Keith Cook

Director of Studies (International)

Edge Hill University Business School

Consideration of the local environment and the expectations of the partner organisation

Managing the Edge Hill requirements with the partner institution, e.g. Quality, Administration and Registry

Managing the student experience, helping students adjust and learn

Middlesex University have a campus in Dubai and Mauritius

Newcastle University has 235 medical students in Malaysia with plans to increase numbers to 1,000 by 2018

The University of Reading is involved in the Iskandar project in Malaysia with multi-disciplinary (Business, Law, Pharmacy, Built Environment, English) from 2015

Herriot-Watt University has 50 overseas partners

The University of Nottingham has in excess of 5,000 students at Ningbo, China and nearly 4,000 students in Semenyih, Malaysia

Partnerships can be;◦ Franchises

Needs work, careful monitoring and Quality Management◦ Flying Faculty/Outreach

Resource rich but can guarantee quality Requires structured support when faculty are not present On-line support required

◦ On-line Programmes and blended programmes Low cost? Certification

◦ Articulation agreements with selected institutions Top-ups as in 3+1 or 2+2 Double Degree Awards?

◦ Overseas Campus Strong Quality Management and Reputation

There are a number of non-revenue producing exchange programmes which increase presence and possibly revenue◦ Student and Staff Exchanges◦ Erasmus Plus programmes◦ Worldwide Student Exchanges◦ ISEP

◦ Academic Partnerships◦ Double degree awards◦ Research Fora

Although the above named programmes are not directly revenue producing they can create opportunities

Edge Hill Business School currently has programmes in Singapore and China ◦ FY Institute of Technology, Singapore

BSc in Business and Management & BSc in Engineering Management

Chengdu Technical University, China◦ HE Diploma in Tourism & International Foundation

Studies Programme• Further developments planned

Health have articulation arrangements and potential partnerships in China and a possible academic partnership in Malaysia

Education have a number of burgeoning links with China including the Confucius Institute

Edge Hill also benefit greatly from the presence of Chinese academic staff

Distance away (about 7,000 miles) Time difference (+ 8 or +7 hours) Organisational Cultures◦ Deal and Kennedy’s (1982) view, “The way we do things

around here (and there)”

Portfolio workers at FY Institute of Technology International Culture Questions and directness Speed of operations Physical Resources The climate

Motivations of Trans National Education providers:◦ Prestige◦ Income◦ Inbound student recruitment◦ Developing students◦ http://www.britishcouncil.org/more/study-work-

create/generation-uk

Reasons for failure:◦ Poor due diligence◦ Poor market research◦ Failure of a partner ◦ Inability to ensure quality◦ Teaching and learning issues

Ideas published by Professor Dame Joan K Stringer, DBE Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Edinburgh Napier University

See the sheet marked, International Partnerships, Considerations to be made

All of international students will have to encounter a lack of familiarisation as well as a new studying environment.

Students attending universities in a culture different from their own have to contend with novel social and educational organisations, behaviours and expectations

In many cases the student may just have arrived in their new host country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLdHRjA8cq8

Use of English as a second language, i.e. non-native speakers• Meaning• Comprehension• Use of colloquialisms and slang• Speed of delivery

Teaching and Learning Issues

• Hours per week

• Style of teaching and assessment

Cultural issues, UK, France, USA, Asia

This can be seen in any newly arrived group of international students who will be battling unfamiliar weather, food, living environment, probably in their second language

The term ‘culture shock’ was first employed by Oberg (1960), who lists six negative characteristics:

1. Strain or stress relating to psychological adaptation

2. A sense of loss or deprivation resulting from the removal of friends, status, role, and personal possessions

3. Fear of rejection by or rejection of the new culture;

4. Confusion in role definition

5. Unexpected anxiety, disgust or indignation regarding cultural differences

6. Feelings of helplessness, including confusion, frustration and depression.

It is important for students that they learn how to cope in a short space of time in order to maximise their chances of learning effectively

Imagine the difficulties for Non-European students

女

In excess of a 420,000 overseas students came into the United Kingdom in 2013

There are also almost 600,000 students studying UK awards overseas on transnational programmes on UK overseas campuses or partner provision

Looking at Learner Adaptation

The study took place in the three locations, China, Singapore and the UK.

The settings were a university learning environments on two occasions (UK and China) and in the environment of a private college (Singapore)

Classrooms in China appear as highly formal, teacher focused, strictly disciplined environments with (compared to the West) large numbers of pupils

Primary and secondary school classes commonly have 50–60 pupils in them (Jin & Cortazzi, 1998)

Students are not usually encouraged to ask questions and there is an emphasis on students acquiring knowledge (facts) from the teacher.

Ryan (2013) relates how Chinese learners are frequently viewed as being different in their approach to learning

She notes how some Western academics might view them using a deficit model, i.e. considering what the Chinese learner cannot do, rather than what they can do

There has been criticism of the view of deficit or “lacks”

Ryan notes that Ballard and Clanchy (1997) did warn about the dangers of stereotyping but the information that they presented seems to have been selectively used

The eventual career and the importance of being self-reliant were both seen as very important by respondents

The issue of the adaptation to a new environment and a new way of learning was a shock in the beginning. ◦ This is not unexpected and links into the literature on culture

shock though it may not always be recognised by staff teaching on programmes

The approach to learning and studying showed that there was a higher level of ability to become self-reliant

The previous way of learning was, as the responses show, very different though this is not apparently unwelcome to them

Semi-structured interviews were developed from the analysis of themes which emerged from the questionnaire

Adaptation will take time and support will be needed

Different approaches to Learning and Studying are required

Interaction; The issue of “face” or mianzi; essays

Students can and do adapt, sometimes quite quickly

The New living environment will challenge unless the students stay in their nationality group

However if they stay in their nationality group they may be more sheltered

In China traditional learning always had; ◦ A Confucian, didactic or prescriptive system of learning◦ A lack of opportunity to develop their own learning◦ Lack of opportunities to ask questions in most classrooms◦ Larger class sizes◦ Assessments that were exam-based, essays were little used

BUT the research so far shows that………………. If Chinese students are able to recognise the issues

related to the differences in environment they adapt accordingly over what appears to be a relatively short time span

There appears to be an argument that the students themselves are able to respond to the challenges imposed by their new environments easier than was previously believed

Recruit the correct level of student

Bridging programmes

◦ Consider running these before programmes start

Induction programmes◦ UK Based

International Office

Department

◦ Support in the department, named international person

Transnational Develop support in-situ

Programmes will not work without specific learner support

Staff Development & Self-help groups

Working with overseas partners and international students (Transnational and incoming) will make demands but can bring good opportunities in many ways

Use Edge Hill support systems, Collaborative Provision, Admissions, Registry, International Office

Consider the support and learning needs of the students

Any questions?

Cortazzi, M. and Jin, L. (1998) The culture the learner brings: a bridge or a barrier, in Byram, M. et al (eds) Language Learning : An Intercultural Perspective. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Deal T. E. and Kennedy, A. A. (1982, 2000) Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1982; reissue Perseus Books, 2000

Oberg, K. (1960) "Cultural Shock: adjustment to new cultural environments" in Practical Anthropology

Ryan, J (2013) “Comparing learning characteristics in Chinese and Anglophone cultures: Pitfalls and insights” in Researching Cultures of Learning, Edited by Cortazzi, M and Lixian Jin (2013) Palgrave Macmillan