Tag Archives: equality

HE: Are Separate Admission Processes for International Students Fair in China?

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international-students-in-china2

On this Friday, a new round of Fudan University Debate will get under way again. As one of the former debate team instructors, my student sent me the first-round debate’s topic: Are Separate Admission Processes for International Students Fair in China? Coincidentally, when searching for this week’s news to share, I happened to see an article posted on the recent newsletter of University World News for the same subject. Thus, our group gives me an opportunity to share this interesting piece along with the controversial topic for discussion.

Here is the news:

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170222122830767

After Tsinghua University announced last year that foreign applicants would not have to take a standardized writing test for undergraduate courses, there were lots of concerns about the unfair admissions procedures that students with foreign passports are gaining relatively easy access to the country’s most prestigious institutions. Recently, Tsinghua published the complete new rules for the admission of foreign students which pushed the topic to the forefront again.

The critics argue that higher education in China is becoming a serious social problem. They believe that if other colleges and universities introduce similar rules, it would increase the education injustice and inequality in China. They also worry about the student quality and compare it to the hard process Chinese outstanding students apply for the U.S. top universities.

Another sensitive issue raised in the article is about the generous scholarship offered by the government for foreign students. Even in Fudan, it is the same situation that the percentage of foreign students who can get scholarships is much higher than domestic students. Some local students’ parents argue that why they pay the tax to subsidize foreign students at the end.

But others defended the policy. The purpose of the new policy is to expand the scope of applications and thus make the process more competitive than before. It is necessary because the percentage of international students is an important measure of a university’s global influence.

What is your opinion on this topic? Do you think whether Tsinghua’s decision is wise or not?

What is the education equity? Does the new admission policy and scholarship policy violate the principle of higher education?

Is it really good to have a rapid increase number of foreign students for Chinese universities?

Do other Asian countries have the similar situation or good example to share?

Related posts:

Ambitious drive for foreign students is paying off

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160916134031945

The number of international student enrollment in China:

http://www.iie.org/Services/Project-Atlas/China/International-Students-In-China#.WLR6dTsrI2w

international-students-in-china

Art, Racism, and Higher Education

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Hello, all!

My name is Gayoung Kim and I am in the art group. While googling, Timothy and I found an interesting dance performance to share with everybody. It is called, Octavia’s Brood: Riding the Ox Home, performed by an anti-racist choreographer, Meghan Abadoo. She, as a black woman dance performer, tries to reveal the identity of black womanhood (It is all performed by black female dancers) and to create a space for freely sharing the vulnerability of black women with the witnesses who watch the performance. Throughout the performance, one movement captured my sight really strongly when the performers try to run forward but they keep failing because of cloth tying their bodies to the walls from 26’-33’. (The whole performance is 46 minutes, but I think this part is the highlight.) The dancers keep trying to reach forward but they tumble and fall, and I felt like that is the reality of racism and gender discrimination.

Meghan Abadoo also wrote a short essay about the subtle systematic injustice in society and how University of Maryland tries to deal with it. She points out that it is a widely held misconception that racial inequality does not exist anymore because race-based discrimination is illegal and shares the moment when she participated the Words of Engagement intergroup dialogue program at University of Maryland. There, she had profound experience gathering with people of different racial backgrounds, listening divergent viewpoints and stories.

Personally, as an Asian female student, I have not experienced specific occasion, but her words made me think about how race and gender are still the issue to resolve and how those are under-estimated as a problem. I think this performance is a worth while piece to watch.

You can watch the performance here:
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/18432
And her essay, you can read it here:
http://terp.umd.edu/sights-unseen-2/#Abadoo

And here some inviting questions to think for you all;

  • Do you think racial or gender discrimination is still prevalent in US higher education institutions today?
  • What do you think are the merits and limitations of Abadoo’s project of using dance as a medium to champion notions of racial and gender equality in HE institutions? 
  • Are you able to think of any other ways for HE institutions to leverage their academic and cultural influence to advocate social causes in the world? How might these ways or approaches differ in an Asian HE context?