The impact of international students on the university work environment: a comparative study of a Canadian and a Danish university

Abstract

Increasingly students want to go abroad to study – to further their knowledge of English, experience a new culture and cultivate skills. Universities have been actively courting these students, sometimes without regard to their impact on responsibilities of heads of department, secretaries and support staff. Much is written on the intercultural aspects of the international teaching and learning environment, but almost nothing has appeared on the impact of international students on the university work environment, so it is necessary and opportune to discover what is being done, where problems lie and what could be improved. Based on a survey of lecturers and frontline administrative staff, this paper explores workplace perceptions of different cultural discourses, intercultural practices and relations among international students, academics and administrative staff in two universities in Canada and Denmark chosen to explore differences between Europe and North America. For the most part, academics and support staff all think that internationalization has brought many benefits to the university: intercultural diversity and awareness, strong work ethic and study habits, intellectual curiosity and a more interesting social environment. They also note problems of proficiency in English, culture clashes inside and outside the classroom and higher dropout rates, depression and anxiety.

Studerende i stadig større tal vælger at tage til udlandet for at studere – bl.a. for at opnå bedre engelskkundskaber, opleve en ny kultur og opdyrke andre færdigheder. Disse unge studerende er blevet efterspurgte hos universiteterne, men ofte er det sket uden nærmere overvejelse omkring påvirkningen på ansatte som undervisere, sekretærer, studieledere og studievejledere. Der er forsket meget i interkulturelle aspekter af internationalisering af undervisning og læringsmiljø, men der findes mindre dokumentation for, hvorledes det stigende antal internationale studerende påvirker universitetets arbejdsmiljø. Denne artikel baserer sig på en spørgeskemaundersøgelse blandt undervisere og administrativt personale, og har til formål at undersøge de forskellige kulturelle diskurser, praksis og relationer mellem studerende, akademikere og administratorer på to universiteter i henholdsvis Canada og Danmark til illustration af problemstillinger i henholdsvis Europa og Nordamerika. Den fremherskende holdning er, at internationalisering har bragt mange fordele med sig: interkulturel diversitet, en styrket arbejdsetik og gode studievaner, intellektuel nysgerrighed og et mere interessant socialt miljø. Modsat påpeges der også problemer med niveauet i engelskkundskaberne, kultursammenstød både i og uden for undervisningen, stigende frafald, depression og angst.

Keywords:

• faculty and staff perceptions
• English proficiency concerns
• multicultural challenges
• culture of participation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Jane Vinther is Director of English Studies at the Kolding Campus of the University of Southern Denmark. She has extensive teaching and research experience in language and culture, intercultural communication, second language acquisition and internationalization of education. She has researched and published on international teaching and learning as well as language learning from various pedagogical perspectives. Her teaching has been recognized by The Outstanding Teacher Award for the Humanities at the University of Southern Denmark.

Gordon Slethaug is Professor of English Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada with research focusing on international education, globalization, rhetoric, semiotics and American culture. He is the author of Teaching Abroad: the Cross-Cultural Classroom and International Education (2007), with Janette Ryan, International Education and the Chinese Learner (2010) and, with Jane Vinther, International Teaching and Learning at Universities: Achieving Equilibrium with Local Culture and Pedagogy (in press). He has recently taught at the University of Southern Denmark, and prior to that, he taught at the University of Hong Kong and Sun Yat-sen University, China.