Internationalisation and Student Diversity in the UK
Introduction
Today, the sum of international students studying in the United Kingdom has amplified, which has made the UK higher learning education system relevant and more diversified. The diversity of the UK university education has been essential in the way that through diversification both international and local students can explore and share their potentiality. According to Woodfield (2015), in the United Kingdom, the majority of the higher learning institutions that is 77% refer internationalisation as part of their strategic planning. As such, many universities in the UK have changed their education forum due to the introduction of the aspect of internationalisation, where teaching, research, and learning programs are set according to international activities (Woodfield 2015). Therefore, with learning becoming a core factor for development in the United Kingdom, this paper focus on discussing the aspect of internationalisation in the UK higher education institutions. The essay will also look at the benefit and limitations of student diversity in the UK, as a factor that is influencing the change of the education system in most of the UK’s University. The final section of this essay will examine the role of teachers’ in teaching multicultural aspect in the British University and the way instructors make learning process effective and accommodating to students of the different background.
Internationalisation in the UK’s Higher Education System
The United Kingdom higher learning institutions (HE) sector is said to be one of the most developed and diverse education systems across the globe. In essence, as per from 2001 to 2010, the number of students who were admitted in the UK’s Universities increased from 1,948,135 to 2,493,415 (Worton 2012). Significantly, as the number of the UK students getting into the UK universities in the region escalated by 20.6% between 2001 and 2010, other European Union students rose by 39.2%, while students from other parts of the world such as Asia increased by 121.6% (Worton 2012). For this reason, through the increase of international students in the UK universities, the HE in the UK has become a very diverse learning system, as it accommodates a higher number of students from overseas countries. Broadly speaking, internationalisation IN the UK education scheme is viewed as the concept of making education more transnational, where students from the different cultural background can access education together with the local students.
Reflection and Observation
Internationalisation at the University of Edinburgh
From my own observation, the University of Edinburgh (UoE) is advancing internationalisation in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, as the university has become one of the institutions with student diversity in Scotland, I think that the campus leaders are using internationalisation as part of the institutional strategic planning for the present and future students. The university has at about 30,000 students, and the institution is set to promote internationalisation in all ways possible (Go International 2017). To promote the globalisation of education in the UK, the UoE has adequate learning resources set to facilitate multicultural learning and to minimise the challenges that international students may experience when studying at the institution. For example, I can confirm that Edinburgh has instituted various sector resources meant to assist international students to adapt to new cultures and understand their expectation (The University of Edinburgh 2016). For instance, when I review the institution set up, I can see several sector resources established to advise and give international students practical ideas regarding studying abroad and the type of programs that they will undertake in the university. Some of the resources at our campus include teaching international students resources bank, race equality toolkit education and instructing sector, and a course for staff sector, where new staffs are guided and supported throughout the task to institute a diverse learning program, in particular on the language subjects.
Benefits and Challenges of Internationalisation in Edinburg
Benefits
Evidently, I am aware of the fact that dues to the embracement of internationalisation, Edinburg has been crowned as the winner of international awards, which has rebuilt the reputation of the university both in the UK and in foreign countries. In 2016, the institution was the winner of Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) award as the reward sponsored by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) to recognise universities that are incorporating internationalisation in all sectors (Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services 2016). I understand that the award was a motivation for the university and allowed Edinburg to initiate international development plan for transnational students. For effectiveness, the program is set to be reviewed for change after every two years. As the Edinburg University is scheduled to include the UK-based students’ part of their internationalisation plan, the idea is also relevant to the domestic learners in a way that they can venture into other regions of the world as part of their learning practice. In reflection to this argument, I look at the 2013 learning program, whereby the institution proposed to provide 800 students with new experiences by 2016, which would be achieved by sending students to the foreign countries so that they participate in various educational projects for career purposes (Go International, 2017). The plan to send students in the international countries has been imperative to Edinburg, as it has widened up the participation of the UK students in the global learning forums as well as securing support from international annual programmes.
Challenges of Internationalisation at Edinburg
Despite the benefit of internationalisation at Edinburg, I feel that the practice is also problematic in one way or the other. As such, I believe that to execute internationalisation at UoE, the university spends a huge amount of money, primarily to purchase learning resources and the money required for sustainability. For the university to comply with the needs of the international students, it is expected to increase the number of international staffs who need to be paid, given allowances, and resources they need to settle in a foreign country. Personally, I take this as a challenge because the more money the university spends, the more, it will demand from the domestic students, particularly by increasing the tuition fee, which is a major problem for many learners in the institution.
Personal Reflection
Based on my teaching practice, I have observed that international students at Edinburg University are very positive about the experience they gain throughout their learning courses. Personally, I can say that many students from Asian and other foreign countries value the opportunity of studying at Edinburg for academic achievement and personal development. Moreover, from the view of the behaviours of the international learners at our university, as a teacher, I now understood that foreign learners encounter problems to do with English language skills, as the medium of teaching and engagement between students. Although this problem gets consistent with some students, teachers take the initiative of ensuring that the problem of English language skills diminishes over time. The other problem I identified in relation to the foreign learners is that majority of them finds it problematic to engage with the rest of the Edinburg University community, which makes their life difficult and challenging within the institution. As a teacher, to solve such problems, I act as a mentor with the aim of creating a healthy relationship between the international students and the local community in the Edinburg HE institution. In this case, I feel that through my mentorship task, I will get in a good position to change the emotion engagement of students in the university, which is important to the improvement of the experience and academic goal of the international learners.
Since my major is gene and molecular biology, I can confirm that many international students encounter a number of problems in this unit, especially in comprehending the gene and molecular biology content and language used to formulate the content. For instance, as the subject I teach is set in English, the majority of the international learners find it hard to integrate biology knowledge and other fields due to the problem of understanding the English language. As a result, to be a role model to my students, I broaden up the discussions and arrange private sessions with the students who find the unit hard or learners who have a poor record on the use of English as a medium of learning and sharing the biology educational content. From a personal opinion, the system is also a problem to international students, because the university does not focus on implementing integrated content such as Content-Language and Integrated Learning (CLIL), to enhance the learning practice for international students is effective (Dalton-Puffer 2011). In essence, I believe that if the university considers the application of CLIL, or other approaches used to teach content by the support of integrated language, as an educator, I will enhance effectiveness and international students learning gene and molecular biology will be in a better position to understand the entire content of biology.
On the other hand, throughout my teaching practice, I have noticed that international students in the British universities interact with the teachers differently, especially during the class programs. For example, in the biology class, I would give students an opportunity to raise an issue or ask any question with regards to the learning content. Surprisingly, the majority of the students from different nationalities would remain silent and let the British-based students attend to my questions and even demonstrate their ability to respond to biology and science tests. To ensure that the international students participate in the learning program and attempts to answer the questions that I would ask, I took the initiative of knowing the names of multicultural students and making sure all the members of the class know each other so that they can help one another in studying biology problems. Likewise, upon understanding the interaction problem of foreign learners, I prepared group discussions, which modified the learning environment by making it positive and useful for all students.
Additionally, basing it on the class of science and the tests that I gave out to my students, I learned that international students have different backgrounds of biology or science unit. Here, I noticed that the poor biology background of the international students was not caused by lack of interaction with other British students, but by the biology information that they had acquired while studying in their home country. The problem would mostly relate to the first year students because most of them were not taught sufficiently while learning science in their country, and some of the biology topics that I taught them were new to them since it was their first time to encounter the British-based science learning content. Hence, to ensure that the first year students become aware of the science unit, and they strengthen their biology background I made sure that every time I am teaching a new topic I am aware of the level of my students and I check the wording of the learning content before disseminating it to my students. Although it was difficult for the first year international students to understand the British science content, I realised that the problem did not affect the learning of the third year students. With no doubt, this was an important thing to me because I would teach biology unit to the third years with no inconsistencies and in a way that every member of my class understand every bit of science unit. From a personal opinion, I can assert that the reason that makes the third year students have an excellent biology background is due their learning of the British biology content for first two years of their studies in the campus.
Students Diversity
As internationalisation in the UK universities has become a clear approach for promoting education, the process has brought great diversity within the higher learning system. Haggis (2006) reveals that diversity of students is recognised with its feature of influencing the higher education system in a positive manner. As student diversity becomes an element that is meant to change the university education in the UK, both international and local students in the UK universities can enjoy a new level of learning that has a feature of interaction and cultural links.
Benefits of the Student Diversity
The diversity of students in the UK universities has been essential as though internationalisation of the sector, many students have gained varying forms of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values of the faculty. This has been beneficial to UK and international learners, as through diversity they have become more intelligent, competent learners, and efficient students who can live and work in the global contexts. Kimmel and Volet (2012) express that student diversity makes learners in the UK Universities intellectual, which is not only making them global students but also learners who understand and values equality. For this reason, the aspect of intellectuality that occurs because of student diversity in the UK Universities has automatically lead to the increase of intergroup contact, which is important in the formulation of the relationship between the UK based learners and international students from different part of the world (Kimmel and Volet 2012).
Furthermore, student diversity in the UK higher education institution is fundamental because, through the aspect of diversity, a number of local and international students in the UK have been reviewed as sources of a new culture within the UK higher learning institutions such as the University of Edinburgh. Evidently, the presence of international students in the UK HE is exposing the homegrown students to different cultures, which has created networks that are mutually importance in terms of exchange of ideas and information supporting the culture of different people (Clifford 2009; Montgomery 2013).
Disadvantages of the Student Diversity
Student diversity has been viewed as a concept changing the experience of students in the higher learning institution, as due to the increase of the international and domestic students in the UK universities, middle-class students are privileged, while other groups of students are finding it expensive to study in the UK universities. Christie (2007) asserts that due to the escalation of students from different localities of the world in the UK Universities, few number of students from the international countries and UK have been given opportunities to resides in reasonably compact geographical locations. For this reason, most of the domestics learners attending universities in the UK has opt to stay at their home, whereby to attend the learning session, they are forced travel on a daily basis. Consequently, this has made the learning practice in UK expensive and unsustainable for some students either local or international learners. For example, because of diversity, at Edinburgh University, the rate of higher learning education is higher, especially for students who are forced to travel from their homes to the university (Christie 2007). This means that diversity in the UK Universities has made spending high, with this being seen as a limitation for students with the willingness to access the university education.
The issue of student diversity is also associated with the problem of international students failing to adjust to the UK academic norms, which may influence their achievement and educational goal. Durkin (2008) explored that majority of the students from Asian countries who studies in the UK find the academic culture in the area inappropriate. Alghamdi and Otte (2016) support this point by posting that today, many international students go through a rough experience in the quest to adjust or adapt the new academic and social environment as key factors that influence the academic culture in foreign countries. For students studying in the higher learning institution in Scotland, it is apparent that in most cases the academic culture set in the schools influences their learning life and careers that they intend to support with what the learn in the school. Cheng et al. (2016) affirm that Chinese students’ experience a hard time during their cultural transition, which is a common factor that affects their level of excellence and skills they have with regard to their area of specialty.
The Role of Teachers in the Multicultural Education in the UK
Mandoga and Chakandinakira (2014) define multicultural education as the type of learning or teaching that collaborate the values, beliefs, and perspective of people from varying cultural backgrounds. In the aspect of teaching multicultural education, the perception of the teachers is fundamental, as positive outlook toward multicultural makes education effective. Teaching multicultural education is an essential practice that is carried out by professional individuals as part of the learning cycle set to enlighten the students (Hunt and Chalmers 2012). A successful teaching activity occurs in the cases where the instructor structures the content of learning in a logical way and a manner that students will understand what they are being taught and use the concept appropriately.
For teachers in British to teach multicultural education effectively, they must take the role of designing the learning content that will fit the curriculum set by the UK’s universities. Hunt and Chalmers (2012) express that when the teachers select the appropriate content, they will be in a good position to know what the students want to know about multicultural aspects and the strategies to use for teaching purposes. For instance, if educators set learning content that acknowledges diversity within the learning system this will be core to the teaching of students with the characteristic of different origin or learners who believe in various cultures.
In the process of ensuring that multicultural education in the UK is efficient, teachers should play the role of modelling interaction among students as well as the interaction between international students and teaching staffs. Gay (2013) outlines that interaction within the learning practice is critical and it is seen as the element that makes culturally responsive teaching more useful and efficient. This shows that if the teaching staffs working in the UK’s universities want to make multicultural education successful, they should take the responsibility of making sure that the learning content is well structured or organised and the level of interaction between diverse students is at its best. Consequently, with these roles in place, students will link what they are learning with materials that are helpful to their knowledge and skills, thus becoming effective and understanding the concept of learning.
Conclusion
In essence, from this paper, it is apparent that internationalisation of higher education in the UK has become a frequent trend, with the universities such as University of Edinburgh in the UK focusing on making the learning system diverse for all students across the globe. From this discussion, it can be said that diversity is the way of accomplishing educational and institutional objectives. However, with both internationalisation of UK universities and diversity of students set to improve the education practices in the United Kingdom, this do not mean that the learning system in the UK is at its best as the two aspects can also be challenging. Therefore, for effectiveness and success within the UK’s higher education learning sector, the teachers, and government need to be vigilant by initiating long-term efforts and creating engagements that will ensure that diversity and internationalisation have positive impacts on the educational programs offered in the universities. Finally, for the United Kingdom higher learning institutions to avoid the negative impact of diversity in the universities, substantial attention on the disadvantages of student diversity is necessary. As such, understanding the adverse effect of student diversity will help the government and leaders in the universities ensure that all students in the academic sector have been respected, valued, and gets equal opportunity to participate in the social and cultural activities.
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