there was ‘no direct help to find a placement’. Thus their expectations were only partially met. They listed benefits of the ECC as: • ‘Learn more about UK residential culture and ways to communicate’ • ‘Learn about the UK job application processes and interviews in the UK’ • ‘Improve my speaking’ • ‘Improve my vocabulary and English level. Improve my confidence when speaking’ • ‘Can speak to the British’. Students said that the programme would not help them to find a placement because its 8-week duration was too short: ‘I think this session lasts a short time and we just know some skills about interview and how to apply a job in UK. The class is not enough’. So, students felt a lengthier programme would be more beneficial. They also wanted to work in mixed nationality groups so that they could ‘know more cultures’, be ‘forced to speak English’ and ‘know more friends’.

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The initiative was small scale and our feedback qualitative, but it indicates that the sessions helped students with confidence in English and fulfilled a sought after social function: these students evidently do not meet other international and UK students for conversation and friendship despite other social forums existing across the University. The ECC did not result in any of the students finding a work placement in the UK, however, and these students will progress directly into the final year. The facilitators felt that the ECC had matched their expectations. They had each had a positive experience with their groups, feeling that they had developed ‘friendship links’ over the 8-week period. They felt that there was a sense of continuity across sessions and that the students had engaged in, and benefited from the material they prepared. The Chinese students were ‘open’ about the particular challenges they faced, namely ‘problems understanding other nationalities speaking in English’ and ‘problems understanding colloquial English’. Their regular attendance gave the facilitators confidence in their ability and in the ECC. They were also impressed that students refrained from speaking in Chinese unless they really needed to. All were surprised at the varied levels of English in the group (between students who had a similar IELTS level) and the complete lack of knowledge of UK and Chinese work application processes and work culture. Each felt that their experience of working in the UK was far more useful to the students than their experiences of teaching English as a second language.

9.4 Sunderland initiative: SLANG 9.4.1

Motivational background

SLANG, or the Sunderland Language And News Group, was established in February 2005 as a result of discussions with students through the International Student Forum. The forum had been initiated at the start of a University Teaching Fellowship study into the experience of and provision for Chinese students (later expanded to all international students) studying in the School of Computing and Technology at the University of Sunderland. While one purpose of the forum is to aid academic and social adjustment of the students, another is to gain valuable feedback from them on their academic welfare and their social and personal well-being. Among the common themes in the students’ feedback were, and still are, the desire for opportunities to integrate in academic and larger society, to practise speaking English, to take English classes that are more finely tuned to their needs and the wish to be in a

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safe and welcoming society. Repeatedly they highlight barriers to their integration, whether in the academic community, the local community or the workplace. For example: • ‘Help me to change the flat. Accommodation office let me live in the China town. Every day I think I am not go to abroad! My flatmates all are from China. Every day improve my Chinese! If you can help me to change, thank you!’ • ‘As an overseas student you don’t dare to speak up in class in case your English might not be right. You need confidence.’ • ‘Our lack of understanding of this country, the people, the culture and the environment is a big problem. It could make our work performance much more worst (e.g., problem with talking/understand clients, travelling around etc.) …’. It can be seen that language and cultural understanding are the fundamental issues, and that furthermore it is sometimes the institutions’ deliberate policies or accidental oversights that preclude precisely those opportunities that the students need to develop themselves. Further forum feedback highlighted issues about the students’ early expectations and experiences. For example: (On their hopes on life in their new environment) • ‘I hope [it] will be wonderful. I hope I can attend some local people’s activities, visit famous places and improve my English, make friends with local people’ and ‘[I hope to] make more English friends, get more confidents about my English’. (On what could the university do to improve their experience) • ‘Improve the relationship between English students and Chinese students’; • ‘Open more English classes to help me improve my English, especially speaking’; • ‘I don’t whether can give more information about the British culture … ’cause, we are here not only for study but also want know the foreign culture’; • ‘More placement chances for PG students from outside UK’; • ‘Please tell me more education and life rules of UK, thanks. It’ll [be] good for me to understand UK’.

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Many responses come from postgraduate and top-up students, for whom the timescale and opportunities to achieve behavioural competence are much reduced. Thus, SLANG was established in an effort to improve students’ confidence and linguistic skills and to encourage culturally informed debate. Ryan and Hellmundt (2005) talk of ‘the need for creating contexts where students can understand their new situation’ and this is precisely what SLANG does. 9.4.2

Description and implementation

SLANG is a weekly social event that is held at the weekend to deliberately distance itself from academic pursuits. It is run along the lines of a book group but instead of utilising novels, because students already have so much to read, it uses local, national and international news stories as the basis of discussions. These can be read relatively quickly and easily. SLANG is open to all students and staff as well as their families and friends. Over the course of two hours, attendees chat about the stories and this often leads to unexpected discussions on aspects of various cultures’ attitudes, practices, beliefs etc. It is very informal, with refreshments that often reflect regional and international cuisine and particular religious or cultural festivals. SLANG is usually facilitated by a member of teaching staff who is a native English speaker and indeed local to the region in which the institution is located. More recently, facilitation has also been undertaken by one of the more confident group members: a Taiwanese PhD student who has resided in the region for 6 years, having taken A levels at a local school. It should be stressed that facilitation is simply about ensuring a good flow of conversation and transition between the stories and discussions rather than being anything more didactic in nature. The group is in fact becoming more autonomous, as is right, with the most regular attendees governing its future. For example, recent trips to local places – which were voted for democratically online – have prompted ideas on the group’s online noticeboard about how such activities should be organised in the future: ‘I think everyone participated with the trip needs to act a certain role such as in a cultural trip, A has planned the route for this trip, B has prepared the historical story for the chosen place, C has prepared where to have a tea and explain why choose this place and so on.’ 9.4.3 Outcomes and reciprocity of benefits Attendance of the meetings varies according to time of year and what commitments students have. Typically there is a core membership of

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around ten students who attend very regularly and most of these are from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. It is not known whether this is a reflection of the dominance of students from East Asia in the international numbers, or whether these students in particular see the value of the group, or whether it is purely accidental. Other students attend more sporadically, so that sometimes the meetings can be 20–30 strong, although with such numbers there is some loss of intimacy in the group and a different tactic of smaller breakaway discussions may be implemented in those cases. It has already been noted in Section 9.3.3 that some students are unlikely to be bothered to take part in something without its relevance and value being apparent. This is particularly pertinent to SLANG where for many international students the benefits are clear but the same cannot be said of the local students. The result is that in general the meetings do not have much of a British presence. It is important to state that SLANG is not solely about adaptation to British culture. Discussions equally expound the points of view, customs, culinary tastes, humour etc. of all cultures present, making the meetings fascinating for attendees of all backgrounds. Moreover, in attempting to attract a wider range of people to the meetings, recent publicity has packaged it as a vehicle for social support, making friends, cultural exchange, development of language skills, and professional development for students interested in pursuing teaching posts both in the UK and abroad. Ye (2006) and Turner and Acker (2002) underline the need for social support networks to help in combating stress. Ward and Kennedy (1999) make a distinction between psychological adjustment, which is facilitated by such coping frameworks and sociocultural adaptation, which concerns social skills and cultural learning. They report that behavioural competence is influenced by time in residence (a crucial factor for postgraduate and top-up students), cultural knowledge, and interaction/identification with host nationals. SLANG has proven to be an important vehicle in helping students to make quick and effective adjustments to their new lifestyle, as is clear from the reaction of this top-up student from Hong Kong to his degree classification: ‘1st class is really good for me considering I have just been in UK for less than one year. Without the SLANG and without the forum, I wouldn’t have got this amazing result’. Many of Ward and Kennedy’s (1999) pointers on their sociocultural adaptation scale are relevant to the outcomes of SLANG, and indeed the ECC discussed earlier. From understanding of the host country’s value system, political systems, and world view, to more intimate or pressing tasks of making friends, finding food that you enjoy, understanding

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humour, communicating with different ethnic or cultural groups, talking about oneself, being able to see more than one side of an intercultural issue. All of these things happen every week within the two hours of SLANG. Evidence for this includes: ‘the discussion often reveals different cultural backgrounds, and helps students understand more about things outside their own countries’ and ‘I can understand the newspaper deeply. For example, I can realise the Royal Family in England, something about Dr. Who, etc. … It is a good place for the international student to grasp the life in England.’ Successful adaptation (Ye, 2006) is effected by ‘interactions with new close ties, especially interactions with members of the host culture’. Ye’s study also focuses on the important part that online social networks play in social adaptation. As well as being a physical meeting, SLANG has evolved to have a web presence (http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/~slang) through which its members can communicate and organise extra events such as trips to local places of interest, and activities relating to the calendar and religious festivals, e.g. egg painting at Easter. The perceived support from social networks positively influences adjustment to stress which may otherwise overwhelm the students’ ability to integrate, as Turner and Acker write (2002, p. 169): ‘the extent of academic and personal stress that Chinese students seem to go through during their studies might be likely to disadvantage them both personally and academically.’ Student feedback has already been provided in this section to demonstrate the store that they set by SLANG. With specific reference to the gaining of linguistic and cultural knowledge, the following comments may be offered: • ‘SLANG means in quite a short amount of reading, not a heavy load, you can pick up about five words each week’; • ‘As an overseas student you don’t dare speak up in class in case your English might not be right. You need confidence – SLANG does this’; • ‘This meeting is often in a chatting atmosphere without any pressure, which is a joyful way of learning’; • ‘It helps me to know more about the British culture’.

9.5 Justification for the initiatives It is our contention that these initiatives fulfil a need not satisfied by existing English language support classes or social activities organised

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by Student Unions. Carroll (2005) describes the dip in confidence students experience in moving from one situation to another whether that is from one culture to another or from a pre-sessional English course to the main subject course. In addition, there is an acknowledged need for discipline specific language – and clearly this will apply to different academic subjects as well as different social contexts: for example classroom linguistic and behavioural norms differ from those of the workplace. The ECC facilitators commented that their UK work experience (and it could be argued their British culture) was more important than their experience in teaching English as a second language. Students have commented that the level/nature of English required for a graduate job is much higher/different than everyday English and that cultural factors affect the job application process; it takes practice getting used to the very different style of a British interview. Moreover, the ECC allows focused, small group interaction and uses students themselves rather than teaching or support staff, for mutual benefit. SLANG feedback tells us directly what the students perceive to be the differences between the traditional language support and a more informal, democratic arrangement: • ‘I think SLANG is in a relaxing atmosphere than other English class and has more chance to speak out, which is difficult to gain in most English class.’ • ‘EAP is a formal language course for formal use of English. It helps me in using English for my assignments, projects and exams. However, it doesn’t help much in terms of every day spoken English. SLANG complement the spoken English part, especially helps me to think in English and response to English conversation much easier.’ • ‘English for Academic Purposes classes are more focus on reading and writing and they are about academic [matters/language] not social – they don’t care about how well you can speak to somebody.’ Moreover, social activities are, naturally, culturally informed, so that many events organised by Student Unions and universities at large are simply not appropriate for international students. Turner and Acker (2002, p. 176) observe: ‘Ways of meeting British or other students can be difficult – walking into a crowded student union can be a daunting experience for … many students who come from cultures where going to ‘bars’ is not necessarily regarded as a socially positive activity, especially for the young’.

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9.6 Discussion In attempting to judge the success or otherwise of these two interventions the original aims should be revisited. These were, in both cases, improvements in English language ability, confidence and cultural awareness, and the formation of a strong social network. In addition, the ECC had the hope that by virtue of these achievements Chinese students would be more successful in gaining placement opportunities. Indeed, personal and social welfare and development are important aspects of both SLANG and ECC, and implicit in this is the recognition that these bring with them the confidence and ability to achieve, both academically and in the wider context of the world of work. Without doubt the primary aims were achieved, as evidenced in the student and facilitator feedback. There is a caveat to this claim however. The four aims were achieved by the students who took part but, with specific reference to the Sunderland initiative, there has been to date a disappointing response from UK students and staff that would benefit from cultural exchange as much as the international students. The additional goal of the ECC – to effect a better placement rate for Chinese students – was not met, but it would at any rate be difficult to claim that the ECC was the deciding factor in a student’s securing of a job as other factors would compound such a claim. What the initiatives do highlight, however, is the importance of process over product. There has been a change in our students that has come about not through the attaining of knowledge per se but through taking part in the process of acquiring it. As Louie (2005) comments: ‘While it is helpful to gather bits and pieces of cultural knowledge, in the end, it is one’s attitude and empathy towards the whole idea of cultural difference that matters’. So, what of the future for these interventions? As has been noted already, SLANG has been running since early 2005. Aside from the Teaching Fellowship that precipitated the International Student Forum and by extension SLANG, there was no direct institutional resourcing for SLANG until 2006 when a short term Community Fellowship was obtained to expand the reach of the group in the academic and wider community. SLANG is ongoing, and will continue to evolve and be moulded by the needs of the students engaging with it. Where it still faces challenges is in attracting and retaining more UK student attendees and indeed more staff, although exposure at this year’s university academic conference resulted in several staff from around the university committing themselves to attend and encourage their students to do so

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too. In addition, the university’s community radio station is interested in broadcasting SLANG during the coming Freshers’ Week. Regular attendees have suggested that they would like to teach UK students their languages as a spin-off from SLANG membership, and ideas like this will be explored in the coming year. In light of the responses from facilitators and participants, the ECC is to be opened up to all level one students looking for work placements in 2007 and then to all PG students on account of the new 12-month entitlement to stay and work after study. Making the group multicultural will naturally have implications in terms of promotion and expectation management and next year’s evaluation will be mindful of these changes. It would seem that student expectations must be managed more successfully and that the ECC should be promoted as part of a programme of activities designed to enhance employability through improving language and cross-cultural skills. The Crossing Cultures Programme is being piloted during the International Orientation Programme 2006. Small groups of international students will be befriended by UK students and invited to attend conversation sessions based around linguistic and cultural themes. It is intended that the programme will help with cultural transition, broaden social networks and provide opportunities for both UK and international students to develop their cross-cultural communication skills. It is recognised however that though there is work to be done with students and employers, some of the responsibility must lie in the way that the curriculum is developed and learning and teaching methodologies adapted.

9.7 Conclusion It is important to remember that for all students, whether local or international, coming to university for the first time is a novel experience and one that requires support if effective integration and acculturation is to occur. Whether it is an international student acclimatising to British culture, or a British student making the adjustment to the strange new culture of academia, neither process can come about with only unilateral effort. The provision of managed opportunities for interaction and personal development depends in turn on the commitment of HEIs to investigate and improve the student experience, and promote internationalisation as a benefit for all. Sunderland and Bournemouth have both demonstrated this commitment by funding the International Student Barometer which asks our international students ‘what we do well and what we could do better’. Additionally,

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both initiatives outlined here were made possible through institutional Learning and Teaching Fellowships. At Bournemouth for the first time, the award was made to a member of staff who was not an academic but an International Office administrator, which in itself is recognition that our approach to the student experience must be holistic and that involvement of all staff at all levels and across the institution is vital to this process. Academics can play a crucial role outside of their usual pedagogical duties: SLANG is particularly interested in encouraging more to be involved because those ‘who show genuine curiosity about their students’ backgrounds are already well on the way to being better mentors’ (Louie, 2005); and the buy-in of academic staff in the initial stages of the ECC was vital for demonstrating the importance and credibility of the programme to the students. Certainly the projects have raised awareness within and beyond the institutions of the need for active intervention to enable all our students, international and domestic, to work together to enrich each other’s perspectives. The challenge remains to achieve a genuine appreciation of the benefits that is equal in all parties.

Note 1. http://www.i-graduate.org/services/student_insight--student_barometer.html.

References Caputi, P. Oades, L. G., and McKeehan, K. (2000) Attitudes towards cultural diversity Report 2: Qualitative reflections on events and survey results. Carroll, J. (2005) ‘Lightening the Load’: Teaching in English, learning in English. In J. Carroll and J. Ryan (eds), Teaching International Students: improving learning for all. Abingdon: Routledge. De Vita, G. (2003) Internationalisation through authentic experiences of intercultural interaction. Oxford Brookes University, Teaching news, 2003/4 http://www. brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/teachingnews/archive/summer04/experiences. html. Eller, A., Abrams, D. and Zimmerman, A. (2004) The Experience of International Students in Britain (Time 2). University of Kent-British Council Longitudinal Attitude Survey. Canterbury: University of Kent. From the ‘surfing diversity’ project of the University of Wollongong. http://staff. uow.edu.au/eed/finalresearchreport2.pdf. Furnham, A. and Alibhai, N. (1985) The friendship networks of foreign students: a replication and extension of the functional model. International Journal of Psychology, 20, pp. 709–22. Gardner, R. C. (1985) Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: the role of attitudes and motivations. London: Edward Arnold.

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Kim, Y. Y. and Ruben, B. D. (1988) Intercultural Transformation: a systems theory. In Y. Y. Kim and W. B. Gudykunst (eds), Theories in Intercultural Communication, pp. 299–321. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Leder, G. C. and Forgasz, H. J. (2004) Australian and international mature students: the daily challenges. Higher Education Research & Development 23 (2), pp. 183–98. May 2004. Carfax Publishing. Louie, K. (2005) Gathering Cultural Knowledge: useful or use with care? In J. Carroll and J. Ryan (eds), Teaching International Students: improving learning for all. Abingdon: Routledge. O’Malley, J. M. and Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ryan, J. and Hellmundt, S. (2005) Maximising International Students’ ‘Cultural Capital’. In J. Carroll & J. Ryan (eds), Teaching International Students: improving learning for all. Abingdon: Routledge. Sanchez, J. S. (2004) Intergroup perception of international students. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 8 (1), pp. 309–13. Schumann, J. H. (1978). The acculturation model for second language acquisition. In R. Gingras (ed.), Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching. Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics. Spencer-Rodgers, J., and McGovern, T. (2002). Attitudes towards the culturally different: the Role of intercultural communication barriers, Affective Responses, Consensual Stereotypes, and Perceived Threat. Intercultural Journal of Intercultural Relations, 26, pp. 609–31. Turner, Y. and Acker, A. (2002) Education in the New China: shaping ideas at work. Hampshire, England; Ashgate Publishing Ltd. UKCISA (2004) Broadening Our Horizons; Report of the UKCISA Survey. Online documents at URL http://www.UKCISA.org.uk/survey/report.pdf [07/09/06]. Victoria University (2005) Improving language and learning support for offshore students. An AVCC Project Report June 2005. Online documents at URL http:// tls.vu.edu.au/SLS/StaffSuppt/AVCCFinal100805.pdf (07/09/06). Ward, C. (2001, updated 2006) The impact of international students on domestic students and host institutions. New Zealand Ministry of Education. Online documents at URL http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&docu mentid=5643&data=1 (07/09/06). Ward, C. and Kennedy, A. (1999) The measurement of sociocultural adaptation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 24 (4), pp. 659–77. Ye, J. (2006). Traditional and online support networks in the cross-cultural adaptation of Chinese international students in the United States. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(3), article 9. Online documents at URL http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue3/ye.html (07/09/06). Zheng, X. and Berry, J. W. (1991). Psychological adaptation of Chinese sojourners in Canada. International Journal of Psychology, 26, pp. 451–70.

10 Building on Experience: Meeting the Needs of Chinese Students in British Higher Education Viv Edwards and An Ran

10.1 Introduction The findings reported in this chapter grew out of a research seminar involving representatives from a wide range of British universities whose experience encompassed both teaching and pastoral support. The aim was to explore issues in providing effective higher education for students from the People’s Republic of China and to disseminate information on good practice in institutions across the UK. Participants – both British and Chinese – were divided into two focus groups, one of which concentrated on issues related to study, the other on pastoral concerns. Discussion emphasises the need for greater cultural awareness on the part of both British staff and Chinese students and the strategies likely to lead to more satisfactory outcomes in both pastoral and academic areas. Rong Hong, reputably the first Chinese overseas student, graduated from Yale University in the 1850s (Yao, 2004). An estimated 130,000 further students found their way to universities abroad in the years that followed until Mao Ze Dong’s policy of self-reliance stemmed the flow for 30 years (Wei, 2002). Although some limited movement resumed following the economic reforms of 1978, it was not until 1993 that the Chinese government adopted a policy of active support for study abroad. Chinese students now represent a large section of the market for transnational education, with demand forecast to grow annually by 15 per cent (CEDA, 2005). It would be a serious mistake to treat Chinese-speaking students as a homogeneous group. Although bound by a common Confucian heritage, there are important differences, for instance, between the more economically developed Hong Kong, Taiwan and eastern coast cities of the 185

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People’s Republic, and less developed areas such as the North Western provinces. However, by far the largest numbers of ethnic Chinese in British universities come from the more affluent regions of the People’s Republic. Chinese students decide to study in British and other Western universities overseas in response to a complex mix of pull and push factors (Altbach, 2004; Ingleson, 2004). Pull factors include lower communications costs, growing economic integration and the recognition by British, Australian and New Zealand governments that revenue from international students can be used to reduce local expenditure on higher education. Growing numbers of institutions now see themselves as serving not just local and national, but also international communities. Universities in Australia, the UK, the US and Europe are actively exploring a range of possibilities, including campuses overseas, the linking of the home campus to one or more satellite campuses, and twinning arrangements where part or all of a course is completed overseas. Push factors include the growing prosperity of China; the limited capacity of Chinese universities, particularly at postgraduate level; and the perception of Western universities as powerful and prestigious. The competition for university places in China is fierce: fewer than 10 per cent of those taking the national university entry examination were successful before 1999 (Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, 2004). For this reason, overseas universities have been particularly attractive for wealthy families whose children might experience difficulty in obtaining a place in China. But by no means all Chinese students come from affluent backgrounds. Two-thirds of students – most undergraduates and many postgraduates – report that their own and family funds pay for their study (Altbach, 2004, p. 2). Particularly since the one-child policy, children have become a precious commodity and families are often prepared to make considerable personal sacrifices as they invest in a son or daughter’s future. The case of Li Keji from Guangzhou, reported in the South China Morning Post (Anon., 2004), is typical. Li Keji’s parents, a carpenter and a factory quality controller, spent their savings so that she could study for an MA in public administration at the University of York. Li Keji works 20 hours a week in a restaurant to help pay for her living expenses. Estimates of the numbers of students outside their home countries in 2025 range from three million (Ingleson, 2004) to eight million (Altbach, 2004), with the main demand for English language education in the ‘inner circle’ English-speaking countries (Kachru, 1985) of the US, the

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UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Current estimates may well prove overly optimistic (Goh, 2004). Average starting salaries and increasing competition in China are leading many people to question the added value associated with an overseas qualification; rapidly increasing capacity in higher education in China is also likely to reduce the demand for courses overseas. For the foreseeable future, however, China will remain a very important source of international students. Competition is fierce with all the major players expressing concern about the effectiveness of their recruitment efforts. The headline of the 6 August Asia Pacific Bulletin, for instance, reads: ‘Are Chinese students losing interest in Canada?’ (Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, 2004). In a similar vein, Abusalem (2005) recognises the competitive edge offered by the low cost of education in Australia but draws attention to the need to address questions of quality. In contrast, in an analysis of British strengths and weaknesses, Goh (2004), acknowledges the fact that the cost of education in the UK is the highest of the inner circle English-speaking countries, but celebrates the successful marketing of the brand messages – welcoming, accessible and new world class.

10.2 The context for the present study Researchers at the National Centre for Language and Literacy (NCLL) at the University of Reading first became aware of issues facing Chinese students in 1995 when An Ran, co-author of this article, arrived as a visiting scholar sponsored by the China Ministry of Education. She extended her stay to undertake a PhD on the experiences of Mainland Chinese families of British education (An Ran, 1999). Building on the issues explored in this thesis, a course on ‘Meeting the needs of Chinese students’ was first offered as part of a programme of post-professional development at NCCL in 2000, and repeated until An Ran returned to take up a position in China in 2004. Two recurrent features of these courses pointed to the need for further investigation: the first concerned unease among participants that they were failing to deliver the British brand messages; the second concerned the growing body of experience in British higher education of working with Chinese students. Our aims were, as stated above, to explore the issues more systematically and the dissemination of information on good practice. A one-day workshop funded by the Sino-British Trust was held at the University of Reading in April 2005. It drew on representatives from a

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wide range of British universities who had attended previous courses on ‘Meeting the Needs of Chinese students’ at NCLL; their experience encompassed both teaching and pastoral support. During the workshop, participants were divided into two focus groups, facilitated by the authors of this report and following standard procedures (Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990). In the first focus group, academic issues were considered by participants involved in pre-sessional English courses, foundation courses, professional development for teachers of English, and undergraduate and postgraduate courses in subjects which tend to attract large numbers of Chinese students, such as Business and Management, Economics and Finance. In the second focus group, participants with experience of counselling, personal development planning with students, liaison with colleges in China and the organisation of induction and orientation, and pastoral issues were considered. Recognising that, in some cases, the same individuals are involved in both academic support and pastoral care; members of both groups took part in a final plenary session where the main findings of the earlier discussion were reported and taken further. The analysis which follows was undertaken using HyperResearch,1 a cross-platform software package for the analysis of qualitative data, with issues allowed to emerge from, rather than being imposed on, transcripts of the focus group discussions. All comments cited were made by members of staff, though in some cases, the staff members in question were Chinese and had studied in the UK. The main findings are presented in two parts: pastoral issues and academic issues. The findings are contextualised with reference to discussion of related issues in the growing literature on international students, in general, and Chinese students, in particular.

10.3 Pastoral concerns For most Chinese studying abroad, the main motivation is instrumental – to acquire a prestigious qualification which will greatly increase their opportunities and status on return to China. It would be short sighted, however, to consider academic issues in isolation from other aspects of the student experience. Various pastoral concerns were identified in the focus group discussions, including the challenges of adjustment faced by students on arrival and the perceived isolation of Chinese students. (For a discussion of health-related issues reported by some participants, see Edwards and An Ran, 2006).

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Adjustment problems

The early days of a new course at a new university in a new country are exciting; they can also be extremely stressful and traumatic. Universities routinely address a range of practical matters through student induction and orientation. Procedures seem to be in place on issues such as letters of introduction for students wanting to open a bank account, and information on services is clearly set out in a range of documents. Some concern, however, was expressed about the dangers of over-reliance on student handbooks and induction. In the early stages, students are likely to be overloaded with information. It is also important that induction be considered as a process extending over several months rather than a single event or series of events at the start of courses. International students are often lonely, isolated and vulnerable; they are also confronted with different cultural conventions. In this situation, misunderstandings are common and the negotiation of relationships can be particularly challenging. Some participants reported, for instance, that help offered routinely as part of their jobs was interpreted as friendship: My job is international marketing and recruitment. I find that as part of follow-up with students I have met overseas, I get regular emails. Just chitchat: ‘What did you do at the weekend? What are your hobbies? Where do you like to go shopping?’ That would be on a regular basis. Then when they get to the university they come to see me every day for the first couple of weeks because I am the one person they know and they latch on to me. Attempts on the part of universities to provide emotional support are often piecemeal and uncoordinated. Some universities operate ‘family networks’, where second-year students are ‘parents’ and third-year students ‘grandparents’; although set up initially for home students, they have enormous potential for supporting overseas students. ‘Buddy’ schemes are also relatively common, with some universities offering home students payment for spending time initially with new arrivals. The long-term success of these schemes depends, of course, on factors such as the level of investment on the part of the university and the commitment of the home students. Religious groups both within and outside the university tend to be particularly proactive, meeting and greeting new students at the airport, sharing meals and special occasions. Although some concern was expressed about the potential proselytising

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of vulnerable groups of students, there was no evidence that this was a problem. Friendship networks with students from a similar cultural background play an important role in adjustment to the new environment (see, for instance, O’Donoghue, 1996; Furnham, 1997). When students arrive in a new country, feelings of isolation are often aggravated by communication difficulties. Depression is a common reaction when faced with life-changing situations of this magnitude. Very few Chinese students take advantage of counselling services, since this is very much a Western concept. There is a natural tendency, rather, to seek support from other Chinese students who have a better understanding both of students’ previous experiences and of the challenges now facing them, as one of the Chinese staff participants explained: Initially you want to spend more time mixing with different nationalities. But gradually you feel deep inside that you want to speak with people from your own country … To satisfy the deeper feeling, you want to talk in more depth and to exchange information as well. Associations of Chinese students operate on most campuses, with more experienced students well placed to offer practical advice and support to newcomers. There is also an active UK–China Student and Scholars Association which operates on a national level which facilitates networking between Chinese students. Focus group participants also identified ways in which universities could facilitate such networking: an email forum on the home page of the International Office, for instance, would allow new students to make contact with others at the same university before departure. 10.3.2 Perceived isolation of Chinese students While other Chinese students are clearly an important source of emotional support, the tendency of Chinese students to seek out the company of their compatriots is sometimes perceived as a contributory factor in British students’ reluctance to invest in cross-cultural friendship. In the words of one participant: ‘Students of one nationality who remain in a group make it intimidating and difficult for even one British student breaking those ranks’. Segregation in the teaching situation will be discussed below. For present purposes, the focus will be on the situation outside the classroom. There is, of course, a great deal of variation between students and, while some find a sense of security in an all-Chinese group, others want

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to venture further afield. As one Chinese participant with recent experience as a postgraduate student commented: I have stayed here over three years. I could never want to be with Chinese all the time because I came here to study English. I don’t want to stay with Chinese, speaking Chinese all day. A lot of students come here and want a different life style. It is also important to bear in mind the enormous pressures on Chinese students to succeed: enrolment in a UK course often involved enormous financial sacrifices by the family. Participants reported comments from Chinese students such as: ‘I came here to study. I would love to have the time to do other things but I have got so much work to do, so much reading’. Yet, in spite of a strong desire to take an active part in the university life, many students find other Chinese the most accessible source of support. In many cases, for instance, Chinese students seek to live alongside their countrymen, a tendency which provoked a great deal of comment from focus group participants. Universities seem undecided as to whether it is in the best interests of Chinese students to be placed together or separated. Chinese students are also sometimes ambivalent: All the Chinese students wanted to live together or live next door to each other. On the one hand, they say they want to improve their English: ‘We want to live with British students’; but, on the other hand, they say: ‘We want to know that other Chinese students are in the block’. Cultural practices accentuate the differences. Although cooking and sharing meals are important leisure activities for Chinese – and indeed many other groups of students – these activities sometimes place them at odds with home students. This applies even when Chinese students have deliberately decided to seek accommodation with mixed groups of students: Two or three of them will come in and cook one meal together. The English students will come in one at a time and go to the freezer and get their frozen chips and things one at a time. And they don’t do the washing up after them! Let’s say you have a situation where eight to 12 people share a kitchen. Say half are Chinese and half British or mixed nationalities.

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One of the problems is that Chinese students want to cook together and quite often the cooking and socializing seem to happen from 11.30 to 2 o’clock in the morning. We have more complaints about that than anything else. One of the practical suggestions to emerge from focus group discussions was the possibility of setting aside kitchen space to be booked by students wanting to prepare meals for larger groups. It was also suggested that student handbooks could include a discussion of the etiquette of using communal kitchens, with the recommendation that anyone intending to invite friends should consult with others sharing the kitchen. In this way, ‘If they invite their friends to cook a meal they are likely to talk to and get permission, or even invite their flat mate. So there will be less tension’. In attempting to explore British perceptions of the isolation of Chinese students, it may be instructive to examine Chinese response to overseas students. China is also starting to attract international students, housing them in dormitories separate from the rest of the student body, and sometimes enrolling them in separate classes. Schlemm (2005, p. 13) describes the situation in the following way: Chinese students keep to strict study routines, while international students have more free time, gathering often for parties … Both the Chinese and the international students … expressed a desire to interact more with one another and a curiosity about other cultures, but each seemed equally contented with their own living and working situations and habits. Their relationship speaks to the interaction between Chinese and foreigners in China as a whole. It is ironic that British educators and students, whose culture attaches importance to the individual, experience discomfort when they observe Chinese students operating as a group independent of the mainstream; such independence is perceived as an affront. Chinese students attach greater importance to collectivity but define that collectivity in terms of the smaller rather than the larger group.

10.4 Academic issues A range of issues affecting the academic life of Chinese students emerged from the academic focus group discussion. Of these, competence in English is discussed at length elsewhere (see Edwards and An Ran, 2006;

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in press). Of the remaining issues, some were clearly related to cultural differences which can be explained in terms of the Confucian ideology; many were rooted in the limited understanding of British academics of the cultural expectations of Chinese students. 10.4.1

Student–teacher relationships

A growing body of literature explores differences in relationships between teachers and students in China and the West. Aspland (1999), for instance, suggests that Western university teachers tend to see their role in terms of ‘a type of personal collegiality, but professional independence and initiative’. Chinese students, in contrast, expect ‘a hierarchic distance but a professional closeness’ with their teachers. The influence of Confucianism is particularly evident in the hierarchical relationships between students and teachers (Biggs, 1994; Chan, 1999). Students owe respect to those who provide knowledge; the authority of teachers is such that only they – and not the students – should initiate interactions in class. The discussion in the academic focus group demonstrated an awareness of cultural patterns of interaction in teaching among academic staff. As one participant commented: ‘Basically you perceive there is a harmony and balance and you don’t rock it’. There was also awareness of the role of communication problems – ‘The majority of our Chinese students want to participate but they feel too shy; they feel that other people answer the questions faster than they can’ – and of practical constraints on teaching in China – ‘There are so many [students] in the classrooms. Nobody ever focuses their attention on one particular student, [saying] give me your opinion, and give me your views on the matter’. While the accuracy of these observations is open to question, there was clearly awareness of key issues. Misunderstandings extend well beyond the classroom. Chinese students, for their part, have difficulty understanding the behaviour of Western teachers: attempts to foster autonomous learning are often perceived as unfriendly and uncaring. The Western tendency to limit student contact outside lectures to set office hours is, for instance, in marked contrast to what happens in China, where teachers typically offer help whenever needed and, by solving students’ problems, consolidate their high status (Hui, 2005). In an Australian context, Malcolm (1995, p. ii) recounts the tearful complaint of a Chinese student: My lecturer doesn’t care if I pass or fail. I came from China at my own expense because I want to learn. But he treats me as a nuisance

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when I try to ask questions in class. He avoids me. I try to catch him after the class and he is always in a hurry … and he won’t help me! Chinese members of the focus groups confirmed that the perception of Western lecturers as too busy and uncaring is also widespread in the UK. One recalled a complaint very similar to the student in Australia: ‘If I want to see my teacher on a certain day … you have to make an appointment. In China you say: “I have a problem. Can I see you?”’ Chinese students overseas, then, have to resolve the tension between the ‘freedom’ accorded to Western students, on the one hand, and their expectation that lecturers should offer help, on the other. For their part, Western teachers tend to perceive attempts on the part of Chinese students to engage their attention outside the classroom and office hours as demanding. Lecturers often express frustration that issues which could usefully have been aired in the context of the whole group have to be dealt with on a one-to-one basis: ‘You work really hard to get the response in the whole group situation and then you’ve got a whole string of people waiting outside your door’. Suggestions for ways of increasing participation included increasing opportunities for teaching in small groups. While this course of action may reduce the anxieties associated with communication problems, it is important to remember that reluctance to interact is also influenced by different cultural understandings of the role of the teacher. 10.4.2

Study skills

The match between the learning strategies encouraged in China and the study skills explicitly taught in British schools and universities is limited. Learning strategies prized in Chinese education have received a good deal of attention from both Western and Chinese scholars; levels of awareness of these issues among British university teachers, however, are variable. The influence of Confucianism is evident not only in student–teacher relationships but also in preferred learning styles. Chan (1999), for instance, suggests that methods of teaching and learning, such as the memorisation of texts, preserve social harmony and avoid loss of face. Deference for the written word, as illustrated by the proverb du shu po wan juan, xia bi ru you shen (after reading 10,000 books, your writing will be guided with inspiration) is central to an understanding of Chinese attitudes towards learning. Memorisation of texts thus allows students to show respect for authors (Chan, 1999). Chinese students, then, are expected not only to pay respect to teachers in class, but

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also to the material that teachers have directed them to read (Hui, 2005). British academics, in contrast, tend to dismiss memorisation as a legitimate study strategy on the grounds that it leads to surface learning rather than deep understanding. Writers such as Biggs and Watkins (1996) and An Ran (2000), however, argue that it is important to distinguish between rote learning (defined as ‘memorising without understanding’) and repetition learning which leads to a deepening of understanding over time. Memorisation of texts requires diligence and persistence, key personal qualities for students in China. As Hui (2005, p. 28) explains: Most Chinese students believe in diligence, that is, zhi yao gong fu shen, tie chu mo cheng zhen (if you work at it hard enough, you can grind an iron rod into a needle), and they know the stories of tou xuan liang, zhui ci gu (hanging one’s hair up to the ceiling and piercing one’s leg [to prevent oneself from falling into sleep when studying]). Success in Western education, however, depends on study skills which map poorly on to the learning strategies characteristic of good Chinese students (Cottrell, 2003; Sinfield and Burns, 2003). Skills considered important in a British context include the ability to read critically, to form arguments and to structure essays and reports. Report and essay writing appear to cause fewer problems. Chinese students at the University of Central Lancashire, for instance, consider themselves reasonably proficient in these areas (Introna et al., 2003). Chinese students are also well versed in writing examinations (Davey and Higgins, 2005). Writers such as Hui (2005) report that most Chinese students see failure as their own responsibility; their natural inclination is to therefore to avoid any suggestion that the teacher has not performed their role effectively. Some members of the academic focus group, however, had been asked by Chinese students to revisit their marks, behaviour which was, indeed, perceived as face threatening by the teachers in question. Critical analysis and problem solving, in contrast, are often identified as areas of weakness. Reading in the context of Western university education creates fundamental problems for Chinese students, both in terms of their reliance on the teacher for guidance as to what they should be reading and in terms of the sheer volume of reading recommended by lecturers. In China, it is the lecturer who tells you what to do. In the West, the student is faced with the reality that while reading everything is impossible, making selections is also difficult (Gao, 1998).

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Focus group participants suggested that Chinese students’ experiences of independent research is sometimes painful: In group research projects, where [students are] directed towards quite a wide range of literature, it wouldn’t be: ‘Read that particular book and that particular chapter’. And so it would require students to work more independently, and that has been more of a difficulty and a surprise. Oral presentation was another area for concern. Poor performance in oral presentation was attributed by British lecturers to fear, lack of confidence and concerns about criticism by others. Their experience coincides with the self-reports of Chinese students in the University of Central Lancashire (Davey and Higgins, 2005). Various reasons have been proposed to account for this phenomenon. Discomfort can be explained, in part at least, by the authority invested in the teacher in Chinese classrooms (Hui, 2005): Chinese students are not used to taking such a prominent role. Traditionally the Chinese tendency towards collectivism – rather than individualism – may also play a role. Although the current trend in China is to acknowledge the importance of individualism, students often have little opportunity to put this philosophy into practice. It would be prudent, however, to take a broader view of these anxieties: British students also express anxiety about presenting information to an audience (Higgins, 2004). Participants identified modelling as an important strategy for helping students make the transition from Chinese to Western learning strategies. This recommendation is consistent with the British perception that Chinese students are very good at learning and applying principles, but only after they have been made explicit: For example, referencing … If you can take them through step by step and show them exactly how it is done and then keep getting them to practice, that works … rather than expecting them to be able to do it or find out for themselves. Suggestions for modelling included the notion of sample answers – good, average and poor – to examination questions along the lines of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A-level study guides. This approach is likely to be of greatest use for students on foundation courses and undergraduate degrees. It is problematic, of course, for students required to produce more extended pieces of writing. As a

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member of the academic focus group explained: ‘If I could have said this dissertation got 59, then they would have had some thing they could relate to, but of course we can’t do that. All I can say is this one is better than that one. 10.4.3

Plagiarism

A very clear example of differences in attitude between China and the West concerns plagiarism. Various developments attest to growing worries about detecting and preventing plagiarism in British higher education. A Plagiarism Advisory Service, based at Northumbria University (www.jiscpas.ac.uk), offers ‘generic advice and guidance’ to ‘institutions, academics and students’. The University of Sussex Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) run workshops on study strategies ‘that help students avoid plagiarism’. The Oxford Brookes Centre for Staff and Learning Development (www.brookes.ac.uk:80/services/ocs) offers online courses on the subject. This preoccupation is by no means confined to British academics. Definitions of plagiarism appear on the websites of many American, Canadian, Irish, Australian and New Zealand universities. The message is loud and clear: taking someone else’s words and passing them off as your own is dishonest and should be avoided at all costs. While plagiarism is by no means a recent phenomenon, the rapid growth in international students may well have served as a catalyst for current discussions. In the West, the author is considered to be the sole creator of the text; plagiarism is perceived by some as a violation of the author and is considered to be morally wrong (Kolich, 1983). This worldview stands in marked contrast to views of authorship in both the pre-modern and post-modern periods (Pennycook, 1996). Before the Enlightenment, a divine God was believed to be the source of all creativity. In the post-modern era, meaning is held to derive from interaction with the text, a recycling of words and ideas rather than the production of something wholly original (Foucault, 1977). Most participants subscribed to the modernist position of ownership of texts by individuals, but were unsure as to the best way of making sure that students understood their concerns: It’s very difficult to get across. We spend a lot of time during induction and orientation saying it’s not just a case of regurgitation of what you read – you have actually got to show us you understand what it means or that it can be challenged. I tried taking two books off the shelf and showing them what two different authors have to say on the same topic. This author says ‘a’

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and this author says ‘b’- so what do you do? They both looked at me as if I was asking an impossible question. This approach, however, seems to meet with limited success. As one participant commented: ‘When you tackle it in terms of: “You must not do it”, most students still don’t understand why they mustn’t do it’. Plagiarism has attracted the attention of a growing number of writers who point to the cultural underpinnings of the Western moralistic approach (see, for instance, Scollon, 1995; Pennycook, 1996). Studies of international students’ attitudes also lend support to this interpretation. Introna et al. (2003) conclude, for instance, that many if not most students involved in plagiarist practices at the University of Lancaster are not intentionally trying to defraud the system. Only when Western academics are prepared to move from the moral high ground will it be possible to understand the many complex reasons for plagiarism. There was certainly evidence in the focus groups of an awareness of the issues shaping Chinese attitudes to text. Typical comments included: Some Chinese students have the need to show respect for an author by using his work in some way, and they take that a stage further and they are reluctant to disagree with what they see in print, so they just lift it. They think that if they copy out chunks they are actually complementing the author. In an assignment for Economics in Accounting and the student had just copied chunks from one of the lecturer’s textbook. When asked she said: ‘But you write it so much better than I can!’ There was similarly awareness of language issues, which will be discussed in greater detail below: Some say that they simply do not have sufficient command of English to explain what an author says in their own words. They are limited by their vocabulary and probably by their grammar as well. Other pressures, too, result in plagiarism: financial worries, for instance, may accentuate the pressure for students to achieve in order to justify the sacrifices their family is making (Introna et al., 2003; Harris, 1995). Interestingly, some participants drew attention to what they perceived to be the developmental nature of plagiarism in international students. A member of the academic focus group suggested that plagiarism was a

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transitional phase in the learning process: ‘It’s something you see much more of at a foundation or first year and it tends to diminish during years two and three as students gain in confidence and in knowledge’. Another commented: ‘You could reclassify plagiarism as a coping strategy that can be indulged in for a time until you are ready to reject it’. It would seem that, even when British expectations are carefully explained, students may need time to take on board the fact that the practices which ensured success in the home country are viewed negatively in the new setting. Various strategies are commonly used for helping international students adapt to Western expectations. The need for explicit instructions on referencing and support for paraphrasing, for instance, was widely recognised. Issues of deterrence were also discussed. It was agreed that some approaches are more effective than others. While threats of penalties for plagiarism in student handbooks seem to have minimal impact, there was consensus that demonstrations of the ways in which technology can be used to detect plagiarist practices are more likely to affect behaviour. The use of outside speakers brought in to underline the seriousness attached to plagiarism was also felt to have some merit. The emphasis was not, however, exclusively on deterrence: there was considerable support for a sympathetic understanding of the causes of plagiarism rather than pathologising the perpetrators. Introna et al. (2003, p. 43) is also a powerful advocate for this position: If we show that we understand why they might find themselves plagiarising according to our definition and practices; if we show that we understand why they might often turn to ‘plagiarism’ as a coping strategy; if we show that we do not treat plagiarism merely as a set of rules and associated penalties; and finally, if we show a willingness to support them to develop appropriate writing practices, then we will be more confident that those that continue to plagiarise are indeed trying to cheat us all. Then we will be more confident in the justice of our disciplinary procedures. 10.4.4

Group work

Two main themes emerged in relation to group work. The first concerned the belief that working collaboratively in groups is a culturally challenging concept for Chinese students. The fact that something is new does not, of course, imply that it is unwelcome. However, it would seem that students need to be persuaded as to its value. Chinese participants reported that students often complain about group discussion: they feel

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it lacks structure and expect lecturers to provide a cogent summary of the main points emerging from any teaching situation. The second theme concerned the composition of the groups. There was clearly some indecision among focus group participants as to the best course of action. There was evidence, for instance, of uneasiness about all-Chinese and predominantly Chinese groups. Comments such as ‘We try and force them to mix’ and ‘It’s very important not to have too many Chinese students in a group’ were typical. The reactions of other international students in the group were also mentioned. Examples of hostile remarks included: ‘This bunch of people are nothing to do with us; they are too foreign and we’re not interested’. By no means everyone, however, subscribed to the idea that there should be careful controls on group membership. There was awareness, for instance, of the practical and ethical issues in engineering ‘balance’: Is it possible to dictate membership of groups, and physically move students from one group to another in order to then ensure that they make contact with others who speak a different language? People [in our group] didn’t necessarily think it was a good idea, particularly if you are a vulnerable, shy person. If you keep being moved it would give you more stress, wouldn’t it? In my view this is too prescriptive. Much of the concern about predominantly Chinese groups focused on language: the tendency of Chinese students to use Chinese rather than English was perceived by some as unhelpful: ‘They are told all the time that the essential thing is to work with non-Chinese – even if it’s with Japanese – because you have got to work in English’. The priority for advocates of an English-only approach is to maximise student opportunities to hear and use the target language: ‘When they discuss in Chinese all the time, they aren’t learning the technical terms they need for writing their essays or exam questions’. There was, however, little unanimity on this question. One participant pointed out that the only time a class ‘took off’ was when students were able to take ownership of their learning through discussion in Chinese. Another pointed to the unnecessary polarisation which characterises much of the debate on this subject: The common perception is that it is not a good thing for people to use Chinese in group discussions because it doesn’t allow people to practice their skills in English. But this is not necessarily an either/or

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situation. There are considerable pedagogical benefits in being able to rehearse in your own language what you’ve just been discussing or listening to. Where students need to learn specific vocabulary, there are other ways of doing this. The complex mix of instrumental and integrative motivation for learning English also needs to be considered (Li, 2001). As one participant pointed out: ‘There are some areas where [Chinese students] need to use English and to develop proficiency, and other areas where it is really not relevant. It should be up to them’. Another pointed to the ‘overtones of assimilation and cultural imperialism’ associated with the mantra that only English should be used in the classroom.

10.5 Discussion This report is restricted to the needs of Chinese students. We recognise, however, that this group shares many concerns with other international students. Yet, while certain issues, such as the practical and emotional challenges of adjusting to the new setting, affect students irrespective of their country of origin, others, such as the influence of Confucianism on attitudes towards teachers and the printed word, are specific to the Chinese and other far eastern students. In painting as full a picture of the needs of Chinese students, we have, of course, needed to deal with both common and specific concerns. In order to ensure that British universities maintain their share of the China market, it is essential to address student needs holistically. The emotional and physical well-being of students has far reaching consequences for their academic performance. Fundamental to this process is the need for both sides to develop a conscious awareness of cultural differences which may lead to misunderstandings. The British need to recognise that Chinese students offer each other enormous social, emotional and practical support at a time when they are vulnerable, homesick and struggling to make sense of a new environment. Buddy schemes which encourage empathy for the situation of newcomers and create opportunities for longer and deeper relationships offer a constructive alternative to the fortress mentality which sees close-knit Chinese friendship networks as a threat to the integrity of their own group. Chinese students, for their part, need to appreciate which aspects of their behaviour are likely to be perceived negatively in a British situation. It is clearly not a question of prescribing such behaviour but of identifying strategies, such as seeking the permission of flatmates before

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inviting friends for dinner, which will help in the negotiation of more positive relationships. It is important for universities and other institutions of higher education to identify – and, if necessary, create – appropriate fora and structures where issues of this kind can be explored. The work of International Offices can usefully extend beyond recruitment to information sharing with the wider student body through Students’ Unions and Students’ Services and with university teachers, administrators and support staff through ongoing staff training. Chinese personnel have a vital role to play in this process. The bicultural and bilingual awareness of colleagues who have studied and worked in British universities allows them to serve as a very effective bridge between Chinese students and British teachers and students. The need for greater understanding is not, of course, limited to pastoral issues. Misunderstanding about the relationships between teachers and students are widespread on both sides: unless they are addressed, frustration, confusion and even hostility may well ensue. To achieve their full potential, it is essential for Chinese students to understand the expectations of their teachers. British teachers, for their part, first need to identify potential difficulties for their students and then to clearly model the skills required for success. While there are objective differences between the preferred learning styles in Chinese and Western universities, it is important not to lose sight of Chinese student’s ability to adapt to the expectations of the new system. In the Australian context, O’Donoghue (1996) reports that Chinese students fully understood the need to change their approach to learning, including the need to undertake independent reading before lectures and tutorials and to seek clarification by asking questions. Similarly, Bamford et al. (2002) report positive attitudes among Chinese postgraduate students in the UK in relation to more independent learning styles. It is also important to avoid labelling students who use different learning styles as problems to be solved. Writers such as Ryan (2000) and Biggs (1999) argue that international students are an asset, not a liability, but that until the academic community is sensitised to issues such as differences in learning styles, students are unlikely to achieve their potential. There are, of course, no obvious and clear-cut solutions for the questions identified both in the focus group discussions and in the wider literature. We leave the final word to one of the participants: It seem to me what we are talking about is the tension. Two different forces pull. Sometimes that is quite creative and interesting and

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sometimes it is quite difficult and painful. There isn’t a solution to that. Its a matter of recognising it and grappling with it.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Sino British Fellowship Trust in the preparation of this chapter. We are also indebted to the following colleagues who took part in the research seminar: Jenny Clements (Cardiff University), Francis Eaves-Walton (University of Essex), Lynne Francis (University of Essex), Dahai Gao (De Montfort University), Vicky Graves (Cardiff University), Daguo Li and Sharon McIlroy (University of Reading), Min Li (Trinity and All Saints College), Nicola Schmidt-Renfee (University of Kent), Linda Shand and Juliette Stephenson (University of Exeter), Steve Page (University of York), Frances Robinson (University of Buckingham) and Xue Huijuan (China Projects Officer, University of the West of England and UWE).

Note 1. www.researchware.com.

References Abusalem, A. (2005) Submission to the Australian Senate Committee Inquiry into Australia’s relations with China, 14 June 2005. Retrieved from www.aph.gov. au/senate/committee/ fadt_ctte/china/submissions/sub68.pdf. Altbach, P. (2004) Higher Education crosses borders. Change March–April. Retrieved from www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/publications/pub_pdf/Student%20_flows. pdf. Anon. (2004) All aboard the Euro Express. South China Morning Post, 20 November, p. 6. An Ran (1999) Learning in two languages and cultures: the experience of Mainland Chinese families in Britain. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Reading. An Ran (2000) Memorization: rote learning or route to education? Goldsmiths Journal of Education 2(2). Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (2004) Are Chinese students losing interest in Canada? Asia Pacific Bulletin. August 6. Retrieved from www.asiapacificbusiness. ca/apbn/pdfs/bulletin170.pdf. Aspland, T. (1999) Struggling with Ambivalence in Supervisory Relations. In A. Holbrook and S. Johnston (eds), Supervision of Postgraduate Research in Education. Coldstream, Victoria: AARE. Ballard, B. and Clanchy, J. (1991) Teaching Students from Overseas. Longman: Melbourne.

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Bamford, J., Marr, T., Pheiffer, G. and Weber-Newth, I. (2002) Some features of the cultural and educational experiences and expectations of international postgraduate students in the UK. Retrieved from www.business.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/ reflect/conf/2002/bamford. Biggs, J. (1994) The Chinese Learner. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre. Biggs, J. (1999) Teaching for Quality Learning at Universities. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Biggs, J. and Watkins, D. (1996) The Chinese Learner. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre. Chan, S. (1999) The Chinese Learner – a question of style. Education & Training 41 (6/7), pp. 294–304. Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) (2005) China in Australia’s future. Retrieved from www.ceda.com.au/public/research/china. Cottrell, S. (2003) The Study Skills Handbook. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Davey, G. and Higgins, L. (2005) Chinese students’ self-evaluation of their study skills for English learning and overseas courses. Retrieved from www.readingmatrix. com/conference/ pp/proceedings2005/davey_higgins.pdf. Edwards, V. and An Ran (2006) Meeting the needs of Chinese students in Higher Education. www.ncll.org.uk/10_about/50_research/10_research_projects/ chinesestudents_html. Edwards, V. and An Ran (in press) Uneven playing field or falling standards: Chinese students’ competence in English. Race, Ethnicity and Education. Foucault, M. (1977) What is an author? In D. Boucard (ed.), Language, CounterMemory, Practice: Selected essays and interviews. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 113–38. Furnham, A. (1997) The experience of being an overseas student, In D. McNamara and R. Harris (eds), Overseas Students in Higher Education. London: Routledge, pp. 13–29. Gao, M. (1998) Influence of native culture and language on intercultural communication: The case of PRC student immigrants in Australia. Symposium of Intercultural Communication. The Department of Linguistics, Gothenburg University with the support by KIM and the Immigrant Institute in Boras. Retrieved from http://www.immi.se/intercultural/nr4/gao.htm. Goh, J. (2004) China Education Market Summary Report 2004. Cultural and Education Section, British Embassy China. Harris, R. (1995) Overseas students in the United Kingdom university system. Higher Education 29 (1), pp. 77–92. Higgins, L. (2004) Cultural effects on the expression of some fears by Chinese and British female students. Journal of Genetic Psychology 165 (1), pp. 37–49. Hui, Leng (2005) Chinese cultural schema of Education: Implications for communication between Chinese students and Australian educators. Issues in Educational Research 15(1), pp. 17–36. Ingleson, J. (2004) UNSW comes to Singapore: the Internationalisation of university education. Address to the Australian Chamber of Commerce, Singapore, 29 October. Retrieved from www.unsw.edu.au/unswAsia/Ingleson_speechV2.pdf. Introna, L., Hayes, N., Blair, L. and Wood, E. (2003) Cultural attitudes towards plagiarism: Developing a better understanding of the needs of students from

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diverse cultural backgrounds relating to issues of plagiarism, unpublished report. University of Lancaster. Retrieved from:www.jiscpas.ac.uk/images/ bin/lancsplagiarismreport.pdf. Kachru, B. (1985) Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: the English language in the outer circle. In R. Quirk and H. Widdowson (eds),English in the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kolich, A. (1983) Plagiarism: the worm of reason. College English 4, pp. 141–8. Li, D. (2001) Motivation, learner strategies, and social networks in second language acquisition in Chinese research students. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Reading. Malcolm, I. (1995) Preface. In I. Malcolm and A. McGregor (eds), Worlds Apart: An investigation of linguistic and cultural factors affecting communication between NESB students and Edith Cowan University staff. Centre for Applied Language Research. Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA. O’Donoghue, T. (1996) Malaysian Chinese students’ perceptions of what is necessary for their academic success in Australia: a case study at one university. Journal of Further and Higher Education 20(2), pp. 2120–30. Pennycook, A. (1996) Borrowing others’ words: Text, ownership, memory and plagiarism. TESOL Quarterly 30 (2), pp. 210–30. Quilty, M. (eds) (1998) Australia in Asia: Episodes. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Ryan, J. (2000) A Guide to Teaching International Students. Oxford: Centre for Staff Development, Oxford Brookes University. Schlemm, S. (2005) Class together, worlds apart: international students in China. The Yale Globalist, October 13. Scollon, R. (1995) Plagiarism and Ideology: identity in intercultural discourse. Language in Society 24 (1), pp. 1–28. Sinfield, S. and Burns, T. (2003) Essential Study Skills: The complete guide to success at university. London: Sage publications. Stewart, D. and Shamdasani, P. (1990) Focus Groups: Theory and practice. London: Sage. Wei, Cheng (2002) Haigui pai chenfu tan [About the rise and fall of the returners from overseas] April 15. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/chinese/ china_newsid_1931000/19312481.stm. Yao, Lingqing (2004) The Chinese overseas students: an overview of the flows change. Paper presented at the 12th Biennial Conference of the Australian Population Association, 15–17 September, Canberra.Retrieved from http://acsr.anu.edu. au/APA2004/papers/6C_Yao.pdf.

11 Chinese Learners and Interactive Learning William Littlewood

11.1 Introduction A common stereotype of Chinese learners is that they are reluctant to participate in classroom interaction and prefer to learn passively. However, a survey indicated that most tertiary English learners in Mainland China and Hong Kong wish to participate actively in exploring knowledge and hold positive attitudes towards working in groups. In a later survey, too, students in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore valued classes which stimulate discussion and critical thinking. In a third survey, Hong Kong students were asked about factors which affect their own readiness to participate in interactive learning. They saw the main obstacles as tiredness, shyness, fear of being wrong, insufficient interest or knowledge in the subject and insufficient time to formulate their ideas. When asked what teaching strategies may reduce such obstacles, they attached most importance to creating an informal atmosphere, giving encouraging responses and ensuring that topics engage students’ knowledge and interest. These studies indicate that most Chinese students welcome interactive learning if it is implemented in supportive ways. Finally the chapter discusses two other obstacles that may reduce participation – premature closure and social loafing – and mentions some techniques of classroom organisation which may help to minimise them. A key component of many current pedagogical approaches, both in English language teaching and in other fields of education, is that learners construct their knowledge and skills through interacting with other learners and/or the teacher. In English language teaching these approaches include cooperative and collaborative learning (Crandall, 1999; Kessler, 1992; Oxford, 1997), experiential learning (Kohonen, 1992) and task-based 206

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learning (Ellis, 2003; Nunan, 2004; Samuda and Bygate, 2008; Willis, 1996). There are different opinions as to how these approaches should be defined and implemented in detail (see for example Davidson, 1994, on the distinction sometimes drawn between cooperative and collaborative learning, and Littlewood, 2004a, on some unresolved questions regarding task-based learning) and in some respects the approaches overlap. At the heart of each of them, however, lies interactive learning. Interactive learning may of course occur through a range of modes (e.g. written, spoken and involving various media), but in this chapter the focus is on oral interaction. As it is understood here, interactive learning takes place through the purposeful, oral exchange and/or confrontation of ideas, information and opinions. It may occur among groups of students independently of the teacher or it may occur with the direct involvement of the teacher. In principle, at least, all the participants in the interaction enjoy equal rights to contribute to it. The expectation is that, through this interaction, learners will engage in the exploration and construction of new knowledge. The advocacy of learning through interaction has a long history and is a central tenet of social constructivist approaches to education (discussed for example in Williams and Burden, 1997) and sociocultural theories of second language learning (e.g. Lantolf, 2000; Lantolf and Thorne, 2006). There is a common perception that Chinese learners (indeed Asian learners in general) are frequently passive and reluctant to speak in the classroom (see for example Shi, 2006, who both summarises and challenges this perception). Does this mean that when teachers wish to stimulate interactive learning they are working against the expectations and preferred learning styles of Chinese students? In agreement with Shi (2006) and an increasing number of other writers (e.g. Littlewood, 2000 and 2001; Meyer, 2003), the present chapter will suggest that this is not the case and that the perceived behaviour of the students is due not so much to innate preferences or capabilities as to the specific learning contexts which the students have experienced. The chapter has three main sections: 1. First, it reports on two studies, conducted by the author, which suggest that Chinese students (as well as students from other parts of Asia) have predominantly favourable attitudes to learning actively and through interaction. 2. Second, it reports on a third study in which students in Hong Kong were asked what they themselves thought were the factors which hinder or support their participation in interactive learning.

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3. Third, it describes two further potential obstacles to participation – premature closure and social loafing – and some techniques for classroom organisation which may help to minimise them.

11.2 Students’ attitudes to interactive learning In this section results will be presented from two surveys in which students were asked about their attitudes and preferences with regard to different modes of learning in the English classroom. More details of the first survey are given in Littlewood (2001) and of the second in Littlewood (forthcoming). In the first survey, 2307 students in eight East Asian countries (Brunei, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) responded to 12 statements about their learning preferences. Table 11.1 shows the average responses of students in Hong Kong and Mainland China to two statements relevant to interactive learning. The figures are on a scale from one (= ‘Strongly Disagree’) to five (= ‘Strongly Agree’). The responses to the first statement indicate that contrary to the common stereotype, most students do not in fact want to sit passively waiting for the teacher to ‘transmit’ information to them. They appear keen to play an active role in discovering knowledge for themselves. The mean scores for both Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students indicate their general desire to move away from a transmission approach Table 11.1

Students’ attitudes to active and interactive learning

I see knowledge as something that the teacher should pass on to me rather than something that I should discover myself. I like activities where there is a lot of discussion with classmates in small groups (of between 3 and 5 students).

Mainland Chinese Students (N = 371)

Hong Kong Students (N = 286)

All East Asian Students (N = 2307)

1.99

2.94

2.51

3.75

3.63

3.81

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(the mid or ‘neutral’ point on the scale is 3.00). The strength of the Mainland Chinese students’ inclination to adopt a more active role is particularly strong. The second statement confirms impressions from elsewhere (e.g. Meyer, 2003) that interaction in groups is a mode of learning to which Chinese students react favourably. In itself, this does not necessarily lead to interactive learning (the group interaction may perform a social rather than a task-related function and the opportunities it provides for ‘social loafing’ will be mentioned later), but it suggests at least that the attitudinal preconditions are met. In the second survey, which was based first on interviews and then on a questionnaire, 410 students from four Asian countries (Hong Kong, Mainland China, Singapore and Japan) were asked to respond to ten statements each about (a) their conception of a ‘good English teacher’, (b) their conception of a ‘good English student’ and (c) their ‘ideal English lesson’. From the resulting total of 30 statements, Table 11.2 gives the ten which elicited the most agreement. This time the maximum agreement is four. Once again we see a general affirmation of the value of active learning and discussion. The responses express favourable attitudes to independent learning, discussion and critical thinking. They assert the importance of the teacher stimulating interest and supporting (through a tolerant and understanding approach) a relaxed atmosphere in which this kind of learning is possible. At the same time the students recognise that the teacher needs adequate knowledge and organisational skills. Table 11.2 Features of English classes valued most by students in Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland China and Japan Mean A good English teacher stimulates students’ interest in learning. In my ideal English lesson, the atmosphere is relaxed. A good English teacher is open-minded and tolerant. In my ideal English lesson, some of the materials we use are from real life (e.g. TV, magazines). A good English teacher is able to understand students’ needs. A good English teacher encourages students to learn independently. A good English teacher has good organisational skills. A good English teacher knows a lot about English language and culture. In my ideal English lesson, there is plenty of active discussion. A good English teacher stimulates students to think critically.

3.68 3.53 3.51 3.46 3.43 3.38 3.36 3.31 3.28 3.28

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Items in the questionnaire which reflect a more receptive mode of learning received less support. For example, there was only 2.48 average agreement that ‘a good student is skilled at memorising facts and ideas’ and 2.68 agreement that in the ideal English lesson ‘the teacher guides most of what the students do’.

11.3 Students’ views of factors that affect participation If students express such favourable reactions to interactive learning, why do we so often hear the claim, not only from teachers but also from the students themselves, that they are passive and do not want to contribute to the class? This apparent contradiction provided the motivation for a further study (reported in Littlewood, 2004b), in which 567 Hong Kong tertiary students from a range of disciplines were asked (again, though interviews followed by questionnaires) for their views about the factors that hinder or encourage their participation in class. Table 11.3 lists (in rank order) the six factors which the students regarded as most often hindering their participation. The second column gives the students’ estimation of how often each factor hinders them, on a scale from 1 (= never) to 6 (= very often). Given the frequency with which psychological and cultural factors are mentioned in the literature, it is interesting that the students themselves rated such a mundane factor as ‘tiredness’ most highly. This may reflect the situation in Hong Kong, where many students spend a lot of time working in part-time jobs to support their studies. The second factor may reflect the often-quoted Chinese concern for face (see for example Hu and Grove, 1999, pp. 117–31), but one can offer also a more mundane explanation: many students may have experienced educational contexts in which criticism and correction are high-profile features. (One student told the author that he was accustomed to ‘keeping his head down’ in class for this reason and Salili, 2001, cites evidence that many Hong Kong teachers use more criticism than praise.) Table 11.3 Students’ views of factors which hinder participation in class Tiredness Fear of being wrong Insufficient interest in the class Insufficient knowledge about the subject Shyness Insufficient time to formulate ideas

3.43 3.35 3.22 3.08 3.07 3.02

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The fifth factor is also often said to be a common characteristic of Chinese learners, due partly to their comparatively limited experience of communicating outside their familiar ‘in-groups’ (what Gao and Ting-Toomey, 1998, pp. 49–51 call the ‘insider effect on communication’). The other three are more overtly related to the teacher’s pedagogical skills in tailoring material to the interests and previous knowledge of the students (three and four) and creating space for individuals to contribute (six), e.g. by increasing ‘wait-time’ or restraining more dominant students. The other side of this coin is the factors that support participation. Students were asked what teaching strategies they felt were most effective in encouraging them to participate in classroom interaction. Table 11.4 gives (again in rank order; 1 = not at all effective, 6 = very effective) their views on this: The students’ responses in the interviews and questionnaires suggest that our strategies for encouraging participation should pay special attention to the following areas: 1. Classroom atmosphere, e.g.: • Pay special attention to creating an informal and supportive atmosphere. • Be generous with positive feedback. 2. The attitudes and behaviour of the teacher, e.g.: • Provide clear messages which encourage students to speak. • Avoid focusing on students’ mistakes. 3. Students’ motivation, e.g.: • Consider carefully the relevance and interest of the subject matter to the students. • Allow space for group relationships to support learning.

Table 11.4 in class

Students’ views of teaching strategies which support participation

Create an informal atmosphere in the classroom Give a lot of encouraging responses when students speak and participate Ask questions on topics in which students have some knowledge/interest Make explicit that students are encouraged to speak in class Allow students to form groups with friends Give questions for students to discuss in groups for a group answer Avoid questions that are too easy or difficult Give students a topic to discuss in advance

3.64 3.58 3.45 3.27 3.24 3.21 3.10 3.03

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4. Students’ communicative competence, e.g.: • Allow more time for students to formulate answers in class. • Incorporate small-group discussion into classes, e.g. as preparation for whole-class discussion. These strategies are part of the familiar repertoire of most teachers. Many of them are reflected, for example, in the concerns and practices of experienced teachers reported in detail by Senior (2006). The significant message in this context is that Chinese students, like students from elsewhere, are willingly disposed to respond to these strategies and engage in interactive learning. If they are observed to be passive and reluctant to speak, this is likely to be more a product of ‘a pattern of social forces’ (Pierson, 1998, p. 52) than of their natural disposition; they are as likely as any other students to thrive in new contexts where active participation and critical thinking are emphasised. Confirmation that this message can be translated into practice can be found, for example, in the reports of Chalmers and Volet (1997) in Australia, Jackson (2002), McKay and Kember (1997) and Stokes (2001) in Hong Kong, Meyer (2003) in Singapore, as well as the informal accounts of many other teachers involved in teaching Chinese and other Asian learners.

11.4

Structuring classroom interaction to enhance participation

The previous section ended by suggesting strategies (drawn from students’ own views) which can create conditions favourable to interactive learning. These strategies are mainly of a social, attitudinal or affective nature and aim to create the kind of learning community and climate in which students feel relaxed, confident and ready to contribute. They focus mainly, then, on establishing the psycho-social conditions in which students can engage in the construction of knowledge and skills. In this section we will turn to another aspect of an overall approach to developing interactive learning, namely, the more specifically pedagogical dimension of how classroom interaction is organised. As a starting point for the discussion, let us consider a typical interactive learning task in an English classroom: Students are given a set of questions about a current issue, for example, whether cloning should be allowed. They are asked to form groups of five and to discuss the questions, considering different possible perspectives and attempting to

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reach agreement. After the discussion, one member of each group summarises his or her group’s views on the issue of cloning. In this task the intention is that the situation will stimulate all students to exchange ideas, analyse these ideas critically and gradually come to a fuller understanding of the issues than they would have done alone. In the process, of course, we expect that they will develop their communication skills. However there are two factors, intrinsic to the group task itself, which may hinder this. These factors are here called premature closure and social loafing. 11.4.1

Premature closure

The term ‘premature closure’ refers in general to the tendency to decide on a solution to a problem without sufficient efforts to consider alternative solutions or arguments. Here it refers to an experience familiar to most teachers. They give students a situation or problem such as the one above and ask them to discuss it. Since there are clearly many sides to the issue, the teacher expects an extensive discussion to follow. But after a short exchange of views, some groups put up their hands and say, ‘we’ve finished now’. The reason they have finished is that they have not explored the issue thoroughly and critically, considering alternative arguments and solutions, but have reached an easy and superficial consensus. This ‘premature closure’ may occur when, for example, the members are reluctant to disagree with each other’s views, lack motivation, or simply, for some extraneous reason such as tiredness, find it more convenient to stop the discussion early. In any case, in such situations the interaction does not serve its intended purpose as a stimulus for learning. The teacher also faces a management problem: he or she needs to occupy the early finishers but wants to let the other groups continue their discussions as planned. The process of premature closure was exemplified to me vividly when I gave the superficially identical task (an adaptation of the well-known ‘balloon game’, which is a simulation in which students have to decide which social roles are most essential to a community’s survival) to two parallel classes. In the first class, the students analysed and discussed in depth the issues and members’ roles in society. In the second, members made disjointed statements such as ‘No, you’re useless, we don’t need you’ and proclaimed after about ten minutes that they had reached agreement and finished the task. Often, as mentioned above, there are groups of ‘in-depth explorers’ and groups of ‘premature closers’ in the same class.

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We may expect that premature closure is less likely to occur when the group members are motivated by a genuine desire to understand the issue under discussion and to reach the best possible decision. It may also be reduced by structuring the interaction into identifiable stages, in ways to be suggested below. 11.4.2

Social loafing

‘Social loafing’ refers to the observation that many people make less effort when they work in a group than when they work alone. They are content to be ‘free-riders’ and let the others do the work. (The ones who do the work are sometimes called the ‘suckers’, but of course they are not necessarily unhappy in that role.) The task described above allows this to happen. It does not depend intrinsically on the participation of all members of each group but may be completed by only two or three members of the group, or by one member alone, with others involved only as onlookers or (perhaps literally) ‘sleeping partners’. If one or two members are regarded as more competent than the others, the group may even see this as the most efficient way to complete the task. Indeed this may be true, if we look only at the outcome – but of course, in a pedagogical context we are really less interested in the outcome than in the process that leads up to it, and the free-riders are essentially not involved in this process and the language development that it is intended to stimulate. If we look at the group tasks suggested in many textbooks and teachers’ handbooks, we may find that in a large proportion of them the outcome may be produced by just one or two influential members of the group. So what may help to avoid this? The literature on group dynamics and performance (e.g. Dörnyei and Murphey, 2003, Hertz-Lazarowitz et al., 1992; Wilke and Meertens, 1994) and specifically on social loafing (e.g. Karau and Williams, 1993) suggests the following factors: • Not surprisingly, the first key element is motivation: if the task is perceived as challenging and involving, members will wish to participate. • This motivation to be engaged is enhanced when there is a sense of group cohesion. • All members need to feel that their own contribution to the group’s work is necessary and unique. • It should be possible to identify the individual contribution of each member to the final product of the task.

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The first of these factors depends on the teacher’s skills in matching materials and tasks with specific groups of students. Very few of us succeed as much as we would like and indeed the heterogeneous nature of each group probably makes it impossible to satisfy the perceptions of all students all the time. Senior (2006) shows how experienced teachers devote attention to the second factor. The third and fourth factors can be addressed to some extent by the ways we structure the interaction and it is in this domain that the techniques of cooperative and collaborative learning have much to offer. A selection of these techniques is given in the Appendix and many more can be found in handbooks such as Sharan (1999). Many cooperative learning techniques work in essence by taking the stages that we hope would occur in an unstructured discussion (e.g. considering alternative views or solutions; ensuring that all members express their opinions) and making them into stages of structured interaction, in such a way that premature closure and social loafing are less likely to occur. For example, the stages of Reverse Snowball mirror the stages of a discussion in which participants generate a number of ideas or solutions, and then have to analyse and evaluate them in order to select the most appropriate ones. Constructive Controversy mirrors the systematic consideration of pros and cons in making a decision. Three-Step Interview ensures that each person considers and contributes his or her views to the discussion and helps to shape its outcome. Jigsaw provides each group member with unique information or ideas to contribute to the joint outcome. Numbered Heads helps to reduce social loafing because each member knows that he or she may be asked to report on the discussion and therefore needs to follow it carefully. In their different ways, then, all of these techniques help to create interactive situations in which all group members are motivated to participate.

11.5 Conclusion In conclusion, this chapter has presented evidence that, in spite of claims to the contrary, Chinese learners are favourably disposed towards the interactive modes of learning that form the basis of many educational approaches today. It has presented a two-fold approach to converting this favourable disposition into actual classroom practice. The first part focuses on creating the kinds of social psychological conditions in which students feel relaxed and confident. The second part has a more specifically pedagogical focus and seeks ways of structuring

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the interaction so that the interaction does not suffer from the effects of premature closure and social loafing. By adopting an approach which combines and experiments with these different elements, there is every reason to believe that the benefits of interactive learning can be realised and implemented as effectively with Chinese learners as with learners from elsewhere. One final proviso must be made. This chapter has not addressed the important question of how interactive learning can best contribute to the overall educational process, whichever group of learners is involved. While affirming the value of interactive learning in engaging learners in the construction of knowledge and skills, we should remember that learning through social interaction is not the only way to learn.

Acknowledgements Research reported in this chapter was supported by a Research Grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (PolyU/HKBU 5014/97H) and by Faculty Research Grants from HKPolyU and HKBU.

Appendix Some Techniques for Structuring Interactive Learning

These techniques can be effective in reducing premature closure and social loafing, as well as providing contexts in which students feel confident and supported in using language for exploration, personal expression and social interaction. They may be combined and adapted.

Jigsaw Jigsaw is one of the most commonly used techniques and has many variations. The basic procedures are: • A task is designed with three or four subtasks which contribute towards the final outcome. For example, the outcome may be a presentation on a controversial issue and the subtasks may involve reading an article, watching a video and interviewing classmates. • The class is divided into groups of three or four members, each of whom will work on one of the subtasks. • After students have worked on their separate subtasks, they return to their jigsaw groups and contribute to preparing the group outcome, e.g. the presentation.

Expert jigsaw Expert jigsaw is a common variation of jigsaw which includes an additional stage when students with the same subtask work together. So there is a stage in which groups of students who are reading the article work together, similarly with the other subtasks. After they have helped each other with their subtask, they return to their jigsaw groups to prepare the joint outcome. 217

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Group investigation Group investigation adopts a jigsaw framework but gives a lot of independence to the students. • The class decides on a topic and divides into research groups to investigate separate subtopics. • Groups plan their investigations and divide up the work among group members. • Members of each group collect, organise and analyse the information on their subtopic. • Members come together in their groups to share and discuss their information. They plan their report and presentation. • Presentations are made to the entire class in a variety of forms. Alternatively, of course, each group within the class may decide on a different topic that interests the members and plan their work as above. This is a familiar procedure with group project work.

Forward snowball This technique is especially useful when the aim is to generate as many ideas as possible on a topic, for example, in preparation for an essay or presentation. It is a structured equivalent of ‘brainstorming’. • Each student is given a set period of time (e.g. three minutes) in which to list four facts or ideas related to a theme. • Students form pairs, discuss, and expand their ideas into a list of eight. • Pairs form groups of four, who discuss and produce a combined list, deleting ideas which are repeated but attempting to add more, to produce sixteen. • The snowball may finish there or continue to groups of eight, who produce a further combined list.

Reverse snowball Reverse snowball is overtly similar to forward snowball but stimulates not elaboration but analysis, as students seek to reach agreement on what are the most essential aspects of a topic. • Each student is given a few minutes to write down three or four ideas on a given topic, for example, what are the most important qualities of a teacher.

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• Students in pairs then discuss and attempt to reduce their combined list by agreeing on the four (or five) most essential points. • Pairs form groups of four, who again discuss and reduce their combined list, to produce an agreed list of most essential points. • The snowball may proceed to groups of eight, or the whole class may be asked to agree on a list of essential points, or students may produce group or individual tasks (e.g. essays on the topic).

Think, pair, share This is a simple technique for encouraging students to generate ideas. • A topic for discussion (which may be simple or complex) is given to the class. • Each student has a short period of time to think about it and jot down notes. • Pairs of learners share ideas with each other for a further period. • Pairs share their ideas within a larger group or the whole class. • This structure may be adapted so that the initial period of sharing is carried out in groups of three or more.

Three-step interview Three-step interview helps to stimulate each class member to formulate and express his or her ideas. • Students form groups of four, in which they choose or are assigned a controversial topic for discussion. • Each group of four divides immediately into two pairs. • In each pair, A interviews B about the topic but does not express his or her own opinions. B then interviews A in the same way. • The two pairs re-form into a group of four, in which they share ideas and opinions, enter into free discussion and attempt to reach an agreement on the issue. • Their conclusion may be reported to the class or form the basis of written report, etc.

Constructive controversy This technique uses a simple debating format to encourage students to consider all sides of an issue before discussing it freely.

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• Students form groups of four and are assigned (or choose) a controversial topic for debate. • Each group divides into two pairs. • Each pair is asked to support one side of the issue. • Pairs research the issue and review the arguments on both sides. • Groups of four are re-formed and a debate takes place, as each pair tries to convince the other pair of their own side of the issue. • After a time, they step out of the ‘formal’ debating structure and engage in free discussion.

Rotating circles This technique is based on physical movement. The substance of the interaction may be creative (e.g. discussion) or predetermined (e.g. practice or testing based on cue cards). • Groups of eight are subdivided into two further groups of four. • One subgroup of four sits in an inner circle, with each student facing outwards. The other subgroup sits in an outer circle around them, with each member facing inwards towards a member of the inner circle. • Each member of the inner circle is given a different question card (e.g. asking for facts or opinions) or they may be asked to make up their own questions. • For about three minutes, the inner-circle members question or discuss with the outer-circle member opposite them. • At a signal from the teacher, the outer circle rotates one seat clockwise, so that there are now new pairs. • The previous two steps are repeated until the outer circle has rotated by one complete turn. Here is an example of how these techniques may be adapted and combined: When I used rotating circles to help students prepare for oral presentations on different topics, I arranged circles of six (not four). At the first three interaction stops, the outer-circle students interviewed the inner-circle students; at the next three stops, the inner-circle students interviewed the outer-circle students. In this way, all students were able to gather ideas for their presentations.

Numbered heads This is not a technique for structuring interaction but a way of organising the feedback or reporting stage.

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• In each group of (e.g.) four, the students are asked to assign numbers from 1 to 4 to each member. • At the feedback or reporting stage, the teacher simply indicates a group and a number. When this technique is used, all students have an equal chance of being nominated. It is also an effective way to reduce social loafing: all students must stay ‘on task’ during the preceding group discussion and be ready to speak on behalf of the group.

References Chalmers, D. and Volet, S. (1997) Common misconceptions about students from South-East Asia studying in Australia. Higher Education Research and Development 16 (1), pp. 87–98. Crandall, J. A. (1999) Cooperative language learning and affective factors. In J. Arnold (ed.), Affect in Language Learning (pp. 226–45). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Davidson, N. (1994) Cooperative and collaborative learning: an integrated perspective. In J. S. Thousand, R. A. Villa and A. I. Nevin (eds), Creativity and Collaborative Learning: A Practical Guide to Empowering Students and Teachers (pp. 13–30). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes. Dörnyei, Z. and Murphey, T. (2003) Group Dynamics in the Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ellis, R. (2003) Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gao, Ge and Ting-Toomey, S. (1998) Communicating Effectively with the Chinese. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Hertz-Lazarowitz, R., Beneveniste Kirkus, V. and Miller, N. (1992) Implications of current research on cooperative interaction for classroom application. In R. HertzLazarowitz and N. Miller (eds), Interaction in Cooperative Groups: The Theoretical Anatomy of Group Learning (pp. 253–80). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hu, Wenzhong and Grove, C. (1999) Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans (2nd edn). Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press. Jackson, J. (2002) Reticence in second language discussions: anxiety and aspirations. System 30 (1), pp. 65–84. Karau, S. J. and Williams, K. D. (1993) Social loafing: a meta-analytic review and theoretical integration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65 (4), pp. 681–706. Kessler, C. (ed.) (1992) Cooperative Language Learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents. Kohonen, V. (1992) Experiential language learning: second language learning as cooperative learner education. In D. Nunan (ed.), Collaborative Language Learning and Teaching (pp. 14–39). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lantolf, J. P. (ed.) (2000) Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lantolf, J. P. and Thorne, S. L. (2006) Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Littlewood, W. (2000) Do Asian students really want to listen and obey? ELT Journal 54 (1), pp. 31–5. Littlewood, W. (2001) Students’ attitudes to classroom English learning: a crosscultural study. Language Teaching Research 5 (1), pp. 3–28. Littlewood, W. (2004a) The task-based approach: some questions and suggestions. ELT Journal 58 (4), pp. 319–26. Littlewood, W. (2004b) Students’ perspectives on interactive learning’. In O. Kwo, T. Moore and J. Jones (eds), Developing Learning Environments in Higher Education (pp. 229–43). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Littlewood, W. (forthcoming) Chinese and Japanese students’ conceptions of the ‘ideal English lesson’. RELC Journal. McKay, J. and Kember, D. (1997) Spoon feeding leads to regurgitation: a better diet can result in more digestible learning outcomes. Higher Education Research and Development 16 (1), pp. 55–67. Meyer, J. E L. (2003) PRC students and group work: their actions and reactions. In G. L. Lee, J. E. L. Meyer, C. Varaprasad and C. Young (eds), Teaching English to Students from China (pp. 73–93). Singapore: Singapore University Press. Nunan, D. (2004) Task-Based Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oxford, R. L. (1997) Cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and interaction: three communicative strands in the language classroom. Modern Language Journal 81 (4), pp. 443–56. Pierson, H. (1998) Learner culture and learner autonomy in the Hong Kong Chinese context. In R. Pemberton, E. S. L. Li, W. W. F. Or, and H. D. Pierson (eds), Taking Control: Autonomy in Language Learning (pp. 49–58). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Salili, F. (2001) Teacher–student interaction: attributional implications and effectiveness of teachers’ evaluative feedback. In D. Watkins and J. Biggs (eds), Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives (pp. 77–98). Hong Kong/Melbourne: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong/Australian Council for Educational Research. Samuda, V. and Bygate, M. (2008) Tasks in Second Language Learning. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Senior, R. (2006) The Experience of Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sharan, S. (ed.) (1999) Handbook of Cooperative Learning Methods. Westport, CN: Praeger. Shi, L. (2006) The successors to Confucianism or a new generation? A questionnaire study on Chinese students’ culture of learning English. Language, Culture and Curriculum 19 (1), pp. 12–147. Stokes, S. (2001) Problem-based learning in a Chinese context: Faculty perceptions. In D. Watkins and J. Biggs (eds), Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives (pp. 205–18). Hong Kong/Melbourne: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong /Australian Council for Educational Research. Wilke, A. M. and Meertens, R. W. (1994) Group Performance. London: Routledge. Williams, M. and Burden, R. L. (1997) Psychology for Language Teachers: A Social Constructivist Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Willis, J. (1996) A Framework for Task-Based Learning. London: Longman.

Afterword: Responses to Internationalisation in the UK and the International Context and a Survey on Responses to Intercultural Communication Teaching Tricia Coverdale-Jones The context of internationalisation This afterword considers the context of internationalisation in the UK and in China. In this we will consider the aspect of students numbers and types in the UK and some responses to the changing situation in China. This author also presents and comments on a small-scale survey and research project which looks at one way of helping the international student to adapt, through the teaching of intercultural communication. The conclusion is that this and the other means of responding to the needs of the Chinese learner proposed by our authors in this book can contribute to a positive outcome for the students in our care. This book has shown how the issue of internationalisation has permeated universities in East Asia (China and Hong Kong) and in the UK. It also shows the strategies applied at different institutional levels in Higher Education contexts. Universities in China such as Shandong University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong demonstrate the commitment to internationalisation at a strategic level, as does the work of a range of universities in China referred to here. Academic staff in China are keenly aware of how their society is changing, and how this affects the values of students in this society, as can be seen in the chapter from the China University of Mining and Technology (Yang, this volume) as well as the insight contributed by changing metaphors for the role of students and teachers (Jin, Cortazzi, and Wang, this volume). Other authors from the UK and from China have contributed ideas to this volume on how managers, teaching staff, and students come to terms with their new situation and problems. They demonstrate the need for management of the experience through the intervention of

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teaching staff inside and outside the classroom, the sharing of quality assurance procedures to level the playing field for all international students in any country (McNaught and Curtis, this volume), the application of new teaching techniques (Littlewood, this volume) and the contribution of support service staff. In the UK internationalisation was for a long time seen from the point of view of sending British students to study in other European countries. Now, fewer ‘home’ students from Britain are studying European languages and the reach of UK university courses has extended to other Francophone or Hispanophone areas, as at the University of Portsmouth, which sends students to North Africa or Latin/South America as well to the mainland of France and of Spain. In the meantime, the number of students studying Chinese in the UK has risen with more university courses at undergraduate level offered by UK universities, as can be seen in Figure A.1 from (CILT, 2007). Chinese and Japanese both suffered large decreases in students from 1998/9 to 2001/2, but have experienced a large increase in numbers in recent years, since 2002/3. Internationalisation has been seen in the past in terms of the number of students coming inward (Rastall, P., 2006) but is now seen increasingly as a two-way process. More and more Chinese students are now self-funding. Olcott (this volume) makes us aware of the mixed motivations for the support of university management for internationalisation; however, in the goodwill on the part of the academic authors writing here, the desire to be truly international is apparent. This volume has tried to redress the balance found in much literature in this field which looks at internationalisation from the perspective of Western universities by including many contributions from China which share insights not previously available such as those from Wang, Yang, and McNaught and Curtis (this volume).

Chinese and Japanese both suffered large decreases in students from 1998/9 to 2001/2, but have experienced large boosts in numbers in recent years, since 2002/3.

Chinese

% change 1998–9 to 2001–2

Chinese

–16

2002–3 605

2003–4

2004–5

2005–6

685

755

850

Figure A.1 Number of students studying Chinese in UK HEIs Source: CILT (2007).

% change 2002–3 to 2005–6 +40

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Previous authors have articulated the idea that we cannot categorise one type of student as ‘the Chinese Learner’ (Coverdale-Jones and Rastall, 2006). The type of course or student or university affects the motivations at institutional level or at the level of personal choice (Zheng, this volume). The different perspectives of the two cultures can be seen in the views of Smith and Zhou. As noted by Edwards and Ran, ‘It would be a serious mistake to treat Chinese-speaking students as a homogeneous group.’ Bill Littlewood also addresses this in terms of teaching methodology which can expand the classroom activity of the reputedly ‘passive’ Chinese learner, rather than conforming to the stereotypical view of the Chinese learner as a mere listener. The three main dimensions to internationalisation within higher education institutions (HEIs) are highlighted by Paul Rastall: internationalisation of HEI procedures and practices, impact on the curriculum, and the student view of the international learning experience. In their chapter, based on the presentation at the conference in Portsmouth ‘Internationalizing the University’, Yvonne Turner and Siobhan Devlin (this volume) focus not only on Chinese students but also on the challenges facing HEIs in handling international students. They note that the concept of internationalisation is highly contested. The question is whether internationalisation should be seen as a response to globalisation or as an agent of globalisation.

Internationalisation in the UK: Students from Asia The increasing trend in UK Higher Education has been the subject of many observations and statistical measures. According to The Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA, 2005) in 2003/04 there were approximately 90,000 students from EU countries (excluding the UK), whereas in the same year there were approximately 211,000 students from nonEU countries. The same can be seen in other countries, not only for learning English but also other subjects taught in English – Germany, Finland. Chinese immigration into Europe overall is highest in Italy, Germany, and Spain with the UK in fourth place; in terms of study places, however, the UK is the leading destination. In the UK, for example, figures from 2001 show that around 18,000 Chinese students are enrolled in British institutions of higher education, making them the largest group out of a total of 143,000 foreign students. This figure is a 71 per cent increase on 2000. Preliminary

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International Organization for Migration (IOM) figures for 2002 show a further increase of 67 per cent, taking the likely total to over 40,000. Other countries in northern Europe have also reported a sharp increase in the number of students from China. In the Netherlands, the number of Chinese students increased by 50 per cent between 2000 and 2001. Germany also saw an increase, from 6526 in 1999 to 9109 in 2000. Chinese student numbers have also increased in France. Most Chinese students are pursuing courses in science, technology, and business studies. (Laczko, 2003) http://www.migrationinformation.org/ Feature/display.cfm?ID=144 This rising trend has continued in recent years. In 2005/6 42 per cent of non-UK-domiciled students were from Asia, 33 per cent from European countries, 9 per cent from Africa, 7 per cent from North America, and 4 per cent from the Middle East (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2005/2006). This gives a total from Asia of 138,633 (42 per cent), whereas UK figures for 2006 give a total of c. 132,275 (see Figure A.2). The Universities UK survey of international student enrolments at UK HEIs in 2006/07 noted that 70 per cent of respondents reported an overall increase in international student enrolments and 64 per cent reported an increase in EU student enrolments; 79 per cent of institutions reported that they had increased their marketing and recruitment efforts this year; 34 per cent of respondents stated that they had exceeded their institutional target compared with 17 per cent last year; the top five increases in relative terms (countries with the most significant percentage increase reported for student numbers) were Poland, Pakistan, Nigeria, Germany, and India.

International partnerships with China The efforts of UK universities to extend their campus bases into China can be seen in projects such as those in Liverpool Jiaotong and Ningbo

Asia

First degree

Other undergraduate

Higher degree (taught)

Higher degree (research)

Other post graduate

Total

52,450

8990

51,775

15,215

3,845

132,280

Figure A.2 Numbers of Asian students in UK HEIs in 2006 Source: Universities UK (n.d.).

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Nottingham. Douglas Tallack from the University of Nottingham (2006) believes there will be a change from the current model of internationalisation over the course of the next 15 years. By then he sees UK universities as offering consultancy for others seeking to develop overseas, with students and staff increasingly expecting foreign opportunities. However, he believes that there will still be a need to make the commitment to recruit abroad a two-way process (Tallack, 2006). In this twoway process, the motivation of students can be crucial. UK applicants are attracted by the guarantee of study abroad, but many do not want to risk their grade averages by going abroad. Nottingham offers the same modules at all three campuses (Nottingham, Ningbo, and Malaysia), so students have a foreign experience without going to a foreign university. Chinese students are also attracted by the ‘foreign experience’, studying in a British institution and environment. This makes them attractive to Chinese employers while they are still able to keep their local connections, which can be an important factor in gaining employment after graduation. All this is possible for the Chinese students without the expense and upheaval of travelling to the UK for a year’s study. In addition, internationalisation in China has important consequences for the area of academic and research partnerships, which is an area attracting government support in the UK. John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, speaking in a House of Commons debate on 26 July 2007 demonstrated the UK government support for this two-way process in the academic context: The Government support numerous initiatives to promote closer partnerships with China. Following the Prime Minister’s initiative, more than 50,000 Chinese students are currently studying in the UK. The UK-China partners in science initiative identifies potential areas of research collaboration and funds networking between scientists. The research councils will shortly open their first overseas office in Beijing. Our relationship is highly productive. In 2005, this country published more papers jointly with Chinese authors than any other European Union country. (Hansard: 26 July 2007: Column 1049) The Chinese approach to internationalisation also has the support of government, as referred to in the introduction to this volume. Approval has been given for many universities to open up franchise, articulation or other agreements with Western universities. The third conference in the series ‘Responding to the Needs of the Chinese Learner’ was held at

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Shandong University in November 2007, in a cooperation between the University of Portsmouth and Shandong University.

The student experience of the ‘year abroad’ This author has conducted a research project, supported by the Higher Education Academy Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies Subject Centre into the benefits of raising student awareness of intercultural issues while they are studying in the UK. This was in the context of a course in Intercultural Communication, offered as an option to final level undergraduate students, many of who were in the first year of study in the UK. (Their previous studies in China or Hong Kong were credited under articulation agreements with the University of Portsmouth.) Other research on the ‘year abroad’ has addressed the experience of British students who study in other, mostly European, countries. Current thinking in this area cites the benefits of this experience as (a) deep learning, holistic learning (Crawshaw, 2005; Jordan, 2002) and (b) an improvement in criticality, self-awareness, and problem solving (Mitchell et al., 2005; Crawshaw, 2005). Many of our undergraduate Chinese students are doing a ‘top-up’ year, effectively a year abroad (but not returning to finish a final year in most cases). There are clear parallels between the learning which can be achieved by Chinese students in the UK and that of the UK student groups previously studied. The question is also whether Chinese students can integrate enough to gain full benefit from their ‘year abroad’ and achieve equivalent outcomes to those of the European students. The starting point for the research project (Coverdale-Jones, 2005) was a belief in the benefits of studying abroad and the belief that there was a common thread of experience with British students. The aim of a course in Intercultural Communication was not only the academic study but also to help students to learn from their experience of living in another culture. This would avoid the negative effects which can arise from a period abroad, leading to the ‘otherisation’ of the ‘other’ population (Holliday, Hyde, and Kullman, 2004). Students who had previously taken this course had commented informally and in unit feedback that they felt they had increased their understanding and thus had a more rewarding experience, both during and after the end of the course in their working lives or continued studies. The course had the aim of deepening the learning experience, before, during, and after the year abroad. Other universities have adopted different strategies

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such as the English-speaking clubs to manage the integration of international students and provide opportunities for deepening linguistic and cultural knowledge (Devlin & Peacock, 2008, this volume). The isolation of Chinese students is also referred to by Edwards and An Ran (2008, this volume). In this course there was a mix of nationalities, including a group of French students who joined in the second semester. (In the following year UK students were also included.) However, the focus here is on the responses from Chinese (PRC and HK) students. This theme has been researched on a national scale by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA, 2007). This looks at how many UK universities are offering orientation programmes and other follow-up activities. They found a highly variable range of ‘orientation’ courses which gives cause for concern: The participation rate in orientation programmes remains not much above 50 per cent, raising questions about whether the nonparticipating students are missing out on crucial support. Students arriving at times other than the start of term are also missing out, as few institutions offer on demand orientation at other times. Most institutions could also improve the effectiveness of orientation by offering follow-up sessions throughout the year, rather than simply a one-off event. (UKCISA, 2007)

A practical approach; enhancing the student experience of study abroad The questions in the research project were to evaluate the students’ perceptions about the benefits of intercultural learning, in terms of personal benefits, academic benefits, and their experience of living and studying abroad. The avoidance of stereotyping has been referred to above. The aim was also to address the question – what can we do about it? This research was supported by the Pedagogical Research find of the HEA LLAS Subject Centre.1 A questionnaire was given in the academic year 2005–6 to 60 Semester-two students (39 replies) and to 27 Semester-one students (21 replies), on ‘with English’ undergraduate courses2, plus interviews with a random sample and comparison with later groups. The majority of these students were Chinese (PRC and Hong Kong) with a small number of French students who joined the course in Semester two. There was a later comparison between Semester two and one students

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and a wider discussion in focus groups. The results from the focus groups did not supply any different responses to the interviews and questionnaires. The responses did not vary greatly between nationalities. In looking at the data, a further aim was to compare experiences at mid-point in the year abroad and towards the end of it, in order to see effects of acculturation process. There were parallels in this cohort with British and European students who study abroad. Only a small number of students had lived in another country before, mostly for very short stays with two longer stays. This profile is similar to British students doing a year abroad. In the same way, they resembled UK students in that few had worked before, or studied abroad. Some students had studied Intercultural Communication before. The writers in this field they were likely to have heard of were E. T. Hall (20 in Semester two group/two in Semester one group), Hofstede (28/10), and Trompenaars (24/5). When asked whether the experience of studying abroad had changed their views, students at the end of Semester two indicated that this had had some effect on their way of thinking. Fifty-five per cent said they had a different attitude to study now, 70 per cent said they saw their home country in a different way. There remained almost 40 per cent who still preferred the culture in their home country and 17 per cent who still preferred the culture of learning in their home country. This indicates that the majority of students had learned to see themselves in a different way. Whether this was due to the nature of their stay abroad or the learning in the course remains uncertain at this point, but comments in interviews and answers to later questions indicate that the course had helped them to understand the other culture better. One example comes from a male student aged 21, from Hong Kong: As British classmates and hallmates may have expressed their views and feelings on my behaviour and life style, it just provides me a chance to think ‘am i really like that?’ I have never thought about myself in this way.) (Male, aged 21, HKSAR) Figures A.3 and A.4 show the relative changes between Semesters one and two. These responses at different stages of the acculturation process show the effect of acculturation. Unsurprisingly, more recently arrived students miss home more and do not prefer many things about the UK (4 per cent, rising to 19 per cent after a longer acculturation period).

Tricia Coverdale-Jones

40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

231

38% 34% 29 %

Series1

29% 25.50%

19%

Series2

19%

4%

0% 0%

2%

0%

I miss I miss I enjoy There are I prefer Blank everything some equally many being in about my things, e.g. being in things Britain home friends and Britain or which I like country family my home about country being in Britain Series one = Semester two students after eight months in the UK; Series two = Semester one students after four months in the UK

Figure A.3 Responses to the question ‘How do you think about your home country now?’

60% Series1

Series2

50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% It has helped me to study in the British learning culture

It has helped me in my daily life in practical terms

It has helped me to understand British people better

I find it difficult to apply the theory to my daily life or to my method of study

It has not helped me to understand the British way of life or study

Series one students at end of semester two, after eight months in the UK Series two students at end of semester one, after four months in the UK

Figure A.4 Responses to the question ‘Do you think learning about cultural differences has helped you to understand the new culture more easily?’

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While these two graphs do not show vastly significant differences between the two cohorts, it can be seen from Figure A.4 that the more recent arrivals (Series two), who may be less confident in the new culture, show a slightly higher appreciation of how the course has helped them to study and helped them in their daily lives. The search for meaning and explanation of the other behaviour is likely to be more important for students at earlier stage of acculturation. One example from an interview comment explains how a student tries to apply what he has learnt: YF: ‘yes, there is a lot of experiences I haven’t encountered in here. When things happen, I try to apply theory to situations and explain it in theoretic way. I am trying to think of an example. … Oh, yes, just hospitality things I mentioned … do things as a group, which is oriental culture. Once I was in my friends flat, people cook and eat on their own although some of them don’t know how to cook. They don’t cook together. When I first get there, I don’t used to it.’ T: ‘After you have learned this course, will you know their behaviour easier?’ YF: ‘Yes, now I won’t think they are selfish or whatever, just their culture.’ (YF, Male, aged 28, PRC) Another example from an interview with a Beijing undergraduate student who had been in Portsmouth for almost a year: Sure. I think a very significant difference is China is masculinity country. I think in Britain, people are more considerate about elder people. In China don’t care about elder people. Like at Brittany Ferries even supervisor or manager show respect to elder people. In China nobody would employ old people. It is age discrimination. Elder people are not looked after well in society like in family. (M, female, age 21, PRC, paraphrase) These examples show how the academic learning had helped the students to analyse their life experience outside the classroom. In deepening learning, criticality, and problem solving, as referred to above (Crawshaw, 2005; Jordan, 2002; Mitchell et al., 2005), one of the major aims of the course in improving the personal experience for the students was realised.

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Sources of stress The problems of a lack of integration into the larger student group, noted above, can be both a source of and a cause of increased stress levels among international students. Other sources of stress would normally be encountered on international placements for commercial or study purposes. When students in this survey were asked about the sources of stress they encountered in the new culture, and how they dealt with these, the most frequently mentioned items were in the areas around study and language difficulties. Coping strategies were generally uncontroversial and non-confrontational (see Figure A.5). Some comments from respondents: – Eat and Drink and smoke … as a result, i am 2 stones heavier than I was [sic] (HK, F) – Work harder (PRC, F) – I cry a lot (HK, F) – Change my learning style: from a passive one to a more active one (PRC, M) Examples of what students preferred in UK show a range of items, from the perceived material comforts: – fresh air and natural environment (HK, F, 23) – clean air, prices of choc cheaper (China, F, 29) to the more lifestyle aspects – less people here, can enjoy the quiet environment (China, F, 29) – free living style of Britain (China, M, 24) – I enjoy the life of living on my own here (HK, F, 21) – and life style in Britain is rather relaxing than in China, Britain’s infrastructure is more advanced. Politeness of the majority (HK, F, 21)

Areas around study expenses racism and unfriendliness cultural differences time attitudes (e.g. hand-in deadlines), shop opening hours English language situation in halls of residence Figure A.5

Improve language, organize, talk with friends, get used to new learning style spend wisely ignore adapt/be deferential finish work on time & plan ‘Study more hard’ ignore

Sources of stress and ways of dealing with these

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These comments from students show the complexity of their individual experiences and interpretations of these. As they are able to acculturate, they develop strategies which enable them to get more out of their year abroad. The emotional factors clearly have a major influence on the whole academic and life experience. Acculturation Acculturation is generally recognised as a gradual process. The amount of time it takes to acculturate will vary considerably due to variables in personality, context, and motivation. In the survey, students who had been longer in the UK (8 months) were asked about where they perceived themselves to be in terms of the well-known acculturation curve (Euphoria or Honeymoon stage, Culture Shock, Acculturation, Stable State). Of the group, two found themselves in the Culture Shock phase, 16 in the Acculturation phase, while 28 rated themselves as being in a stable state. The notable absence of self-assessment as in the Culture Shock phase could be attributed to various reasons such as a wish to see themselves in a positive light, or to avoid offending the tutor (this researcher), or to a lack of full awareness of what this means. On the other hand, informal comments from students suggested that knowing about Culture Shock helped them to see their situation in a wider context and to feel more positive about it as a normal part of the process. Certainly over half of these students felt they had adapted to living in another culture. This is of course self-evaluation, which may have the drawback of varying interpretation, as noted. The well-known phenomenon of Reverse Culture Shock which can arise on return to the home country can be one of the consequences of acculturation. Students may have become deculturalised or even reculturalised. This survey did not deal with this phenomenon; however, email messages from students who have returned have confirmed that they had some difficulties in adapting back to the cultural behaviour of their home country (e.g. a Japanese who expected people to smile when they saw him!). There are different views on how long it takes to acculturate. The many variables are noted above. At the University of Manitoba, students in focus groups said it took two years, at the University of Middlesex students said they would stay on for an MA (i.e. a second year of study abroad) as they felt they needed more time (comments from an audience member after SIETAR UK 2005 conference presentation by this author). The transformative approach to internationalisation takes into consideration the longer view of acculturation.

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Conclusions arising from the survey In the context of internationalisation and practical approaches to the enhancement of this in relation to student needs, it appears that awareness-raising through orientation courses or through the inclusion of Intercultural Communication as a part of study does have significance, at least in the perception of students. If students perceive their experience as more positive, this is already an aid to better study and life experience. Students at the end of the second semester in the study above had adapted more culturally and found more positive aspects. It can be argued that these students would have learnt about culture in any case, through living and studying in the UK. However, students showed that they were aware of many issues and felt that they understood British and other cultures, including their own, better as a result of studying intercultural communication. It should be noted that some continuation of intercultural learning may take place after graduation, on their return to home country. Past students have confirmed this in private emails to this author. A frequently cited effect of Intercultural training in an industrial context, where the benefits for successful commerce and business partnerships carry extra weight, is not only of preparing staff for placements abroad but also of enabling them to reinterpret past experience. It can be concluded that this course helps the students to acculturate through understanding the process they are experiencing. As noted above, students felt they had benefited and this may be crucial. In addition, the ‘year abroad’ experience improves criticality and problem-solving skills; additional intercultural learning can help avoid the confirmation of stereotypes and negative reaction (otherisation), which can be the result of a sojourn abroad in educational or other contexts. This contributes to the long-term whole life experience of tutors and learners like. What do other universities do to aid intercultural learning? The UKCOSA (now UKCISA) report benchmarking the provision of services for international students in Higher Education institutions (2007) surveys the types of services offered to international students by UK HEIs. This survey was supported by the Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education (PMI). These services and activities include pre-departure information; induction and orientation programmes; English language entry levels and in-sessional support; accommodation; activities to encourage home and international students to mix; hardship

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funding; student representation and collection of feedback for international students; and the employment of international student advisers, finance, employment, graduation, and return. (There is also a useful self-assessment tool for HEIs (UKCISA, 2007) available on the website.) The UKCOSA report gives a picture of what is actually happening in UK HEIs, including aspects of intercultural learning and activities such as those undertaken at the universities of Bournemouth and Sunderland (Devlin & Peacock, this volume). In 2006–7 this author sent a questionnaire via the TEAL (Teaching East Asian Learners) list on Jiscmail3 asking colleagues who had attended previous ‘Responding to the Chinese Learner in HE’ conferences in 2004 and 2006 at the University of Portsmouth whether they offered courses or guidance on intercultural issues. The sample was very small (N=7) but found that five offered intercultural communication as a separate unit or module; four offered intercultural communication within a language course; four offered intercultural communication as a support course; no responding universities offered no cultural orientation at all; three gave general guidelines on cultural adaptation; three gave these on paper; four as part of induction, four delivered these to groups of students and two also gave advice on a one-to-one basis, for example through the personal tutor. This showed that there were some efforts to offer guidance to international students; of course the sample was self-selected and therefore represented interested parties. Gradually there is a recognition of the importance of taking active steps to help students in their intercultural learning process.

Conclusion This volume looks at the institutional perspectives, the student and staff perspectives, and the practical approaches for the situation we now find ourselves in, where internationalisation has become or is becoming the norm in Higher Education. It gives many examples of good practice and evidence of the needs of international students, especially Chinese learners, so that we can improve our practice in the delivery of these courses and the care of our Chinese students. The needs of institutions in a globalised education market are also a focus here. There remain questions for further study: • What further actions can we take to enhance the experience for all involved?

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• How do we make sure that the internationalisation agenda applies to home and European students as well as international students and staff? • Should we introduce more assessed units, electives, sessions as part of induction, or more guidelines to staff and students? • How do the life experiences of students contribute to their experience in an international study context? We believe that this volume makes a significant contribution to this debate which will be helpful to colleagues working in this field in the global context and contribute to creating a better understanding between international partners.

Notes 1. This research was supported by the Pedagogical Research fund of the HEA LLAS Subject Centre. More details and a fuller report can be found at http:// www.llas.ac.uk/prf2005.aspx. 2. ‘English with’ courses at the University of Portsmouth allow students to improve their English language skills on accredited units, while also studying other academic subjects. This includes courses such as Communication and English Studies, International Trade and English, Electronic Engineering and English and many other possible combinations. 3. http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/archives/teal.html.

References BALEAP Professional Interest Meeting, Focus on Chinese Learners, Sheffield Hallam University, November 2001. BALEAP Professional Interest Meeting, Intercultural Communication, University of the West of England, February 2005. CILT (National Centre for Languages) (2007) Higher Education Statistics: Frequently Asked Questions 1. What Are the Trends in HE Language Learning in the UK? http:// www.cilt.org.uk/research/statistics/education/higher.htm. Coleman, J. (1996) Studying Languages: Survey of British and European Students – The Proficiency, Background, Attitudes and Motivations of Students of Foreign Languages in the United Kingdom and Europe, London: Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research. Coverdale-Jones, T. (2005) East Asian Learners’ Response to Intercultural Themes as Part of the Year Abroad in the UK http://www.llas.ac.uk/prf2005.aspx. Coverdale-Jones, T. and Rastall, P. (eds) (2006) Special issue of Language, Culture and Curriculum (19:1. 2006) containing selected papers from conference Responding to the Needs of the Chinese Learner, The University of Portsmouth, July 2004, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Crawshaw, R. (2005) Intercultural Awareness as a Component of the Modern Languages Course in the UK http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/paper.aspx?resourceid=2303.

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Denham, J., Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills (2007) Speaking in a House of Commons Debate on 26 July 2007 (Hansard: 26 July 2007: Column 1049) http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2007-07-26a.104 8.6&s=speaker%3A10167#g1050.0. The East Asian Learner Journal, Editor Dr Paul Wickens, Oxford Brookes University, www.eastasianlearner.org. Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) (2005) Students in Higher Education Institutions 2003/04, www.hesa.ac.uk. Hofstede, G. (1991, 1994) Cultures and Organisations; Software of the Mind: Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival, London: Harper Collins. Holliday, A., Hyde, M. and Kullman, J. (2004) Intercultural Communication: An Advanced Resource Book, London: Routledge. The Interculture Project http://www. lancs.ac.uk/users/interculture/. Jin, L. and Cortazzi, M. (1996) ‘Cultures of Learning: Language Classrooms in China’, In Coleman, H. (1996) Society and the Language Classroom, Cambridge: CUP. Jin, L. and Cortazzi, M. (2006) ‘Changing Practices in Chinese Cultures of Learning’, In Coverdale-Jones and Rastall (2006). Jordan, S. (2002) Intercultural Issues in Foreign Language Learning and Ethnographic Approaches Study abroad, www.llas.ac.uk/resources/goodpractice.aspx?resourceid =100. Laczko, F. (2003) Europe Attracts More Migrants from China, International Organization for Migration. www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=144. Mitchell, R. Myles, F. Johnstone, B. and Ford, P. (2005) The Year Abroad: A Critical Moment http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/paper.aspx?resourceid=2270. Rastall, P. (2006) ‘Introduction: The Chinese Learner in Higher Education – Transition and Quality Issues’, In Coverdale-Jones, P. & Rastall, P. (eds) Language, Culture and Curriculum (19:1. 2006). Spencer-Oatey, H. (2006) ‘Chinese Students’ Psychological and Sociocultural Adjustments to Britain: An Empirical Study’, In Coverdale-Jones, T. and Rastall, P. (2006). Tallack, D. (2006) ‘Internationalisation: The University of Nottingham’s Campus in China’, Unpublished talk given at the 2006 Portsmouth conference ‘Internationalizing the University’. UKCISA (2007) Benchmarking the Provision of Services for International Students in Higher Education Institutions http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/files/pdf/pmi/bench marking_report.pdf. UKCOSA (2004) Broadening Our Horizons: International Students in UK Universities and Colleges. Report of the UKCOSA survey. (Note UKCOSA is now UKHISA, UK Council for International Student Affairs) http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/about/ pubs_research.php. Universities UK (UUK) Student Numbers and Statistics www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/ faqs/showFaq.asp?ID=7. UNESCO The Concept of Voluntary Service; Cultural Shock, The Curve of Cultural Adaptation during a Medium or Long-term Stay Abroad http://www.unesco.org/ ccivs/OldSite/servvol/htm/A2.htm. Universities UK (n.d.) Student Numbers and Statistics http://www.universitiesuk. ac.uk/faqs. Watkins, D. A. and Biggs, J. B. (eds) (2001) Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives, Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre.

Biographical Details of Authors

Introduction Dr Paul Rastall is a principal lecturer and Faculty International Coordinator at the University of Portsmouth and visiting professor at Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai. While he has an academic background and numerous publications in English and Linguistics, he has had many years of experience both in running university programmes for Chinese and other international students as a divisional head and in promoting recruitment in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and elsewhere, and in developing institutional partnership arrangements with Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwan HE providers and government agencies. He has travelled extensively in China and Hong Kong visiting many universities and agencies. He has also supervised post-graduate research on the development of transnational Higher Education in China. With Tricia Coverdale-Jones he has organised three international conferences on the needs of Chinese learners and also co-edited a special edition of Language, Culture, and Curriculum with her on the same theme.

Chapter 1 Dr Yvonne Turner works as a lecturer in Management at Newcastle University Business School, UK, where she teaches Cross-cultural Management and Research Methods with a special focus on Business in China. Her research interests focus on cultural pedagogy, cross-cultural learning and management, and the internationalisation of higher education. Her publications include Education in the New China: Shaping Ideas at Work (published by Ashgate) and Internationalizing the University: An Introduction for University Teachers and Managers (published by Continuum). 239

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Yvonne has been involved in a wide range of educational development and consultancy projects in the area of Higher Education internationalisation and working with international students. She is currently working on a new project, exploring Cross-Cultural Management issues from a critical perspective. Sue Robson is Head of the School of Education, Communication, and Language Sciences and a member of the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University. Her current research interests include • the internationalisation of higher education. Sue’s research has explored academic perceptions of the impact of internationalisation on professional lives, the student experience, the curriculum, and on learning and teaching. • the role of learning conversations in professional development. Sue has developed and evaluated professional development programmes for teachers in China and the UK. • teaching and assessing for successful learning in higher education. Sue is a member of the FDTL 5 Project Team ‘Developing formative assessment using ICTs in education’ and the team from Newcastle and Sunderland universities that reviewed frameworks for effective thinking and learning for the Learning and Skills Research Council (Moseley et al., 2004).

Chapter 2 Lin Zheng (PhD, MBA, BA (hons)) currently works in the School of Languages and Area Studies, University of Portsmouth, as Business Tutor in English as a second language. Her research considers business issues in Transnational Education. Her PhD research area is focused on the recent responses of Chinese universities and the internationalisation of Chinese universities. She has a wide-ranging knowledge of Transnational Higher Education and international education partnerships. Her research area also includes the impacts of culture on Marketing, Human Resource, and Communication. She is currently a member of Centre for European and International Studies Research, University of Portsmouth. Prior to her teaching and researching experience in British higher education institution, she worked as a lecturer of Business English at a Chinese university, and was also involved in building international education partnerships for her university.

Biographical Details of Authors 241

Chapter 3 Dr Junju Wang is the Professor of Applied Linguistics and Deputy Dean of the School of Foreign Languages of Shandong University, Peoples’ Republic of China. She holds her BA in English, MA in bilingual translation, and PhD in applied linguistics. Her research interests include second language acquisition, EFL teaching and learning, teacher development, and language testing and assessment. Dr Junju Wang is the author of From Ideas to Text: A Cognitive Study of English Writing Processes and the co-author of Academic English Writing. She is also the editor of several books and her published articles appear in both domestic and international journals. Dr Junju Wang is a member of Asian TEFL Association and Hong Kong Association of Applied Linguistics. She now serves as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Foreign Language Teaching in Higher Education of Ministry of Education of China, a councillor of China English Education Association, Vice President of the National Association of EFL Writing Teaching and Research, and President of the Provincial Association of Applied Linguistics of Shandong Province.

Chapter 4 Dr Don Olcott, Jr, is Chief Executive of The Observatory of Borderless Higher Education (OBHE) in London. Dr Olcott leads The Observatory and a variety of international research and partnership projects related to internationalism and cross-border higher education. The Observatory has over 180 organisational members in 50 countries engaged in Transnational Higher Education. Dr Olcott serves on the UK’s Council of Validating Universities (CVU), the Board of Directors of the University of London’s Distance Education Council, and the Board of the Open University. Dr Olcott is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA) in the UK. Don is immediate past-president of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) and currently serves as Chairman of the USDLA Board of Directors.

Chapter 5 Carmel McNaught (BSc (hons), DipEd, MEd, PhD) is Director and Professor of Learning Enhancement in the Centre for Learning

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Enhancement and Research (CLEAR) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was formerly Head of Professional Development in Learning Technology Services at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Carmel has had over three decades of experience in teaching and research in higher education in Australasia, southern Africa, and Britain in the fields of chemistry, science education, second language learning, eLearning, and higher education curriculum and policy matters. Current research interests include evaluation of innovation in higher education, strategies for embedding learning support into the curriculum, and understanding the broader implementation of the use of technology in higher education. She is actively involved in several professional organisations in the field of computers in education, including being Chair of the ED-MEDIA Conference Steering Committee, run by the Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education. She is on the editorial board of 13 international journals and is a regular reviewer for many other journals. She has presented 23 Keynote addresses at international conferences. She is a prolific author with over 260 academic publications; publications since 2000 are listed online. Further details at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/staff/staff7.htm. Andy Curtis (BEd, University of Sunderland, UK; MA, PhD, University of York, UK) is currently the Director of the English Language Teaching Unit at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is also an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at CUHK. Before returning to Hong Kong, he was the Executive Director of the School of English at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, from 2002 to 2005. In these roles he has gained considerable experience of foreign and second language education policy, especially in relation to English as an international language. He has published in a wide range of journals on English language education, teacher professional development, and language programme development, and he has worked with more than 10,000 ELT professionals in more than 20 countries over the last 15 years. His current research interests include leadership in language education and change management in tertiary education contexts.

Chapter 6 Martin Cortazzi is a visiting professor in the Centre for Applied Linguistics (CAL) at Warwick University, UK, and at a number of key universities in China. He is also Academic Advisor for English at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. He has taught applied linguistics courses for English teachers in Britain, China, Turkey, Lebanon,

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Malaysia, Singapore, Iran, Brunei, Norway, Cyprus, and elsewhere. He has taught and trained teachers in both primary and secondary schools, and has extensive experience of teaching and serving as external examiner for MA courses and supervising and examining for PhD degrees in Britain and internationally. Martin has published books and articles on narrative analysis; the application of metaphor analysis; issues in language and education such as literacy, vocabulary learning; and cultures of learning. He has a particular interest in raising cultural awareness in English teaching and in applying discourse analysis to ELT materials. His current research examines narratives and students’ metaphors as a way to explore issues in intercultural experience, identity, and cultures of learning. Dr Lixian Jin is Reader in Linguistics & Health Communication at De Montfort University, UK, and a visiting professor at a number of key universities in China. She is an Executive editorial board member for International Journal of Language & Communication disorders, UK & USA; the Review Editor for Asian Journal of English Language Teaching (AJELT), Hong Kong; and a Board member for The East Asian Learner, UK. Lixian has taught applied linguistics courses and trained English teachers and speech & language therapists at universities in China, Cyprus, Turkey, Hong Kong, and Britain. She has also been appointed as an external examiner for research students and for degree programmes in British universities. She is regularly invited to give public lectures, keynote speeches and workshops to international and professional audiences, for example by the Royal Colleges of Speech and Language Therapists, Nursing, General Practitioners; by the British Council; and by universities in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and in Middle East and European countries. Prof. Cortazzi and Dr Jin have been conducting joint research into Chinese and other learners of English for more than 15 years. Their research, with over 100 publications, has been widely recognised by researchers and university teachers from the West and in East Asia. They are the series editor and cultural editor for College English textbooks: Creative Reading and Creative Communication, jointly published by Macmillan publishers and Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. They are currently writing a series of teachers’ books for another set of College English textbooks published by Macmillan publishers and Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press. Wang Zhiru is a professor in English at Hubei University, China. She took her BA in English language and literature at Hubei University, China, and MA in linguistics for English language teaching at Lancaster

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University, UK. She has taught on courses such as English, Teaching Methodology, English for Specific Purposes, Language Learning Principles and Strategies. She took her BA in English language and literature at Hubei University and MA in linguistics for English language teaching at Lancaster University, UK. As teacher trainer, she worked in Sino-British Adult Education Centre from 1998 to 2002, and has been teaching and training teachers in secondary schools and colleges ever since. She also taught Chinese at the University of Southern Queensland and Woolongong University in Australia. Wang has conducted research into the fields of task-based instructions, teachers’ perceptions on coursebooks, learners’ adaptability to Web-based learning environments, metacognitive strategies in the processes of language learning with publications on gender differences in metacognitive strategy use in a Web-based learning context (2007), different students’ adaptability to online learning, the checklist for coursebook evaluation (2002), group work as an important classroom resouce (2002), etc. She is regularly invited to give public lectures, keynote speeches, and workshops to professional audiences. Her current research interest is in metaphors along with others like learner variables, Webbased learning, and teacher education.

Chapter 7 Paul Vincent Smith is currently the Student Support Officer for the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, and a doctoral student in the School of Education at the same university. Previously, he was Director of the English Language Centre at the Central European University in Warsaw, where he taught academic writing for 3 years. Paul lived for 5 years in Poland after taking degrees in Sociology and Social Anthropology in the UK, and it is this international experience that inspired his current doctoral research. The various research interests that are influencing this project include ethnomethodology, academic literacies, contrastive rhetoric, argument theory, Peircean philosophy of science, and qualitative methods, especially those pertaining to textual analysis. He has one prior publication, joint-editing (with Sławomir Kapralski) a 2002 collection of essays from Masters’ students at CEU, called Democracies, Markets, Institutions (IFiS Press, Warsaw). After receiving her BA (English Language and Literature) and MA (Linguistics) degrees from Peking University, China, Xiaowei Zhou began her PhD – now nearing completion – at the School of Education, University of Manchester, UK. This study builds on her interest in how

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individuals communicate with other individuals from different cultural contexts and negotiate their living when they are in different cultural contexts themselves. In particular, it explores the narratively constructed understandings of Chinese students on UK Masters programmes vis-à-vis their academic acculturation process. In a concurrent funded study, she explored the intercultural aspects of UK undergraduates’ study-abroad experiences with a view to designing an intercultural course to consolidate their learning from this study-abroad experience. Her contribution to this book, the chapter jointly written with Paul Smith, represents a further area of exploration regarding the experiences of Mainland Chinese students negotiating their participation in the UK higher education system.

Chapter 8 Professor Shu Yang is Dean of the School of Foreign Studies of China University of Mining and Technology (2000–) and Vice Dean of Foreign Languages Department, Xuzhou Normal University (1995–9). She was a visiting professor to Manchester Metropolitan University during 1997–8 and to Cambridge (1999, summer). Her academic interests are linguistics and intercultural communication. She has published over 30 articles in Chinese journals, and one in an American journal Language and Women (2001), and two books in English published: Language, Culture and Communication (2006), and Language and Culture: A comparative Study (2007).

Chapter 9 Dr Siobhan Devlin is a principal lecturer, and Learning, Teaching and Assessment Manager in the School of Computing and Technology at the University of Sunderland. For 8 years she has also been a personal tutor to students in her school, many of whom are international students. In 2003 she undertook a two-year University Teaching Fellowship study into the experience of and provision for international students at the university. As a result of this, she has set up several initiatives for international students in support of their learning, welfare, and wider social integration in the local community. She spent 4 years as a member of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) Internationalisation Task Group which supports, informs, and promotes the international student employability agenda to students, employers, HE educators, and support professionals. Her research interests also

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include the impact of language and culture on e-communication and e-learning. Nicola Peacock worked at Bournemouth University for 7 years, creating and developing the international student support function within the context of the ‘internationalisation at home’ agenda, working to both enhance the international student experience and promote an international experience for all students. She is currently researching patterns of interaction between diverse groups of students, funded by the Prime Minister’s Initiative 2, and the overlap between diversity and equality and internationalisation agendas in collaboration with thinking-people, as funded by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU). Both projects are ongoing. She now works as International Student Support Manager at the University of Bath.

Chapter 10 Viv Edwards is Professor of Language in Education at the University of Reading where she is also Director of the National Centre for Language and Literacy. She is Editor of the international journal Language and Education and is Series Editor for the New Perspectives in Language and Education series published by Multilingual Matters. She has published and researched very widely in the areas of linguistic diversity, language, and education and literacy learning. Her most recent book, Multilingualism in the English-Speaking World (Blackwell, 2004) was selected as the British Association for Applied Linguistics’ book of the year 2005. Professor An Ran received her PhD at the University of Reading on ‘The experiences of Mainland Chinese families of British education’ in 1999. She is currently Dean of School of International Education at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou. Her main research interests are multicultural education and intercultural communication. Currently, she is the principal researcher on several national research projects on the intercultural communication competence of international students in China. Her publications are in the areas of cultural awareness, educational marketing, teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and intercultural communication.

Chapter 11 William Littlewood taught languages at secondary schools in the UK before taking up a post in teacher education at the University College of Swansea, Wales. He moved to Hong Kong in 1991 to participate in a

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curriculum development project for English and has worked there since then. He is now involved in pre- and in-service teacher education in the Department of English at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has presented conference papers and conducted seminars in many parts of the world and conducted several projects which explore the perceptions and attitudes of second-language learners in the classroom. He has published widely in areas related to language teaching and his books and articles have been used in teacher education in many countries.

Afterword Tricia Coverdale-Jones is a principal lecturer in EFL in the School of Languages and Area Studies at the University of Portsmouth. She teaches Intercultural Communication and International Business Communication at undergraduate and postgraduate levels; formerly she also taught German language and culture, and Linguistics. Tricia is also the Faculty eLearning Coordinator. With a long-standing interest in eLearning, CALL, and using Computer-mediated communication in various forms, she has an interest in cross-cultural issues in online contexts. She has presented papers at many conferences and published papers on these topics. Tricia is also the Course Leader for a BA degree on which many international students study. For her work in raising the profile of international students’ needs and in the dissemination of good practice to colleagues, she was awarded a Learning and Teaching Award by the University of Portsmouth in 2007. She co-edited a special issue of the journal Language, Culture and Curriculum on the Chinese learner in 2006, with Dr Paul Rastall. She is also a member of the editorial review panel for the journal Asian Journal of English Language Teaching (AJELT ).

Index Academic cultures 130, 142, 169 Acculturation 230ff Adaptation 178–9, 236

Cross-cultural Communication education 3, 68 studies 110, 223ff See also intercultural communication Cultural influence (on China) 147–8 Curriculum, internationalisation of 9, 15, 29, 58ff, 86, 89–90, 94–5, 99

Bilingual education 58, 60, 85–102 Bilingual Policy 85–102 Bologna Process 75–76 Brain drain 36 Campuses, Branch 5, 73, 77 Change in China 36, 51–52, 223 Conceptual change 91–98 China Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange 1 China State Language Test 98 China University of Mining and Technology 223 Chinese family investment 5, 125 Obligation to family 75 Chinese Higher Diploma 1, 47 Chinese Ministry of Education 1, 35, 40, 51 Chinese “problem” 16, 24, 28, 130–1, 137 Chinese University Entrance Test 39, 41, 45 Chinese University of Hong Kong 85ff, 223 Chinese University Management 7, 33ff, 50, 61, 64 Chinese teacher 107ff CILT 224 Confucian heritage 107ff, 193–4, 201 Confucius 108–112 Confucius Institute 62, 64 Consultancy/ Knowledge transfer 4, 7, 14, 16, 227 Cooperation/Collaboration 1, 10, 35, 48, 57ff, 82ff Council of Europe 34 Cross-border Higher Education 72ff

Degree, Double 3, 40, 63, 66, 99 Single 3, 40 Denham, John 35, 226 Distance learning 3, 34, 72–3, 77–79 Employability 3, 5, 45ff, 136, 172 Enhancing students’ experience 85ff, 229 Expansion of student numbers in China 33, 45 Exchange programmes 29, 697, 76ff Externally validated programmes 34, 90 Face 156 Foundation programmes 41 “Four Modernisations” 36, 57 Franchising 6, 34 Friendship 124, 166, 170, 183, 189–190, 205 Funding Chinese universities 5, 37, 43–4, 47 HK universities 2, 85ff UK universities 5, 26, 49, 74, 224 GATS 32ff “Ghettoisation” 67–9,133, Isolation 188–190 Globalisation 2, 14ff, 67, 72ff, 225 Graduate outcomes 85ff, 95 Groupwork 199–201

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Index HEI 225 Higher Education Academy (HEA) 228 Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) 228 Hong Kong Institutions 4, 7, 85ff Identity 14, 86, 95 IELTS (International English Language Testing System) 98, 99 Individualism/Collectivism 121, 126, 156–160, 191–2, 196 Induction 235–6 Integration/interaction 166–170, 175–6, 178, 211 In class 168, 206–10, 214 Intercultural communication 42, 111, 145, 173, 223ff issues 228 learning 86, 229 International College(s) 41, 51 International office In China 6, 39ff, 172–03, 176, 182, 201–2 Knowledge 110ff Knowledge Society 17 Language enhancement 85ff Language policy 85, 94ff Learning culture 78, 108ff, 134, 139, 195, 202, 206, 210 Learning enhancement 85ff, 228ff Lisbon Declaration 75 Liverpool-Jiaotong University 226 Market(isation)/ Marketing 4, 5, 14, 25, 33ff, 50ff, 58, 68, 75, 187 Memorisation 114, 194–5, 202, 206–207 Methodology (of teaching) 44, 217ff Mission (statement) 3, 44, 61, 74, 77, 86 Mobility (of students) 62, 66, 73, 136–8 Motivations of students 227 of institutions 4, 7, 33, 74ff, 224 Ningbo-Nottingham University 226 Non-state-planned students 7, 39, 58

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Observatory on borderless HE 2, 6 OECD 76 Open-door policy 57, 60, 67 “Otherisation” 17, 228, 235 Parental demands 4, 45 Teacher as parent 114ff Participation 206, 211ff Partnerships 6, 8, 33ff, 79ff, 226ff Pastoral care 188ff, 202 Patriotism 153–4 Pedagogical issues 1ff, 29, 78, 212 Persistence 138 PhD supervision 1 Policies and practices 1, 16, 39, 51, 57ff, 97ff, 172, 175, 190ff Practical approaches 4, 229ff, 235 Premature closure 206, 213–14 Prime Minister’s Initiative (PMI) 227, 235, 246 Programmes 1 + 3, 3 + 1 2, 74ff Providing Universities 37 Power distance 154 QAA 6 Quality (assurance) 2, 4, 50, 67–9, 76, 88–91, 224 Receiving Universities 37 Recruitment (see Student enrolment) 4, 22, 33, 45ff, 73ff, 226 Research 4, 227 Resources 8, 13, 73, 75 Scholars 6, 36ff Self-funding students 4, 58, 138, 171–2, 186, 224 Shandong University 59ff, 223 SIETAR UK 234 Small cultures 130, 144 Social activities 79, 167ff, 177 “Social loafing” 206, 214–5 Speaking 172, 174–6, 183, 196 State-planned Student numbers 3, 7, 39, 74, 79, 86 Stereotypes 3, 206, 225, 29, 235 Student Changing values 86, 134

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Choice of courses 78–80, 137–8, 171 Demand 4, 72 Enrolment (see also recruitment) 33, 226 Evaluation 90–92 Expectations 79, 108ff, 130, 141, 182, 202 Experience 2, 141, 169–70, 182, 185ff, 227ff Motivation, instrumental 154, 157, 188 Perspectives 2, 134, 236 Rural 151 Student-teacher relationships 114, 124, 192–4 Study skills 194–7 Support Academic 130, 134, 139, 141, 196 Student 72, 75, 80, 173, 177, 229 Tallack, Douglas 227 Teacher 107ff A good teacher 96ff, 209 Chinese teacher 107ff TEAL (Teaching East Asian Learners) 245 TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) 98, 99

“Top-up” year 228 Trans-national Higher Education (TNHE) 2, 33ff UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA, formerly UKCOSA) 229, 235 UNESCO 34 University of Bournemouth 236 University of Manitoba 234 University of Middlesex 234 University of Newcastle 13 University of Portsmouth 224 University of Sunderland 236 Values Changes in 3, 157–8 Chinese/Western 105, 108, 147 Instrumental 149, 154–6 Official 117 Surveys 149 Writing Feedback on 141, 143 Plagiarism 134–5, 197–201 Style 140, 143 Work Experience/placement 171–2, 176, 192, 228, 230, 233, 235 World Trade Organisation (WTO) 58