I came across a compelling article recently in the Chronicle titled, "The China Conundrum: American Colleges find the Chinese-Student boom a Tricky Fit." Initially in the article, statistics were reported stating that the Chinese student population in U.S. universities have tripled in recent years, now at approximately 40,000 students--the largest group of international students to-date. My immediate reaction was, "Great!" However, when continuing to read, I realized that the recruitment procedures in recent research has shown to be far below what I would call "ethical" behavior. In turn, this is leading to transferred problems on U.S. campuses.
Intense competition for seats on Chinese campuses, and the "aggressive" industry of college recruiters in Chinese markets add up to be primary precursors for this explosion of applicants in U.S. higher education. Additionally, China has a rapidly growing middle class, who can afford to pay full tuition rates. This may have rung the dinner bell to chaos.
One consulting company in China released a report last year, where researchers interviewed 250 Beijing high school students bound for universities in the United States, their parents, and admissions consultants. The results of this study showed that 90% of Chinese applicants submitted false recommendations, 70% had other people (mostly consultants themselves) write their personal essays, 50% had forged high school transcripts, and 10% had listed awards or achievements on their applications that they never did receive.
Within the art
icle, one Chinese student at the University of Delaware recounts her application process while working with agency recruiters. Her family paid $4,000 to the agency for their "assistance," and an additional $3,330 to help her with the college entrance exam. Her English was not strong enough at the time to write her personal essay, so the agency workers asked her questions in Chinese, and wrote the essay for her. Now that her English is well up to par, she looks back on her essay and the experience. Although she is grateful for the purpose the agency served, to get her accepted in the program, she is not at all pleased with the essay that represented her in the application process. Additionally, the assistant director of admissions at Iowa State, which has enrolled more than 1,200 Chinese undergraduates, says students have proudly told her about memorizing thousands of vocabulary words, studying scripted responses to verbal questions, and learning shortcuts that help them guess correct answers. The students appear to be studying specifically for the test, and not to learn English, which she sees as a major problem they face once arriving on U.S. campuses. Tom Melcher, a chairman for one of these admission/consulting agencies claims that the actions of agents throughout China are simply a reaction to the high demand from parents and students. Chinese parents and grandparents are extremely involved in the success of their only children, and if a student isn't placed in a university, "we've got screaming and yelling in the lobby." However, on the American side of the fence, Scott Stevens, the director of the English Language Institute at the University of Delaware speaks candidly about the potential challenges and problems represented in this rapid influx of Chinese students. "Confronting plagiarism is near the top of the list," he says. Mr. Stevens remembers how one student memorized four Wikipedia entries so he could regurgitate whichever one seemed most appropriate on an in-class essay—"an impressive, if misguided, feat."
Clearly, there is miscommunication at best in the works on this issue. While colleges and universities across the U.S. are striving to enroll more international students, I think it is also necessary to take a closer look at the application materials we are basing admission upon. Within the same article, James E. Lewis, director of international admissions and recruiting at Kansas State University, says "he once got a clutch of applications clearly submitted by a single agent, with all fees charged to the same bank branch, although the students came from several far-flung cities. The grades on three of the five transcripts, he says, were identical."
The most disheartening piece of this process for me is how we may be setting these international students up for failure or attacks on their integrity and character without their knowledge. The various "bluffs" in their applications, and the "way" they are taught/told how to write and study may not be at all explained as unethical prior to their enrollment in college courses. This isn't the success and fulfillment they were initially promised through this "American Education" dream. So how do we address this issue in a proactive and manageable way?
The challenge to higher ed to bridge student cultures is higher in only few cases than in that of Chinese international students. The article here, just as an example, references the "gao mao" - the test which students in the Chinese educational system spend more-or-less their entire secondary educational career studying for. Because of the importance of this test, the academic environment in China is all about having the right answer. The assumption most have is that there is a right and correct answer to every question. There are a number of ramifications of this but student engagement is one which this article mentions and which is near and dear to our hearts as Student Affairs professionals. American Higher Ed today is all about the "conversations." Instructors allow learning to emerge organically out of classroom discussion (albeit around a given topic), "theory focused planning" and other abstract and "fuzzy" approaches to solution discovery are central to pedagogy because they are central to the issues we wrestle with in the global market. Coming from a culture where you don't weigh in on an issue unless you have "the right answer" the kind of democratic discourse which we attempt to leverage in every functional aspect of American academia can be very exclusionary to this student culture if they are not readied for it. This is likely not to happen in their native country - so it falls to us to "prime" them. How many institutions provide - as a part of their language prepatory programs - a session whose sole focus is one single concept "it is alright to fail." We talk alot about increasing success rates, but how often do we let our students (let alone those of other cultures) know that they don't always have to have the right answer? I think this is an opportunity to equip these students to better function in and contribute the classroom dynamics that are so prevalent in the American system and so alien to their's.
ReplyDeleteTo be completely blunt, I was disgusted with the behavior that this blog/article discusses. It is horrible that these agencies are praying on students and families who are wanting the highest education for their children, and the fact that a chairman for one of these agencies says they are "reacting to the needs" of these students and families is sad. I believe a lot of questions arise with this problem. Beyond those that have been mentioned - are we setting the students up for failure? What kind of admissions requirements are we considering?
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to be so pessimistic but I have to wonder if there is anything institutions in the U.S. can do about the fraudulent applications and unethical behavior of these agencies. In our Cultures class, we recently read an article discussing college and career choice among East Asian Students and the facts (to me) were disheartening. The bottom line in this article is that education is of very high priority to Asian families: students are constantly being reminded of the sacrifices their parents have made for them, that success is a family honor and they’re being pushed to be better than other students and their siblings. Furthermore, enjoyment of career fell a distant third to financial dependence and having a high status profession among top priorities for these students.
In our culture (generally speaking) I do not believe there is the heavy pressure on students in higher education. While these agencies claim to be helping these students, I’m not sure anyone understands the long-term implications when these students are facing the pressures to succeed back home.
My apologies - my reference:
ReplyDeleteDundes, L., Cho, E., & Kwak, S. (2009). The duty to succeed: honor versus happiness in college and career choices of East Asian students in the United States. Pastoral Care in Education, 27(2), 135-156.
The statement that stood out to me in the blog was that of Chinese students simply studying for the tests vs. actually learning - paraphrased of course. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
ReplyDeleteI have often heard concern regarding this behavior and I am concerned with this behavior as well. The unfortunate part of this is that when I look at my department this is what we do...we have four tests in an eighteen-week semester and if you pass those tests, students move on. Even with the final grade of a D. Are our students learning anything? To some extent I think not. Some proof of this is, I think, is the inability for current students to recall all the years of math they take in order to place into algebra in college.
There is a real need to re-examine our views on testing and assessing (to some extent another form of testing) our systems and learning strategies. We are the verge of not only impacting our domestic students with limited critical thinking skills but the international students that our coming to our shores as well. Are we not concerned with how this reflects on us on the global stage?
In order to manage and proactively change how we recruit international students we need to address our financial situation in higher education. The root of this recruitment is money. I think if we were solvent, we would not even be having this discussion of fraudulent recruitment practices.