Academic Experiences of International Students in Chinese Higher Education

Mei Tian, Fred Dervin, Genshu Lu

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000042412
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación superior

Since China proposed its "Belt and Road Initiative" in 2013 to boost its influence on international affairs and "cultivate international contacts who are friendly toward China", the number of foreign students in China has surge exponentially. Yet global political changes have added tensions and challenges to the education of international students.

This book is one of the first works to discuss the educational experiences of international students in China. Using survey research and qualitative studies to study participants in degree-bearing and language programmes at regular universities and Sino-foreign universities located in different parts of the country, the book covers a variety of topics across education, including international students' intercultural experience, teacher–student classroom interaction, learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign language, academic adaptation and identity formation in higher educational contexts.

This book is essential for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers of international student education in China. It can also benefit prospective international students considering pursuing higher education in China.

1 Introduction

International students in China

Mei Tian, Fred Dervin and Genshu Lu

International student mobility

The number of students pursuing higher education outside their home countries has been increasing, now hitting its historic high. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2019) statistics show that there were 5.3 million internationally mobile students in tertiary education in 2017, up more than 2.5 times from 2 million in 1999. The accelerated growth of international students is a response to the trend of globalisation and the consequent significance of knowledge economy in individual countries and worldwide (Altbach, 2004).

The globalised higher education, however, is marked by developmental inequality among countries (Altbach, 2004). The flow of international student mobility is predominantly from “peripheral”, developing and non-English-speaking countries to “central”, developed English-speaking countries, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia (ibid.). In 2001, for example, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia together attracted 43% of the 2.1 million students engaged in international education (Institute of International Education, 2018).

Since then, the dominance of the East-West flow of international student mobility has been challenged (Bhandari & Blumenthal, 2011). The United States and the United Kingdom are slowly losing their share in the world international student market, while regional educational hubs are emerging, such as South Africa (Lee & Sehoole, 2015), Turkey, Mexico and Russia (Kondakci, Bedenlier, & Zawacki-Richter, 2018). In Asia, South Korea (Lee, Jon, & Byun, 2017), Singapore, Malaysia (Mok, 2011), the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain (Knight & Morshidi, 2011) and China (Altbach & de Wit, 2017) are also changing their roles from traditionally sending countries to study abroad destinations. Behind the growing inflows of international students to these “new” destinations are extensive national initiatives and generous government investments to sustain knowledge-driven economy (Sidhu, Ho, & Yeoh, 2011) and enhance educational competitiveness (Mok, 2011).

In relation to regional and global international student mobility, a country of significance is China. Once an exporter of international students, China is now the third-largest study abroad destination in the world, following only the United States and the United Kingdom. Similar to the other emerging hubs “planned” by national policies (Kondakci et al., 2018), government investment and initiatives feature the development of China’s international education. With funding secured by the national “985” project, the “211” project and the most recent “double world-class” initiative, Chinese higher education institutes (HEIs), particularly its first-tier universities, play a key role in cultivating “international personnel who are well-versed in Chinese and friendly toward China” (Kuroda, 2014, p. 448). Linked to the high-profile “One Road One Belt” strategy, international student graduates are expected to “make good impressions to the world, to make more people think well about China, and to promote mutual understanding” (Ma & Zhao, 2018, p. 737).

International student enrolment in China

International student education in China can be traced back to 1,300 years ago during the ancient Sui and Tang Dynasties (Cheng, 2012). In 1950, the second year after its foundation, the People’s Republic of China welcomed its first group of international students, 33 students from East European countries (Li & Tang, 2015). From 1950 to 1978, international student recruitment slowly expanded to other developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The major aim of international student education during that period was to fulfil internationalist obligations for educational assistance (Chen & Qu, 2016). In those years, around 12,800 students studied in China, all of whom were sponsored by Chinese government scholarship (Zhao, 2015).

The implementation of China’s “opening-door” policy in 1979 marked a new era of the country’s international student education. In 1979 Chinese universities started to recruit self-funded students (Cui, 2008). In the following ten years, roughly 26,000 self-funded international students studied in China, most of whom were from Japan, the United States and other developed countries (Cui, 2006). International student education was further promoted by Deng Xiaoping’s “Southern Tour Speech” in 1992, which called for “deepening the reform, expanding the opening-up”. In 1999 the number of international students in China reached 44,711, 88.35% of whom were self-funded (MoE, 2015). The top five source countries in 1999 were Japan, South Korea, the United States, India and Germany (ibid.).

Since the start of the new century, with its booming economy and accelerated development of higher education, China as a destination country has increased popularity among international students. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of international students studying in China grew at an average rate of over 10% annually (see Figure 1.1; China Association for International Education, 2008, 2010; MoE 2002, 2004–2008, 2010a, 2012). The only decrease in number was during the 2002–2003 period when China suffered from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic (MoE, 2004). In 2010 China’s Ministry of Education (2010b) released its first strategic plan on international student recruitment, the Study in China Scheme, announcing a target of becoming the largest destination country in Asia by 2020. The target was achieved in 2017 (MoE, 2017). In 2018, 492,185 international students from 192 countries studied in 1,004 HEIs in China (MoE, 2019b). China is ranked the third most popular destination country for international students, following the United States and the United Kingdom (Institute of International Education, 2018).

Figure 1.1 Number of international students in China.

China’s attempt to boost its soft power has been intensified with its implementation of “the Silk Road Economic Belt” and “the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” initiatives (known as “Belt and Road”). Proposed in 2013, the “Belt and Road” initiative is intended to connect China with Central Asia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (China.org.cn, 2015). As a supporting document, the Ministry of Education issued in 2016 a notice of “Promoting the Jointly Building of ‘Belt and Road’ Education Action” (MoE, 2016). The Action stated that China will work together with countries along the “Belt” and the “Road” to jointly build a “Belt and Road” education community, and that China will undertake more responsibilities to contribute to the regional education development. By far, China has signed a mutual recognition agreement for higher education qualifications with 24 “Belt and Road” countries (MoE, 2019a). In 2016 the state established the Chinese government “Silk Road” scholarship, annually funding 3,000 talents from “Belt and Road” countries to study in China (MoE, 2016). Following this national policy, provinces, cities and universities have set up scholarships to expand the enrolment from countries along the “Belt and Road” routes (see Scnews.org, 2017; Xinhua.net, 2017). In 2018, 260,600 international students from 64 “Belt and Road” countries studied in China, accounting for 52.95% of the total (Yidaiyilu.org.cn, 2019).

Attempts to use higher education as a soft power tool are, however, imbued with tension. Differing from traditional destination countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, the proportion of international students in non-degree courses in China is high (see Figure 1.1). Short-term Chinese courses and many degree programmes, particularly in the Chinese language and medicines, are designed and administrated for international students only. Separating international students from domestic students makes English-mediated instruction feasible; the English-mediated courses, however, put pressures on the shoulders of both Chinese faculty and non-native English speaking students (He & Chiang, 2016). Meanwhile, the separation of teaching increases educational costs at both institutional and national levels, and limits the scope of international education development (Cheng, 2012). These tensions raise concerns over the extent to which Chinese universities can appropriately respond to international students’ academic demands (e.g. Ma & Zhao, 2018), particularly in English-medium instruction programmes (He & Chiang, 2016).

Academic experience of international students in China

English academic literature has been focused on China’s out-flow student mobility. This is not surprising, as China was not a major receiving country of international students until the turn of the century. The recent increase in the number of international students studying in Chinese institutions has led to studies of these students’ experiences beginning to appear in international literature. These studies, though sparse in number, discuss significant issues in China’s international education. A brief review of the studies is provided below, based on which we position the focus of this volume.

First, the existing research explores the reasons for international students to choose China as their study destination. Ma (2017) conducted an exploratory interview study with 42 full-time students in different HEIs in China and found that prospects of China’s economic development were the most important factor influencing the interviewees’ choice. The booming economy was also revealed as a major pull factor for international students in Beijing (Wen & Hu, 2019) and Shanghai (Ding, 2016). Haugen’s (2013) interviews in Guangdong and Zhejiang, revealed different reasons for African students’ choice of Chinese universities: the scholarship interviewees stressed improved job prospects and commercial opportunities, while the self-funded interviewees were attracted by China’s economic development, the relative ease of obtaining a visa, and low tuition fees and living costs. It is argued that the international students’ over-stress on non-academic reasons for choosing to study in Chinese HEIs reflects the need for China to ensure high quality of education.

Second, existing research has investigated international students’ satisfaction with their experience in China and the factors influencing their satisfaction. Akhtar, Pratt and Bo (2015) surveyed 110 African students in Chinese universities. The study found that prior intercultural experiences, a broader circle of friends, awareness of cultural differences and submission assignments in English significantly predicted the students’ satisfaction with their life experiences in China, while over-expectation of China negatively related to their experiences and adjustment. Wen and her colleagues in Tsinghua University, using an adapted I-graduate, surveyed 1,674 international students in Beijing in 2012. The research reported that the participants were more satisfied with their academic experiences than with university support services (Hu, Wotipka, & Wen, 2016), whilst regarding the academic experiences the participants were least satisfied with teachers’ poor command of English and inadequate interactions with faculty (Wen, Hu, & Hao, 2018). Ding’s mix-method research (2016), involving 40 international students in interviews and 1,993 in a questionnaire survey in Shanghai in 2013, revealed consistently low levels of satisfaction among the participants with the quality of education and university services they received.

Third, other research discussed national policies through case studies of Chinese educational programmes provided to international students. Wang and Curdt-Christiansen (2016), using the “ethnography of language policy”, discussed the implementation of a programme of learning the Chinese language as a foreign language at a 211-project university in central China (p. 725). The study revealed the tensions between the government’s and the institutions’ perceived rationales of internationalisation, between the courses of the Chinese for general purposes offered by the universiti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• 1 Introduction: international students in China
• 2 China’s international student recruitment as “outward-oriented” higher education internationalisation: a historical approach for analysing challenges during the “Belt and Road” Initiative era
• 3 Who are the waiguoren now? Chinese students at a British university in China
• 4 Instructional communication with international students in China: perceptions of the Chinese professoriate
• 5 The significance of silence: variations in perceptions and experiences of “silence” in international classroom settings
• 6 Being the Other in international educational settings: the case of American students’ experiences in Mainland China
• 7 Informal learning: approaching Chinese language and culture in authentic contexts
• 8 Learning environment, academic engagement and personal development: a survey study of international undergraduate students in China
• 9 International students in China: the need for us all to unlearn