Exploring the international postgraduates’ perspective of academic problems in Chinese universities located in Wuhan, China

Figures & data

Figure 1. The number of international students in China (2004–2019).

Source: https://www.iie.org/Research-and-Insights/Project-Atlas/Explore-Data/China.

Figure 2. Top 15 countries’ students in China’s education market in 2018–2019

Source: www.moe.gov.cn.

Figure 3. International students in China by Province, 2019–2020

Source: http://en.moe.gov.cn/documents/reports/201904/t20190418_378692.html

Figure 4. Statistical Analysis.

Table 1. Cronbach’s Alpha

Cronbach’s Alpha (α)	Cronbach’s Alpha Based on Standardized Items	Number of Items
0.89	0.89	26

Table 2. KMO and Bartlett’s test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.		.908
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity	Approx. Chi-Square	5784.616
	df	325
	Sig.	.000

Table 3. Demographic information of the respondents

Particulars	No.of Respondents	Percentage
Gender
Male	306	62.1%
Female	187	37.9%
Education
Master	290	58.8%
PhD	186	37.8%
Post Doc	17	03.4%
Age
20–30 years 31–40 years 41–50 years Above 50 years	198 187 93 15	40.16% 37.93% 18.86% 3.05%
University
Huazhong University of Science & Technology	123	24.9%
Central China Normal University	43	08.7%
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law	48	09.7%
China University of Geosciences	115	23.4%
Wuhan University	146	29.6%
Huazhong Agriculture University	18	03.7%
Discipline
Social Sciences	185	37.5%
Natural Sciences	203	41.2%
Engineering	105	21.3%
Total	493	100

Table 4. Summary of extracted factors of academic problems

Component	Initial Eigenvalues			Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings
	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %
1. Scientific Research Writing	7.865	30.252	30.252	7.865	30.252	30.252
2. Teaching and learning	3.131	12.042	42.293	3.131	12.042	42.293
3. Student-Supervisor Interaction	2.136	8.215	50.508	2.136	8.215	50.508
4. Major Courses	1.318	5.068	55.576	1.318	5.068	55.576
5. Academic Activities	1.162	4.471	60.047	1.162	4.471	60.047

Table 5. Scale items with mean, Std.deviation and variance

Items	Mean	Std. Deviation	Variance
I feel I am not motivated to publish a research paper	4.361	.9957	.991
It is challenging to collect data or finish a project	4.229	.9404	.884
I do not have an excellent opportunity to work on a supervisor’s project and to publish a research paper	4.205	1.0729	1.151
Research is challenging to me	4.174	1.0811	1.169
It is not easy to me write my final thesis paper	4.162	1.0773	1.161
My supervisor does not encourage me for research publication	4.089	1.1334	1.285
I am not satisfied with my research work	4.057	1.1931	1.424
Language barriers with teachers.	2.623	1.4496	2.101
Lack of discussion in class	2.570	1.3902	1.933
Unable to get required books.	2.515	1.4122	1.994
The learning materials provided on the students are helpful	2.507	1.3846	1.917
Lectures delivered in Chinese for international students	2.375	1.4717	2.166
My supervisor is not supportive	3.799	1.2648	1.600
Language and cultural barriers with supervisor	3.882	1.2903	1.665
My supervisor does not provide data for research	3.828	1.2529	1.570
Supervisor pressured on students to do research	3.673	1.3101	1.716
Courses are not up to date	3.826	1.2371	1.530
Most courses are in Chinese language and it’s difficult to understand for international students	3.886	1.2765	1.629
International students’ have limited courses option	3.641	1.2587	1.584
Unable to get the wanted course	3.430	1.3426	1.803
Do not focus on coursework	3.286	1.2153	1.477
Career counselling is necessary for international students	3.728	1.3656	1.865
University do not arrange Seminars for international students on different topics.	3.548	1.4186	2.012
University do not arrange workshop regarding study purpose	3.260	1.4656	2.148
There are no career counselling for international students in China	3.032	1.4465	2.092

Table 6. Foreign postgraduates’ perspective on academic problems in five dimensions

	Loadings	Cronbach’s Alpha
Scientific Research Writing
Research is challenging to me	.796
It is challenging to collect data or finish a project	.773	0.86
It is not easy to write a scientific paper	.744
I do not have an excellent opportunity to work on supervisor’s project	.735
My supervisor does not encourage me for research publication	.680
I am not motivated to publish a research paper	.648
I am not satisfied with my research work	.594
Teaching & learning
Lectures delivered in Chinese for international students	.830
The learning materials provided to the students are helpful	.820
Language barriers with teachers	.802	0.90
Unable to get required books.	.764
Lack of discussion in class	.719
Student-supervisor interaction
My supervisor is not supportive	.712
Language and cultural barriers with supervisor	.683
My supervisor does not provide data for research	.683	0.73
The supervisor pressurized on the student to do research publish	.674
Major Courses
Do not focus on coursework	.792
International students have limited courses option	.641
Courses are not up to date	.599	0.81
Most courses are in the Chinese language, and it is not easy to understand for international students.	.515
Unable to get the wanted course	.510
Academic Activities
Universities do not arrange Seminars for international students on different topics.	.718
Career counselling is necessary for international students	.691	0.71
There is no career counselling for international students in China	.687
Universities do not arrange workshops regarding study purpose	.616