A concern sometimes expressed about the UK’s success in attracting international students is that the experience of home students will be weakened: classes will be swamped by those with poor English, residential ghettos of foreign students will emerge, and segregation will become the norm in student clubs and societies. And indeed with the growth of pathway programmes whereby international students spend months preparing for admission to their degree programmes, there are fears that such students will never break out of the international friendship groups they form on arrival.
So what actions can university authorities and others take to prevent this from happening?
Increase student intakes from other countries
Government and university policies have rightly dictated that international students must have competence in English to be successful – this is vital from both an academic and social perspective. In addition universities and pathway providers are increasingly recognising that diversity among the international student cohort is beneficial. And it isn’t a question of cutting back on recruitment from the buoyant Chinese market: rather the need is to increase student intakes from other world regions. Students from Latin America, for example, are woefully under-represented on UK campuses.
Introduce mixed tutorial and seminar groups
Student housing is a pertinent issue effecting integration, particularly in those cities where a separate housing sub-market has developed, catering for particular student groups – especially the Chinese. But if students don’t initially want to live in mixed nationality groups there are other ways of generating the confidence to live, work and learn with others.
Academic departments can play a huge role in nominating mixed tutorial and seminar groups, and in creating tasks and projects where the varied backgrounds and perspectives of students from different origins is a real advantage. After all, global corporations will expect future graduates to work not just in interdisciplinary but also in international teams. And student unions can act to promote and celebrate the diversity of their members through such things as international food or dance competitions and festivals. In most unions an increasing number of non-alcohol events are held, and cafés with no alcohol on sale are present on most campuses. These reflect cultural considerations that are crucial to extended integration.
The potentials for successful student mixing are there, and there is increasing understanding in senior higher education teams of how to achieve the internationalisation of the student experience that many universities aspire to. So, what are the remaining problems?
Research shows that home students understand the importance of integrating with their international peers to help prepare them for work in a global environment. But despite this, the reality is that many UK students don’t have the confidence to reach out and do so. Many home students transition from school or college to university with the expectation that they will continue to live their lives as before – but with a greater degree of independence.
International students present a huge opportunity to universities, and to home students, to enhance the global skills of everyone and hence create graduates who can take work or other opportunities anywhere in the world.
Provide opportunities for new friendships
A truly international campus environment benefits both domestic and international students. But these benefits do not come automatically. Actions have to be taken to generate them, and those must come from academic departments and from service providers within universities, from students themselves, and from pathway college providers.
Most students on arrival at university want to develop a sense of belonging, and one easy way to do so is to seek out others like themselves. But in creating the wider benefits of diversity on campus there is a need to take all students out of their comfort zones, to provide opportunities for new experiences and new friendships, and to help to build an understanding of different ways of life among those from varied backgrounds.
The “brightest and best” from abroad do not travel thousands of miles to immerse themselves in their home cultures, but instead they are seeking international environments which will make them highly employable in future. The greater task may be to convince some home students that they could also benefit in such environments.
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