Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Overseas students
The University of Central England in Birmingham. International students can experience academic shock in Britain. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
The University of Central England in Birmingham. International students can experience academic shock in Britain. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

Academic shock: Thoughts on teaching international students

This article is more than 12 years old
Overseas students can find it hard to cope as they adjust to different teaching approaches, writes Dr Janette Ryan

There are changes afoot in the university classroom. Every year there are more international students in UK universities. While this was once confined to specific subjects, such as business studies or IT, now every discipline is experiencing a much more diverse student cohort. In a piece on the Guardian's Higher Education Network, journalist Frederika Whitehead recently highlighted the approach some universities are taking to integrate international students and improve their experience at induction. Their experience can be further improved by considering what happens when they start lectures and write their first assignment.

It can be a little unsettling for staff faced with a room of international students and – given the cuts to teaching budgets – probably even less time to devote to them. Questions arise in the lecturer's mind: Will they be able to cope with the course? What will they have studied before? Is it going to take me extra time to teach them?

In my experience, teaching international students can be a real pleasure and can provide a much greater depth to classroom discussions. It may be necessary to make some changes to your teaching style and approach, but I have always found that what I have done for the benefit of the international students has also been helpful for those who are from the UK. So, by doing things such as making the structure of the lecture more transparent (for instance, by using an introduction and repeating key ideas) and by offering pre-reading or a discipline-specific glossary, you can lighten their language load.

Induction is an important time for all students, but in particular for international students; it sets the tone for the rest of their experiences at university. Not only is the course new, but everything they encounter may be new and unfamiliar, and they are away from their usual coping and support systems such as family and friends. Some universities are now developing longer term transition programmes that recognise that international students' support needs may last much longer than the first few weeks.

It may involve not just culture shock (different physical environment, customs and practices), and language shock (realising that their mastery of formal English doesn't prepare them for fast-paced, colloquial or discipline-specific language and vocabulary) but also academic shock (different teaching and learning approaches such as relationships between teacher and students, forms of assessment and even what counts as knowledge). The effects of academic shock can persist much longer than the effects of culture and language shock.

The Higher Education Academy's Teaching International Students project has been working to support HE teachers looking for ideas and resources for teaching international students. Designed around the international student 'lifecycle', the resources have been written by lecturers and educational developers drawing on many years of experience of teaching international students. Each section highlights the main issues and explores some of the complexities based on evidence from research and practice. There are suggestions for action if you are just getting started or are looking for further ideas and strategies as well as a list of further reading.

Success for international students is important not only to the student, who has invested a lot of time (and money) in coming to the UK to study, but it is also important for the institutions that receive them. Word of mouth is very significant in recruiting new students. If the student's experience is good, this will be of benefit to the university's reputation abroad.

The learning and teaching experience for international students is crucial to their overall experience as well as their academic success and feeds into the feedback they provide through the national student survey and at a higher level in the postgraduate research experience surveys and postgraduate taught experience surveys.

It will be different for every student, but a few small changes can make a big difference. Some ideas to be getting started with:

Broadening the curriculum to give it a more global perspective can mean reviewing the content, but it can also be about giving time in sessions to considering how professional practices might differ across the world.

To increase awareness of critical thinking skills, it can be helpful to show examples from your own work that demonstrate criticality or model your own thinking and writing, for example: "When I read this, the first question I ask myself is … "

Encouraging participation in seminars might involve using structured discussion formats such as rounds or turn-taking systems or moving about the classroom – this often encourages students to be more engaged and willing to answer.

Current research and work in this area is going to be presented at an international Higher Education Academy conference in June.

As well as the international students at home, there is an increasing move to more transnational education and international collaboration. Dave Burnapp at the University of Northampton has been working on a project looking at the strategic implications of international collaboration in higher education. This project, due to be completed in July, is developing a tool to inform the design of new schemes and maximise the benefits to all stakeholders. He has highlighted the complexities of transnational education and the need for specific induction for staff and students involved to adapt to differences in learning styles.

Teaching students with different previous learning experiences can be challenging, a fact that is sometimes forgotten by university managers who are more removed from the classroom. Staff, both teaching and administrative, need support and training to help them provide a good learning experience for students. In times of shrinking budgets, support at the outset can save time later on and may also increase appreciation of the high quality education available in the UK.

Dr Janette Ryan is director of the Higher Education Academy's Teaching International Students (TIS) project

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, become a member of the Higher Education Network.

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed