Academics’ View on Chinese Students’ Academic Transition into Undergraduate Studies in Britain

Xu D., Roddy E. (2019) ‘We All Need Cultural Awareness and Cultural Affinity’: The Academics’ View on Chinese Students’ Academic Transition into Undergraduate Studies in Britain. In: Carter J., Rosen C. (Eds) Transnational Higher Education in Computing Courses. Springer. Cham.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28251-6_7

Despite the growing trend in more Chinese students coming to the UK for studies, they still face considerable problems and difficulties in adapting to their academic studies within a different learning environment, due to the cultural and pedagogical differences they may confront. From the academics’ perspectives, this research explores the issues that impact the academic transition of Chinese students taking undergraduate studies in Britain, in order to improve the teaching and learning practice within British Higher Education. It provides a practical framework that incorporates the influential factors and practical suggestions around the Chinese students’ academic transition in relation to the cultural and pedagogical differences. It is contended that the cultural awareness should be initiated and the cultural affinity should be nurtured among the Chinese students, academic staff, and university management authorities, to improve the teaching and learning experience within the British Higher Education context. After all, every university wants each of its students to succeed and maximise the value of their experiences within university campus.

Author Bio

Dr. Dongsheng Xu is a lecturer in Hainan International College, Beijing Sport University, China. He received his PhD in business and management from the University of Salford, UK in 2020. Before that, He was a business development practitioner in Sino-British higher education sector for more than 10 years as the chief representative for a British university in China. His research interests include transnational education management, intercultural studies and acculturation, management communication, business technical innovation and risk management, etc. He can be contacted via d.xu1@edu.salford.ac.uk