A longitudinal study of Chinese postgraduate taught students’ experience in the UK: how Chinese students have changed during the transition process?

Jie Zhang copy

Jie Zhang

University of Glasgow

Abstract

UK, as one of the most desired destinations for studying abroad, has attracted a large number of international students. Chinese international students are the largest group of all international students in the UK and China is the only country that presents a significant increase in student numbers. Chinese international students have made important financial, academic and cultural contributions to the UK. Given the large number of Chinese international students and their potential contributions, it is crucial to enhance their experiences and strengthen benefits for both Chinese international students and host countries. Compared with undergraduate and PhD students, postgraduate taught students in the UK are usually enrolled in one-year programmes, which may face more challenges and gain more benefits from their experiences in the UK. The aim of this research is to explore Chinese international postgraduate taught students’ transitional experiences and, in particular, the role of their social networks on such experiences in the UK. This two-phase longitudinal study conducted semi-structured interviews across the whole academic year. The photo-elicitation technique and social network diagrams were used as innovative methods to facilitate in-depth interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed as an inductive data analysis approach. Emergent findings include how students have changed when facing challenges on academic study, live away from families, and loneliness and homesickness, how they have changed their understandings of critical thinking, and how they deal with relationship with Chinese and non-Chinese, which is all beneficial for enhancement of their confidence, independence and maturity.

 

摘要

英国作为最受欢迎的留学目的地之一，吸引了大批国际学生。中国留学生是英国留学生中人数最多的，而且中国是唯一一个在英国大幅增加留学人数的国家。中国留学生为英国做出了重要的财政，学术和文化贡献。鉴于中国留学生数量众多，潜在贡献巨大，提高中国留学生在英国的体验和促进双方的利益至关重要。与本科生和博士生相比，英国的研究生课程只有一年的时间，这可能会让他们从在英国的经历中，面临更多的挑战，学到更多的东西。本研究的目的是探讨中国国际研究生的经历与体验和他们的社交关系在英国的经历与体验中发挥的作用。这项研究采取了半结构化访谈，用于以学年为单位的两期纵向追踪研究。使用照片启发技术和社交网络图作为创新方法来促进深入访谈。解释性现象学分析（IPA）被用作归纳数据分析方法。目前出现的成果包括：学生在应对学习、远离家庭，孤独与思乡之情的挑战时是如何改变的，他们对批判性思维的理解有何不同，他们是如何处理与中国人和非中国人的关系的，这些对中国学生提高信心，独立意识和成熟度都大有裨益。

 

UK has been the second most popular destination for international students. Chinese international students are the dominant group, accounting for one fifth of the total number of international students in the UK (HESA, 2017). Chinese international students have made contributions such as making investment in economy by tuition fees and living costs, and bringing new ways of thinking and culture to enhance competition and diversity in the UK. Compared with undergraduate and PhD counterparts, Chinese international students at Master’s level may have different experience due to the nature of short-term Master’s programmes in the UK. Yet, there are limited studies focusing on this student cohort. This research aims to explore Chinese international postgraduate taught (PgT) students’ transitional experiences and the role of their social networks in the UK. More specifically, research questions are:

  • how Chinese international postgraduate taught (PgT) students adapt to a new academic and social culture during the transition process, and
  • how their social networks influence their transitional experiences in the UK.

 

A qualitative research method utilising photo-elicitation interviews was employed as part of a longitudinal study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in two phases: at the beginning of and near the end of the study programme. The employed photo-elicitation technique facilitates participants to reflect on their phenomenological experiences by providing more specific and in-depth accounts (Denzin and Lincoln, 2012). In this study, participants were asked to provide photographs based on given topics, which was followed by individual semi-structured interviews with maximum of an hour each. Additionally, social network diagrams were helpful to prompt students’ reflection and detailed description of networks and their relationships with different networks (Golden, 1992). In this research, participants were asked to draw different sizes of circles to represent how they value their current social networks. I have completed data collection with totally 35 participants for both phases, all interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed and I am currently doing data analysis. The Interpretative Phenomenological Approach (IPA) was undertaken using NVivo software to identify superordinate and subordinate themes.

 

As the literature indicates, Chinese international students could face some academic, social and life challenges when studying in the UK. From this study, Chinese postgraduate taught students also face academic challenges, including doing presentations, writing assignments and taking exams. It is noted that at the beginning of the study programme, Chinese students tend to seek help from Chinese classmates when having doubts rather than lecturers and tutors, and they prefer asking questions after the class rather than raising hands up in class. But interestingly, my research shows that some Chinese students turn not to ask questions with Chinese classmates, but directly seek help from lecturers and tutors, and have the courage and feel natural to ask questions in class near the end of the study programme.

 

Apart from the finding of challenge on academic study, living away from families is regarded as another challenge for Chinese international students. For Chinese students who live abroad for the first time, cooking and having a good relationship with roommates could be difficult. Chinese students reported that they didn’t have much cooking experience when they were in China and they find cooking as an unexpected challenge living in the UK. Additionally, some Chinese students talked about issues with their roommates, for example, some roommates make kitchen dirty and they would not like to clean it even after pointing out the problem. When near the end of the study programme, some Chinese students mentioned they have greatly improved their cooking skills and have a better relationship with their roommates.

 

Moreover, loneliness and homesickness are common challenges that Chinese international students would face. In my research, the reasons Chinese students frequently mention are that Chinese students spend too much time in study and have less time with friends, and some Chinese students live alone. Chinese students feel anxious and stressful when facing loneliness and homesickness from the beginning of the study programme, but it clearly shows that they have changed to a more positive attitude to cope with loneliness and homesickness. Some Chinese students realise that they should take the initiative to build friendship, develop some hobbies and even learn to enjoy loneliness and homesickness.

 

In addition, critical thinking has always been argued as a big challenge for international students, especially for Asian international students. In my study, it is not necessarily the case. Some students showed their clear understanding of critical thinking. Possible reason could be that they have studied in the UK or Europe before and some lecturers encouraged them to think critically in their undergraduate’s study in China. For students who never know critical thinking, as in study, some Chinese are not familiar with critical thinking from the beginning of the study programme, but they have gained a clearer understanding of what critical thinking means and how to use critical thinking in study and life.

 

Besides, Chinese students generally have good relationship with Chinese and they provide mutual help on academic study, life troubles and emotional support. It is argued that Chinese students face challenges such as language barrier, cultural differences, shyness when in interaction with non-Chinese. Although most Chinese students reported that there have difficulties in making friends with non-Chinese, there are some students having good friendships with non-Chinese through church, group work and social activities and have gained great encouragement and support from them. Some Chinese students also mentioned that they feel very nervous and shy to talk to non-Chinese from the beginning, but they have gradually improved their confidence and feel natural when interacting with non-Chinese.

 

This research addresses the gap in the literature on Chinese postgraduate taught (PgT) students’ experience and the role of social networks during the transition process in the UK. Chinese students have largely improved their confidence, independence and maturity by facing challenges during the year. Apart from presented emergent findings, further results are on the way to see a bigger picture of Chinese international students’ experience in the UK. As a large and growing number of Chinese international students, it is significant to see possibly changed and unchanged experience in more depth. This research is likely to contribute to theoretical and practical understanding that could facilitate Chinese international postgraduate taught (PgT) students’ successful completion and enjoy their transition process in the UK. It is also the hope that this research as well as other research on Chinese education mobility could make contributions to a more comprehensive picture overall.

 

 

Author Bio

Jie Zhang is a doctoral researcher from School of Education, University of Glasgow. Her research interests include international students, higher education, transitional experience, social networks and creative methods. Her current research focuses on Chinese international students in the UK and she uses creative methods such as the photo-elicitation technique and social network diagrams to facilitate research. Prior to taking her doctoral studies, she holds a master’s degree from Human Resources Management, University of Sheffield. All comments and suggestions are very welcomed. Please contact her by J.ZHANG.3@research.gla.ac.uk

‘Non-traditional’ International Mainland Chinese Students in the UK: An Exploratory Study of Factors Influencing Their Choice of International Higher Education

 

Zhe Wang Picture

Zhe WANG

Doctoral Student

University of Oxford

Abstract

Nowadays, there is an emerging group of self-funded Chinese international students from non-elite families in mainland China. Their emergence breaks the traditional concepts about Chinese (mainland) international students. This study aims to understand the factors that influence the choice of postgraduate education in the UK. Through a narrative analysis of eight ‘non- traditional’ Chinese international postgraduates in the UK, this study suggests Bourdieu’s theory can help understand the educational choices of this group. Through this qualitative study of the emerging group at a UK university, this study provides a critical perspective, suggesting these students are comprised of individuals from different social backgrounds. For some of them, their choice of international higher education (IHE) can be regarded as a result of their habitus, while for others, their choice of IHE is a result of their agency to accumulate certain forms of capital in the field of IHE. Both choices in turn reproduce social inequalities.

 

随着越来越多的自费中国（大陆）留学生来自于非精英阶层，他们的出现打破了对于中国留学生的传统印象。本研究致力于了解影响非传统留学生选择英国研究生教育的因素。通过对八名在英就读研究生课程的中国留学生的语篇分析，本研究发现布迪厄的理论有效地帮助研究者研究学生的留学选择。通过定性研究，本研究发现非传统的中国留学生来自于不同的社会背景。他们中的一部分的留学选择受到他们阶级惯习地影响，另为一部分将留学视作不同资本积累的途径；两者共同复制了社会的阶级不平等。

 

 

This report is based on my Master’s thesis, aiming to understand the choice of international higher education in the UK by the ‘non-traditional’ Chinese International students. As the significant contributors, the emerging groups of ‘non-traditional’ attracts the attention of many circles. The Wall Street Journal stated that: “as the number of foreign students surges … up more than 40% … are coming from middle-class backgrounds” (Chen, 2016)[1], and the investment of high-cost IHE is not an easy decision for them. Apart from the term ‘middle class’, other terms such as ‘middle income’ or ‘wage-earning class’ are used to characterise this group. The idea of ‘middle class’, however, is a controversial concept in the literature of China’s class studies. Then, instead of arbitrarily define participants as students from middle-class or middle-income families, I chose the term ‘non-traditional’ students to describe my participants. So, the research questions in my study are who ‘non-traditional students’ are and why there are more and more ‘non-traditional’ students going abroad to study. More specifically, this study aims to explore the factors influencing ‘non-traditional’ Chinese international students who choose postgraduate in the UK.

 

This study invites Bourdieu’s practice theory as the theoretical framework to understand educational choices of international students. It is found that the choice of IHE as practices structured by habitus, and practices generated from agency illustrates the dialectical relationship between structure and agency. From eight participants’ narratives, it was found that influencing factors vary according to social background.

 

A qualitative method was employed to answer the research question and address a gap in the knowledge. By using semi-structured interviews, rich data were found in the narratives. Narrative analysis was used as the data-analysis method to help analyse participants’ stories and understand how they make sense of stories.

 

There are five major findings in this study. Firstly, participants come from different middle classes, including old middle class, new middle class and first generation of middle class. Secondly, there are divergences in attitudes towards international higher education and ‘highly secure’ jobs. Thirdly, the choice of international higher education as practices is structured by habitus, and this choice in turn structures the field and intensifies a new rule of game as collective practices. Fourthly, social actors can actively accumulate forms of capital to gain social positions in the field with their choice of international higher education. Finally, Chinese postgraduate education is an abandoned field by participants in the new games. When these findings are related to the existing literature, it can be found that international cultural capital is regarded as a collectively accepted mode of convertibility among forms of capital. Meanwhile, as more students choose IHE, this cultural capital is conditioned by social institutions. This further explains the ambiguous attitudes towards IHE. Moreover, the fact that Chinese postgraduate education is replaced by international postgraduate education as a way to reproduce and produce social inequalities is a global phenomenon. Middle- classes’ choice of cross-national social reproduction confirms their social positions in the field. Based on cross-nationally reproduced inequalities, intra-national inequalities are more difficult to reduce. Another implication is that, although today’s scholars think China’s middle classes haven not formed a class consciousness, this study suggests that they have. By practicing collectively believed rules, their identity as being from the middle- classes are forming with status prestige, even though great intra-class differences and conflicts exist.

 

 

[1]Chen, T.-P.J., Miriam 2016. Why So Many Chinese Students Come to the U.S. [Online]. WSJ. Available from: http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-so-many-chinese-students-come-to- the-u-s-1462123552 [Accessed 29 August 2016].

 

Author Bio

Zhe Wang is a first year DPhil student at the University of Oxford. Her research interest includes transnational education mobilities, and international higher education, (im)mobility and citizenship. Holding a Master of Research degree in Education and a Master of Art degree in Linguistics, she is now studying in the school of Geography and the Environment. Her study experience makes interdisciplinary research be of fundamental importance to her both in terms of theory and research method. Drawing insights deriving from postcolonialism, postmodernism, and human geography, now she is doing a study on the choices of landing cities of Chinese overseas student-returnees. She can be contacted at zhe.wang@sant.ox.ac.uk

 

Educational Pathfinders? Unpacking Narrative Claims of North American and European Transnational Undergraduate Students in China

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Kris Hyesoo Lee

University of Oxford

Abstract: To date, research on International Student Mobility (ISM) has predominantly been concerned with movements from Asia to English-speaking and/or European nations. Consequently, there has been a marked imbalance in the current literature on ISM, which primarily defines Asian countries as the dominant actor for outbound student mobility. In contrast, educational migration from English-speaking and/or Western countries to China, as a newly emerging study abroad destination, is a relatively recent phenomenon, and consequently has been eminently under researched. Therefore, this qualitative study brings critical examination to bear on how transnational students from North America and Europe experience studying for a bachelor’s degree delivered by an offshore campus in China.

The data is collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, which complement with (digital) ethnographic observations of participants’ visual/textual narratives on their social media accounts. Sociological concepts and theories drawn from Michel Foucault and critical race theory/critical Whiteness studies are primarily used to theoretically frame a critical exploration of the narrative claims of international students on their educational experiences and choices.

The study sets forth commonalities as well as differences between transnational student flow to China and mainstream mobility. It highlights often personal and multi-layered ways in which transnational students make sense of their motivations for, and experiences of study abroad. Furthermore, place, space and materiality of international branch campus are analysed to explore the ways in which transnational students create meanings of their institutionally staged space of education, interact with others within and outside of it, and materially create power relations.

中文摘要

目前关于国际学生流动的研究主要关注从亚洲到讲英语和欧洲国家的移动，这导致目前国际学生流动文献中明显的不平衡，尤其是对亚洲国家作为外向学生流动主要输出者的定义。相比而言，从讲英语和西方国家到中国这个新发展的留学目的地的教育移民相对地是比较新的现象，所以相关研究也十分匮乏。有见及此，本项质性研究针对从北美和欧洲到中国的中外合作办学国际分校上本科的跨国学生的经历做出批判性的研究。

研究数据主要由问卷和半结构性访谈组成，再加上（电子）民族志性质的对于参与者在社交媒体上视觉/文字叙述的观察。理论方面，本项目采用福柯的，以及批判种族理论，批判白人研究等的社会学概念和理论来对这些国际学生的教育经历和选择方面的叙述进行批判地研究。

研究指出向中国的和主流的跨国学生流动的共同点和不同之处，尤其是关于此类跨国学生如何理解他们的留学动机和经历的个人性和复杂多层性。另外，通过对国际分校校园的地域，空间和实质进行分析，探讨跨国学生如何建构他们的制度化的教育空间，如何在此空间内外与他人互动，以及如何实质性地建立权力关系。

My doctoral research aims to offer, within the context of international branch campuses in China, a critical exploration of narrative claims of transnational students from Anglophone and European countries to study for English-taught undergraduate degrees in an unorthodox study abroad destination. In particular, it highlights often personal and multi-layered ways in which transnational students in China make sense of their motivations, decisions around their study abroad destination, and educational and non-educational experiences.

To date, research on International Student Mobility (ISM) has predominantly been concerned with movements from the Global South to major destination countries, particularly English-speaking and/or Western nations in the Global North. As such, ISM is often associated with the pursuit of English language and a Western education. In contrast, educational migration from English-speaking and/or Western countries to newly emerging study abroad destinations (e.g. China) is a relatively recent phenomenon, and consequently has never been thoroughly examined. In other words, there has been a marked imbalance in the current literature on ISM, which primarily defines Asian countries, China in particular, as a source of international students rather than a destination for such students. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to examine the motivations and experiences of these internationally mobile students from the Global North, who are important agents in reinforcing or reconfiguring current geographies of international higher education.

A cross-disciplinary review of current scholarship on ‘international student mobility’ and ‘internationalisation of higher education’ led me to an overarching question: how do international students from Anglophone and/or European countries define the field of international higher education and position themselves within it? This inquiry then involves three sub questions that guide my understanding of the overarching question:

 

  1. What are the motivating factors and considerations that inform the decision to study for a degree programme in China? In other words, what factors enable international students from European and Anglophone countries to ‘eschew’ education from their home country or other English speaking/European countries for education in an unconventional destination?
  2. What educational and non-educational experiences do international students from European and Anglophone countries (intentionally or unintentionally) obtain by studying in China?
  3. What are the perceived roles of international branch campuses as a social space in legitimating and/or enabling such motivations and experiences?

To answer the above questions, sociological concepts and theories drawn from Michel Foucault are primarily used to frame this inquiry theoretically, and to offer a critical exploration of the often complex narrative claims of international students on their educational experiences and choices. Particularly, I found the notion of subjectivity useful to look at the stories that are constructed for international students, and how power produces a particular subjectivity that is internalised and constitutes the ‘true story’ for them. This subject position is also observed from the ways that international students talk about their experience, because they talk about what they actively invest in the subject position during their stay in China. Places, spaces and materiality are also significant in the ways in which transnational students from the West shape the everyday life at an international branch campus in China. The physical context creates possibilities for meaning making that can be vital for these mobile young people’s experiences in an unorthodox study abroad destination. On the other hand, place, space, and materiality are embedded within ‘social norms’ that also open up possibilities for power relations, and exclusion.

The study draws on ethnographic data collected at an US university’s branch campus in China. The data is collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with 32 North American and European transnational students. I complement semi-structured interview accounts with (digital) ethnographic observations of participants’ visual/textual narratives on their social media accounts.

Findings point out that although the group of international students in my research do not fit in to the stereotype of ‘international students’, they develop subjectivities based on sameness and difference. While many students reported that the decisions to come to China were impulsive , my analysis shows that there is a dominant image of the cosmopolitan international student, which my participants tried to ‘become’. In addition, Whiteness was a major theme residing under the surface of the North American and European international students’ experiences in China. Although participants dominantly talked about racial privilege in China, it is similarly related to a broader privilege of mobility associated with Western nationality, English proficiency, and disposable income. Such privilege is not necessarily based on white complexion. Other international students, although in different degree, ‘acquire’ whiteness through their affluence, association with western culture, and institutional membership within an elite US school. In addition, analysis of the physical environment of participants’ transnational education, such as the international branch campus and urban space in China, describes how transnational students create meaning and conduct themselves within and outside of institutionally staged spaces, and how they materially create power relations and interplay with other actors involved.

By positioning the participants’ narrative accounts within the powerful discourse of neo-liberal globalisation and the internationalisation of higher education, this study demonstrates how these globally mobile students reinforce and/or undermine some of the taken-for-granted assumptions and dominant representation of international students in existing literature. The study concludes with a discussion of implications concerning commonalities and differences between Southward and Northward international student mobility, as well as a call for further research into the role of transnational student flow to newly emerging study abroad destinations.

 Bio:

Kris Hyesoo Lee is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford, where she conducts a sociological study of the transnational mobility through education, particularly contemporary migration from the West to China. She uses a range of disciplinary lenses including human geography, sociology, and education to deepen an understanding on the meaning of globalisation, international and transnational mobility, and identity and belonging. Prior to undertaking her doctoral studies, she served various roles in the higher education sector. She holds a master’s degree in Education from the University of Cambridge, where she was a member of Wolfson college.