Job Discussion Forums

[nomad soul]

U.S. Colleges Adapt as More Chinese Undergrads Come to Campus
By Devon Haynie, US News | 30 June 2015
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-colleges-adapt-more-chinese-undergrads-come-campus-123000224.html

Chinese undergraduate Tianyi Zhang had seen plenty of movies and TV shows about the U.S., but nothing could quite prepare her for what she would encounter on a North American campus.
"There are lots of differences in our living habits -- the food, the lifestyle," says Zhang, a rising senior and computer science major at Purdue University--West Lafayette. "What really shocked me is the use of the metric system. We use centigrade -- so when someone talked to me, they would say, 'It's going to be 100 degrees.' I was really shocked."

Zhang is one of the increasing number of Chinese undergraduates enrolling at U.S. colleges. In 2013-2014, more than 274,000 Chinese students came to the U.S. to study -- the most from any country and an 18 percent increase at the undergraduate level, according to the most recent Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange.

Many Chinese undergraduate students, who make up slightly less than half of Chinese students in the U.S., arrive in the country with poor English speaking skills and little understanding of how to operate within the U.S. higher education system. To bridge the gap, U.S. colleges are starting a variety of programs aimed at making transitions like Zhang's a little easier. One way U.S. colleges and universities are adapting to the influx of Chinese undergraduates is by hiring additional employees, including academic advisers and staff to handle immigration paperwork. Some schools, such as Purdue University and Ohio State University--Columbus, have hired Mandarin-speaking counselors to address the mental health needs of Chinese students.

Some schools, such as Purdue, Ohio State, University of Iowa, Indiana University--Bloomington and the University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign, have also started to host pre-departure orientations in Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. At the pre-departure orientation offered by Indiana University, for example, students and parents have a chance to pepper college staff with questions on their own soil. Parents are addressed in Chinese, while students are spoken to in English, giving them a taste of the U.S. classroom experience. "It makes them feel comfortable with Indiana University and gives them the opportunity to ask question after question about food and transportation and the libraries and tutoring," says Dennis Groth, vice provost for undergraduate education.

At Purdue, school officials also see the pre-departure orientations as a chance for staff cultural training, says Michael A. Brzezinski, dean of international programs. A variety of people have gone on the trips, including employees from residential life, food services and academic advising.

Some schools, such as the University of Iowa, are also helping instructors address language challenges. Professors in the business school, where most Chinese undergraduate students are enrolled, can bring their class lists to a native-speaking tutor who can help them pronounce Chinese student names. "It helps professors feel more comfortable calling on students if they can pronounce their names," says Pamela Bourjaily, director of the Judith R. Frank Business Communication Center, which offers the service. "We really want to show students that we respect who they are and that we respect them enough to learn their names."

Since Chinese and other international students tend to stick together, schools are also creating programs that encourage them to mix with domestic students, including forming buddy programs, being more purposeful about student housing and carefully selecting groups when assigning students projects. At some schools, such as Texas Christian University, international students can even get an introduction to football so that they can better relate to U.S. students.

Schools are also encouraging Chinese students to share and celebrate their cultures. At Bryant University, for example, the school has a Chinese dance troupe open to all students and an annual extravaganza where international students can share their cultural costumes, songs and other traditions. The campus celebrates Chinese New Year as well as other festivals, says Bryant President Ronald Machtley. "If you are going to bring them over and you want them to be successful, you have to let them celebrate who they are," he says. Many schools are offering formal English language training to international students and casual discussion groups where they can practice their English. Others have adjusted the food in their dining halls to cater more to Chinese tastes.

At Bryant, international students are required to come to campus before others freshman year for orientation -- in part because officials noticed Chinese students were jet-lagged and exhausted by the time classes were set to start. If there is a downside to these extra programs and services, it's that someone has to pay for them. And in recent years, fees and tuition for international students -- who often pay full price -- have been increasing.

"As the number of students from China and other parts of the world is expanding, schools are recognizing that they need to beef up services and one way to do that is to increase fees," says Peggy Blumenthal, senior counselor to the president at the Institute of International Education. "To some extent I think they are responding to real needs in the market. Chinese parents are speaking with their wallets. The number keeps soaring and it doesn't show any sign of leveling off."

(End of article)

[scot47]

Huge numbers of Chinese students in UK now too. I was astonished a couple of years back at how many Chinese (PRC) candidates there were at IELTS exam sessions in Glasgow and Edfinburgh.

[Dedicated]

I totally agree with scot47.

According to the UK's Higher Education Statistics Agency for 2013-2014,
there were more Chinese students at UK universities than from the whole of the EU. There were 87,895 registered Chinese students, of whom 58,000 were first year undergraduates.

I work at a top-ranking university in London and in some departments, such as Maths, Physics, Statistics, Economics, there are 70 per cent or more of Chinese students. We have Mandarin speaking counsellors and doctors in the student health centre to cope with language issues.

At some IELTS examining sessions, they are all Chinese.

[nomad soul]

Yet at the same time...

U.S. Schools Expelled 8,000 Chinese Students
By Liyan Qi, Wall Street Journal | 29 May 2015
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/05/29/u-s-schools-expelled-8000-chinese-students-for-poor-grades-cheating/

As tens of thousands of Chinese students prepare to study in the U.S., they might reflect on the experience of some of those who went before them. According to an estimate by a U.S. education company, some 8,000 Chinese students were expelled from American universities last year alone – and the main reasons were poor grades and cheating.

The estimate by WholeRen Education, a U.S. company that caters to Chinese students, was based on official U.S. data and a survey of 1,657 students expelled from American universities last year. More than 80% of these students were expelled because of poor academic performance or dishonesty, the company said. The company surveyed students about their U.S. study experience a year earlier but didn’t make any estimate for expulsions. The survey comes amid reports that federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have indicted 15 Chinese citizens for allegedly taking part in a college exam scheme.

Stacked up against the huge numbers of Chinese students who go to American universities every year, the failure rate isn’t so bad, WholeRen said, though it does suggest a change in the once-shining image of students from China. “Chinese students used to be considered top-notch but over the past five years their image has changed completely — wealthy kids who cheat,” said Chen Hang, chief development officer at WholeRen, which is based in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Two decades of rapid economic growth and a burgeoning middle class have given Chinese parents more resources to send their children abroad. Last year alone, 459,800 students went overseas to study, according to China’s Ministry of Education. Most financed their studies on their own or had scholarships from a U.S. university. Only 4.6% of them were sponsored by the Chinese government. Students from China account for nearly one-third of all international students in the U.S., taking the single largest share, according to a March report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Financially strained public universities are aggressively recruiting students from abroad.

Unlike American students who more frequently enter programs that fit their capabilities, Chinese students care most about the reputation of the school, trying hard to get into the top universities. But in reality they are not always prepared to study in highly-competitive programs, said Mr. Chen. More than half of the Chinese students expelled were from top 100 U.S. universities, the survey found. Cheating at exams, plagiarism and finding other students to write papers for them were frequently cited as the specific causes of expulsion, the survey showed.

In a commentary based on the survey, the state-run Guangming Daily said that the fact that thousands of students were expelled was not surprising given the large numbers of students in the U.S. It added that different education standards and different attitudes toward unacceptable behavior were partly to blame. It also said the problem wasn’t just with Chinese students that chose to go to the U.S. “This is an issue not just about students in the U.S., but about the entire higher-education system in China,” said the unsigned commentary.

(End of article)

[spiral78]

[johnslat]

8000 - just the tip of a very large iceberg, methinks.

Regards,
John