This Friday, while passing through China coming back from the Japan trip, I ran into an interesting article on the Global Times about how Chinese students in South Korea where being affected after the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system was deployed. As you may know the US designed an anti-missile system to protect South Korea and Japan from possible attacks from North Korea, which China has seen as a threat to its own military operations. This of course is starting to have implications in the relationship between China and South Korea, but probably no one thought about the effect this would have on Chinese students taking high-education studies at South Korea.

The university students interviewed for the Global Times’ article mentioned they are – for the first time – not feeling welcome in their neighbor country, and even worried about their personal safety. They feel rejected when South Korean people spot they are from China and they have experienced some disrespectful manners from random people in the last weeks. Students are afraid South Korean teachers with a strong opinion about the THAAD will also take a position against them affecting their performance and study in school. This is a situation that was not happening a year or even some months ago.

Currently, around 60% of overseas students in South Korea come from China, but will this situation play against this numbers? As stated in the paper ‘Political and Economic Impacts on Chinese students’ return’, China has been experiencing a brain drain in the last years as having many Chinese students that decide to stay in the country where they are studying instead of returning to their home country. The paper analyzes the possible factors that contribute to students deciding not to go back, and one of the most important ones where the economic situation of the country they are studying (mainly focused in the US, but applicable to other countries as well), and the stimulating policy held by China to return home. Taking into account these factors, it cannot be totally predictable what will happen with Chinese students in South Korea, as this situation may or may not have a strong effect on student mobility.  

Moreover, what is also interesting from the Global Times article, is that the students interviewed mention how Chinese people is starting to perceive them negatively as students living in South Korea. Since the THAAD situation they are labeled by many Chinese people as ‘unpatriotic’, almost as if they were playing as part of ‘the enemy’. So it is not only they are feeling unwelcome in their study country, but they are also feeling outsiders in their own country. In line with this perspective, the paper by Wu & Shao, discuss the difficulty Chinese students that have studied abroad have when going back to China. It is mentioned as one of the most painful experiences as trying to adapt again to a country that has probably changed in the years the young Chinese has been living abroad. China is a country that is constantly changing and developing, and many factors become uncertain for young people trying to reinsert in the Chinese society and market. Also, considering the China – South Korea relation, getting a degree from a country like South Korea might be seen as negative and have an impact on the students’ future career and job hunting when graduated. It might be only the image from having studied in the country, but also if the relationship continues to take a negative path, South Korean companies might start to exit the Chinese market reducing the possibilities of these students to be hired by a South Korean company in their home country, affecting their future employment.

Nevertheless, a consultant at the Weilan South Korea study agency mentions that so far, ‘they haven’t seen a decline in students applying for South Korean universities’, and compares it to that even though the relationship between the US and China is not the greatest one, still Chinese students choose to study in the US. But even if the numbers currently are not telling much, the fact is the feeling of Chinese students is still there, they have now started to worry about politics like never before because they are being directly impacted.

Should this be a factor worth considering for South Korean universities in the following years? Maybe it becomes better for China as to avoid brain drain from Chinese students going abroad? How can the relationship between two countries really affect the higher education mobility between them? There are in fact some important social consequences from the countries’ relationship that are starting to get noticed. This does not pretend to be a statement, but more to stir the discussion about other aspects that sometimes are not considered in the higher education mobility equation.

Sources:

1. The Global Times (English version). Volume 8. No.2249. Friday, March 24, 2017
2. Wu, Harry & Shao, Bin. ‘Political and Economic Impacts on Chinese students’ return’. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies. Volume 9. December 2014. http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/141963.pdf

In the past weeks we have been talking about the current trends in higher education such as (1) globalization where now the world becomes the horizon and the actual market, (2) the need for internationalization in Asia, and the perception than a more internationalized university is better (3) integration in Europe, that started with the Bologna process, (4) and a common objective of placing education at the center, because of the knowledge economy.

But there is also an important aspect to discuss about universities; in times when most universities are moving towards internationalization, the aspect of interculturality cannot be left behind the discussion. Interculturality has been defined as the interaction of people from different cultural backgrounds using authentic language appropriately that demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the cultures. As Pedota mentions, currently there is a lack of universities that consider indigenous people to enable them to participate in governmental, economic and social structures, neither universities that teach indigenous knowledge as an integral part of the curriculum.

Pedota presents some interesting initiatives that have emerged in Latin America, either as newly created higher education institutions rooted inside indigenous regions, or as conventional universities starting to ‘interculturalize’ its student population, teaching staff, and curricular contents and methods. The idea of diversifying the students profiles and the curricular contents goes in hand with the trend of higher education institutions becoming more efficient, locally adapted, and outcome oriented. The Indigenous Intercultural Universities in Latin America started in the early 90’s with the aim to generate knowledge that is relevant for the communities in which they are located, but also Pedota emphasizes,with the aim to generate a ‘dialogue of knowledges’ among social actors from different cultures. In Intercultural Universities modernity and tradition mix up to take the best part of each. One example is the Indigenous Intercultural University that seeks to respond to the sociocultural, political, economic and educational proposals and expectations of the Indigenous People, without overlooking the academic standards typical of Higher Education. Other examples are the PROEIB Andes in Bolivia, and Intercultural University in Veracruz (IUV) in Mexico.

But is it really possible to achieve interculturality? As stated by Williamson, it will be possible only if the state establishes an obligatory standard for the whole system based on universally applicable laws, and if there is a profound change in the current higher education system and in the communities where social players actually live.

What do you think? Can we still have intercultural universities these days?

Sources:

PEDOTA, Luciano. “Indigenous Intercultural Universities in Latin America: Interpreting Interculturalism in Mexico and Bolivia”. Loyola, University of Chicago. 2011

http://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1515&context=luc_theses




WILLIAMSON, Guillermo. “Is the interculturalization of Chile’s universities a real possibility?”. SAGE Journals - Arts & Humanities in Higher Education. Vol 16, Issue 1, 2017.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474022215600924




GUILHERME, Manuela. “Winds of the South: Intercultural university models in the 21st century”. SAGE Journals - Arts & Humanities in Higher Education. Vol 16, Issue 1, 2017.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474022216680599

Much has been made of the impact falling birth rates will have on many nations in East Asia in recent years. While many of these discussions center around the impact a decrease in the number of young people will have on economic growth and the ability of nations to care for their elderly populations, it is also the case that these demographic changes are having a major impact on university systems throughout the region.

As far back as 2007, the New York Times reported that up to a third of seats in some Japanese Universities were going unfilled on account of the reduced number of students of college age residing within the nation. Similarly, a recent article in University World News noted that Chinese universities are similarly beginning to face decreased demand for their services on account of a shrinking university age population. Conventional wisdom has pointed toward the closure of some of the universities in those nations most acutely affected by population contraction. Might it make more sense however to rethink this strategy, and instead do something quite different? For some time now, the world has seen the U.S. and some other parts of the world such as parts of Europe and Australia as education destinations. A considerable number of students in universities in these parts of the world come from foreign localities.

What if East Asia and China made a concerted effort to style themselves as academic destination nations, and what if they targeted a market of students which has not yet fully been tapped? China has sought to increase its impact in the developing world, especially through the completion of development projects in sub-Saharan Africa. What if, either as part of foreign aid efforts or through some other means, China and other nations in East Asia undertook a vigorous campaign to attract students from parts of the developing world in which access to a university education was not guaranteed, to the empty seats at their nation’s universities? It is certainly the case that the funding mechanism for such a program would have to be developed, but if such a plan as has been outlined here were enacted, the problem of unused university space could be solved, and China along with other nations in East Asia could fundamentally improve access to university education in the developing world.

Sources,

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120106163701271

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/world/asia/22universities.html