1. Studying in Britain
1.1 Statistics
Studying abroad has proved to have many advantages for both the international student and the host country, especially if we’re considering students coming from lower-income countries of the so-called ‘Global South’. Britain is often one of the most popular destinations when considering studying overseas: it was found that in 2014-2015, 19% of students in the UK came from outside Britain, 14% of whom were international non-EU students (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2016). Other numbers include a total of 468,385 international students studying in the UK in 2019, 32% of which come from China, whereas other high percentages are from Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, India, Nigeria, and the United States. The most chosen subjects by these overseas students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, are often business and administrative studies, information technology, and engineering (Marginson, 2018).
1.2 Benefits
The popularity of the UK as a study-abroad destination is not unfounded: in fact, Britain can count on many ‘pull factors’ that lead international students to choose to study there, rather than in any other country. However students are not the only ones benefitting from this initiative: the host country’s economy and the quality of education are positively affected by the internationalization of higher education, as well as international communication and mutual global understanding (Chien, 2015). What students want from the UK are high-standard and -ranking universities, short-length degree programs, post-study employment prospects, and rights, implemented educational policies (e.g. financial support), easier application and visa processing compared to the U.S., an understanding of the Western culture, and a better knowledge of the English language. In addition to all these reasons why Britain's results are attractive to international students, there are many ‘push factors’ coming from the source countries that lead students to look for better study options, among which political and economic situations, educational accessibility, and quality, as well as environmental reasons (e.g. perceived safety).
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2. International students from the Global South
2.1 Advantages
Most international students moving to the UK to study come from poorer countries such as Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East, and they see the ‘Global North’ as a desirable destination for various reasons, mainly based on the global imagery of the Western supremacy and globalization (Stein & Andreotti, 2016). They get to find better political, economic, educational, and environmental situations compared to their home countries, and they also aim to get personal improvement and broaden their social networks, global competence, and multicultural experiences. Apart from the benefits that regard international graduates themselves and their own countries, the host country, in this case, Britain, benefits from their financial contribution given by higher tuition fees and living expenses, and it can use these funds to improve higher education internationalization policies, as well as have its perceived prestige and worldwide reputation increased.
2.2 Conflicts among stakeholders
However, this internationalization process can easily escalate into a conflict of interest among different stakeholders, and lead to the exploitation of international students under various perspectives. For example, non-domestic students are often seen by the host institution as ‘cash cows’, meaning that they become the major source of income for the university, and the government takes advantage of this to cut its funding; this means they are not considered to be ‘temporary citizens’ or ‘educational partners’, but they are seen as customers and identified with the amount of money they contribute giving instead (Lomer, 2018). This causes universities to welcome more and more inbound students, lowering their admission criteria, and the result is usually stressed and failing students who are put under too much pressure.
Another conflict arises when international students are seen as ‘competitors’ by the host country and students; on this purpose, Stein and Andreotti (2016) state: “In this trope of “competition,” international students are positioned as threatening outsiders who might either return home and enable their home country to compete better economically with the West or who might overstay their conditional welcome and threaten the entitlements of national citizens”, meaning that locals would have more competitors when it comes to gaining spots at universities and future employment.
Lastly, by hosting students coming from the Global South, countries from the Global North might be interested in being seen as humanitarian and benevolent from those nations who are still developing and therefore considered to be lesser, behind and victims of ‘absence’, and this turns international students into objects of charity (Stein & Andreotti, 2016).
2.3 Intercultural issues
As regards international students’ process of adjustment into the new educational environment, it can be difficult and needs to be split into academic and socio-cultural adjustment. The former involves dealing with academic writing and critical thinking given one’s skills, preparation, and language proficiency compared to what the UK standards are, for example in terms of independent study; students coming from the Global South often struggle with this part of the settling-in process, but Chien’s study (2015) proved that this is also the issue they try the hardest to solve, because their academic performance is usually the main factor they’re interested in. Most British universities do their best to try and provide academic assistance through support systems for international (and non-) students, but it is true that “both international students and teachers need to adjust to each other” (Chien, 2015) to be able to solve this problem.
However, what triggers students the most is usually the socio-cultural part of their adjustment process, especially if cultural dissimilarities between the sending and the host country are very noticeable (e.g. China and Britain). Communicating and engaging with the local community are considered to be challenging by most students coming from the Global South, partly because of their lack of interest in acculturalisation, due to a fear of losing their cultural heritage, and to the ease of finding support from students coming from the same cultural background (Chien, 2015), but also because British people might not put enough effort in making them feel welcomed. For this purpose, the issue of racism needs to be brought up: as a result of European colonialism, race has been seen as an “identity category” and a “power structure” (Bardhan & Zhang, 2017), and immigration policies contribute to making foreign students feel subjectified, marginalized and inferior based on where they’re from since universities categorize them regarding their nationality and culture (Lomer, 2018). Urban and Orbe (2007), talking about students from the Global South in the U.S., explain how the feeling of having to adopt new “rules” and being therefore an outsider makes them struggle with interacting with locals and start seeing themselves as racially different. This “split sense of selfhood” (Bardhan & Zhang, 2017) often results in international students feeling more comfortable interacting with each other, because they share the same condition of being foreign and discriminated against.
3. Advertising and media
As far as promoting Britain as a study-abroad destination is concerned, the British Council built country-specific adverts to encourage international students from the Global South to choose to undertake higher education in the UK. What is mainly communicated through these campaigns is that education and high-standard academic experience should only be part of the influence on the student’s decision, because studying in a foreign country also involves growing on a personal level and undertaking a cultural journey that makes you “discover you”. Some media messages are more effective than others, but they all have in common the focus on the tourist and social experience other than the academic one, which is surely realistic and more tempting for students themselves, but might seem inappropriate if exaggerated, especially through the eyes of who pays high amounts of money for the student’s education (e.g. parents). It can also be noticed that the main interest always ends up being the money that the university can make out of the person’s “life-changing experience”.
4. Recommendations
I am a foreign student studying in Britain, but my condition is different from the one of people having to pay thousands of pounds in tuition fees to immerse themselves into a completely different culture because my home country does not differ much from the UK. If I were in their position, I just know that I would want to make sure that the long journey and the money spent are 100% worth the experience, which means that I wouldn’t want to risk ending up in a discriminating and pressuring environment. Given the already hard enough cultural shock, I believe a friendly and well-trained university staff would be essential to guarantee the international student the proper language and academic support and to encourage social interaction, whereas the British government should provide adequate financial support (e.g. reasonably-priced accommodation) to keep promoting diversity and multiculturality.
5. References
- Bardhan, N., & Zhang, B. (2017). A Post/Decolonial View of Race and Identity Through the Narratives of U.S. International Students from the Global South. Communication Quarterly, 65(3), 285-306. doi: 10.1080/01463373.2016.1237981
- Grace Chien, Y. (2015). International Postgraduate Students in Britain Reasons for Studying Abroad and Issues Related to Adjustment. International Journal of Technology and Inclusive Education, Special Issue 2(1). doi: 10.20533/ijtie.2047.0533.2015.0095
- Lomer, S. (2018). Uk Policy Discourses and International Student Mobility: The Deterrence and Subjectification of International Students. Globalization, Societies and Education, 16(3), 308-324. doi: 10.1080/14767724.2017.1414584
- Marginson, S. (2018). Global trends in higher education financing: The United Kingdom. International Journal of Educational Development, 58, 26-36. doi: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.03.008.
- Stein, S., & Andreotti, V. (2016). Cash, competition, or charity: International students and the global imaginary. Higher Education, 72(2), 225-239. doi: 10.1007/s10734-015-9949-8
- Study UK (2017, February 2). Study UK: Discover You. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYLF77OTbkI
- Study UK (2019, September 26). The best possible you, made possible in the UK | Study UK. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7506LdOLIw
- Urban, E., & Orbe, M. (2007). “The syndrome of the boiled frog:” Exploring international students on US campuses as co-cultural group members. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 36(2), 117–138. doi: 10.1080/17475750701478695
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