Too many Chinese students studying education?
During 2017–18, I completed my Master’s degree in educational studies at the University of Glasgow. Despite having a great time learning about educational theories, I couldn’t help but note that most of the modules had a large number of Chinese female students (like myself). When I started my PhD at the University of Manchester, I noticed a similar situation: more than 90 per cent of students in the international education Master’s degree were Chinese. When I was serving as a teaching assistant in one session, I overheard some students commenting that they don’t feel they are genuinely studying abroad because their experiences are largely equivalent to attending an ‘immersive’ English class with a native English speaker when they were in China. In 2005, Li, a Chinese Master’s student in Australia, had similar sentiments on his blog, writing that he was upset because half of his classmates were Chinese and worried that he would be unable to develop his English.
When diversity is underrepresented
When the majority of students in a classroom are international students from the same country and with shared cultural backgrounds, it is questionable whether such a student demographic can still provide an ‘open, tolerant, and cosmopolitan university experience’, as some would expect from internationalisation of higher education (Kalantzis & Cope, 2000, p. 31). In a study conducted by Schweisfurth and Gu (2009), international students frequently expressed a desire to connect with students from other countries; yet, despite their willingness, their chances of connecting may be further reduced when in-class communication is primarily conducted with students from their own country.
