my second presentation for the 11th Teesside University Learning and Teaching Conference, 26 January 2011. blogged at: http://bit.ly/hl6IhO

1. Internationalisation and student voices: a disruption of business-as-usual? Richard Hall (rhall1@dmu.ac.uk, @hallymk1)

2. Note-to-self 1: Claim no privileged position, knowledge or experience. Note-to-self 2: Position yourself in the academy.

3. What is the relationship between UK higher education, internationalisation agendas and student voices in a world that faces significant disruption? Is business-as-usual a viable option?

5. BAU/Growth: HEFCE (2011). Mission. http://bit.ly/guyOqK

6. BAU/Growth: The HEA Strategic Plan, 2008-13: http://bit.ly/g22wgb

7. • The UK sells more brainpower per capita than anywhere else in the world. In 2008, this amounted to £118 billion in knowledge services – worth 6.3% of GDP (The Work Foundation, 2010). • The UK has 1% of the world’s population but undertakes 5% of the world’s scientific research and produces 14% of the world’s most highly cited papers (UUK, 2010). • HEIs are worth £59 billion to the UK economy annually and are a major export earner. Through their international activities they are one of the UK’s fastest growing sources of export earnings, and last year bought in £5.3bn (UUK, 2009). Issues of hegemony tied to economy

8. • There were 248,000 international students (excluding EU) enrolled at UK HEIs in 2008/09. There were also 121,000 EU students the same year (HESA, 2010). • Students from India make up 14% of all international students (excluding EU) in UK HE. They are the fastest-growing group: the 34,000 in 2008/09 represented a 31.5% increase over the previous year (HESA, 2010). Local issues of mobility and circuits

9. • 2007: 2.8 million students were enrolled in HEIs outside their countries of citizenship (up 4.6% on 2006). 11 countries hosted 71% of the world’s mobile students (USA = 21.3%) (UNESCO, 2009). • 2007: 42% of UK PGR students were from abroad (15% of global share). This is more than its share of international students generally (UK HE International Unit, 2008). • 2008/09: 388,000 students studying for a UK qualification outside of the UK. Of this number, 83% were non-EU students (HESA, 2010). • 2009: 162 global HE branch campuses, up 43% on 2006 (USA = 50%; Australia = 11%; UK = 10%). The number of countries hosting international branch campuses grew, from 36 to 51 (OBHE, 2009). Global issues of mobility and circuits

10. Table 1: Top ten countries of origin of foreign students, 1975–2005 1975 1985 1995 2005 Country No. Country No. Country No. Country No. Iran 33,021 China 42,481 China 115,871 China 343,126 US 29,414 Iran 41,083 South Korea 69,736 India 123,559 Greece 23,363 Malaysia 40,493 Japan 62,324 South Korea 95,885 Hong Kong 21,059 Greece 34,086 Germany 45,432 Japan 60,424 China 17,201 Morocco 33,094 Greece 43,941 Germany 56,410 UK 16,866 Jordan 24,285 Malaysia 41,159 France 53,350 Nigeria 16,348 Hong Kong 23,657 India 39,626 Turkey 52,048 Malaysia 16,162 South Korea 22,468 Turkey 37,629 Morocco 51,503 India 14,805 Germany 22,424 Italy 36,515 Greece 49,631 Canada 12,664 US 19,707 Hong Kong 35,141 US 41,181 Source : OECD and UNESCO data compiled in de Wit (2008: 33–34).

13. “ distinguish between credit or within-programme mobility (such as Erasmus) and degree or whole-programme mobility where the student moves abroad for an entire degree course. We also distinguish mobility experiences at different levels (undergraduate, postgraduate) and of different types (study abroad, work placement etc).” “ Globally, student migration grows faster than overall migration: the US and the UK are the top destinations for degree mobility; China and India are the top origin countries.” HEFCE (2010). International student mobility literature review: Final report. http://bit.ly/c6be49 Framing some issues for UK HE

15. Is there a balance between promoting inward and outward mobility? How do foreign experiences enrich the curriculum and global “knowing”? (Deliberately opposed to “the knowledge economy”.) Is high relative inward mobility a vindication of the quality of the UK’s higher education system in the global market for HE? Or is this merely post-colonialism in another guise? For whom is this HE? How does internationalisation impact the relative (im)mobility of ‘non-traditional’ students? BAU: questions of global capital and power

16. To what extent does the economy own HE? How does this impact the students’ experiences? See: http://bit.ly/gTJCYp Overseas students’ fees contribute nearly £2bn of UK universities’ income. Is this a form of capitalist primitive accumulation? Or is it tied to the transnational movement of global capital? Research on trends from East Asian students (cf . Waters 2006; 2009) suggests that they and their families carefully strategise to achieve ‘positional advantage’ in a crowded and increasingly ‘credentialised’ graduate labour market. Is UK HE contributing to elitist, hegemonic positions abroad? BAU: some questions of political economy

18. A UK Guide to Enhancing the International Student Experience (The International Unit, UUK. (2010): http://bit.ly/hgIq53 ) Application/arrival: CRM/online experiences Enculturation: on-going promotion, use of existing students, clubs Accommodation and living: local reps, communication, realistic costs, placement Teaching/learning: use of existing support, early access, social networks Finance: scholarships and banking, students not just cash-cows Some structural stuff

19. http://bit.ly/euYwU4

21. Leeds Metropolitan (2008). Internationalisation Strategy 2008 – 2012; World-wide horizons at Leeds Met: http://bit.ly/haMeb7

22. http://bit.ly/eHXhjt

23. http://bit.ly/hTEa1H

24. http://bit.ly/ePTE38

25. http://bit.ly/eSizaC

26. Copy and paste culture, where plagiarism is rife. [The same claim that is made of A-Levels.] Yet there is a focus on contextual/personalised understanding in high performing Asian nations’ pedagogic practices (Oates, 2010: http://bit.ly/ajbCp2 ). C.f. Shanghai test scores: http://wapo.st/eYTUcq And there are some who would claim that, in any case, there are common “reform elements that are replicable for school systems everywhere... to achieve significant, sustained, and widespread gains in student outcomes.” (McKinsey and Co., 2010: http://bit.ly/b9JJtb) Some curriculum stuff

27. Some curriculum stuff: generic issues http://bit.ly/fevnWp

28. Some curriculum stuff: sharing stories http://bit.ly/fAPeFM

29. Some curriculum stuff: transfer http://bit.ly/hF8efY

30. So maybe this is about something else? More humane, maybe? It’s not just the (knowledge) economy (and efficiency), stupid. Maybe we need to discuss student-as-producer, rather than consumer, irrespective of cultural differences. Maybe there is something here on power and the production of the curriculum/world at scale (Illich; Friere; Gramsci; Giroux). Maybe commonalities are more important in a world that faces significant disruption .

32. The student voice as philosophy and pragmatism, in and beyond the curriculum. Decision-making, co-production and agency are seen as part of a democratic process of inclusion.

33. “ As far as learning outcomes are concerned producing global citizens and graduates who can compete in global labour markets were also regarded with relatively high importance at UB, whereas students at UW seemed to feel that alongside global citizenship producing graduates to operate in local multicultural working environments was more important than global ambitions, with an attendant emphasis on providing cross-cultural experiences on the home campus.” Equality Challenge Unit (2010). Internationalisation and equality and diversity in HE: merging identities http://bit.ly/e2xkbL

34. cash and culture … the university recruits too many international students because they pay high fees… so many courses now have considerable foreign numbers that do not talk to the local students…

35. us and them? International students have to make an effort to integrate themselves as well… international students… slow down the learning process… … sometimes we don’t understand why they smile…

36. stereotypes International students… always form their own groups and segregate themselves from the Australian society and never integrating… International perspectives are also that ‘we pay we pass’ and therefore never put in effort in uni…

37. equality Due to current political and the result of historical situation universities in the UK have to face high number of international students. In order to create a well working system this diversity must be based on equality.

38. alienation I ask why do I need to pay more for my tuition fees since I am from abroad when all the services, resources, time, etc, rendered to me are the same as my British and EC contemporaries… Am I also not “contributing” to the university in any way?

39. safety You [gravitate] towards people from your own culture because you think ‘…oh foreigners, I don’t know what it is going to be like talking to them, I am safe talking to someone of my own race’. Chinese international students refer to Australian students of Chinese background as ‘bananas’ because in appearance they have yellow skin, but inside they have the ideas of white people, they behave like the local people not like people from Asia.

40. Students spoke of universities having to dispel ‘feelings of superiority’ and how international students feel more comfortable engaging with their international peers because they ‘did not feel inferior’. students would welcome more events which acknowledge that students have multiple identities and whilst culturally different, home and international students may have similar interests beyond this relatively narrow perspective.

41. NUS (2010). Internationalising students unions in HE. http://bit.ly/i6MZRR

42. the Other some programmes of study tend to be mono-cultural, comprising large numbers of Chinese or Indian students who have little or no opportunity to engage with home students in the campus learning environment. the challenge... is breaking down barriers to facilitate the free exchange of ideas, different world views, etc, to counter the stereotyped images so frequently portrayed by the global media

43. A tendency to articulate internationalisation in its traditional guise = partnerships/exchanges, which enable students to experience difference but also to attract more students to the university. Recruitment of international staff = a key element of internationalisation, where students note diversity of staff coming together to discuss how to teach international students. Students acknowledge the legitimacy of the HEI as a business that needs to maintain good reputation and international standing through a student-centred approach/a quality product to international customers. An ‘international feel’ that sets the HEI apart from other institutions.

44. Integration Motivation Equality and diversity The political economy of study Disciplinary differences Otherness Large, complex, motive, geared economically [it’s about resources]; is it about people?

45. But the internationalisation of HE does not take place in a bubble.

48. Very little of the detail, the human density, the passion of Arab-Moslem life has entered the awareness of even those people whose profession it is to report the Arab world. Edward Said in The Nation (2010): http://bit.ly/gAuPqz

49. A key message is the need to manage diversity rather than simply recruit ever expanding numbers of international students which may result in widespread student failures on hostile campuses where various social groups are viewed negatively. Equality Challenge Unit, 2010: http://bit.ly/emsYwg

50. Eliding an attack on the public sector, and protection of a hegemonic position, with a fear of the other: http://bit.ly/dQRovN

53. http://bbc.in/fu68Ui

54. “ This is an intervention. A message from that space in the margin that is a site of creativity and power, that inclusive space where we recover ourselves, where we meet in solidarity to erase the category colonized/colonizer. Marginality is the space [site] of resistance. Enter that space. Let us meet there. Enter that space. We greet you as liberators.” bell hooks, 1990 Bhabha: the post-colonial world should valorize spaces of mixing; spaces where truth and authenticity move aside for ambiguity. The Counter Cartographies Collective (2010), Counterapping Qmary: http://bit.ly/eDXuh7

56. I = P x A x T The impact of human activities (I) is determined by the overall population (P), the level of affluence (A) and the level of technology (T). Even as the efficiency of technology improves, affluence and population scale up the impacts. [See: http://bit.ly/cldoaZ ]

59. Some possible outcomes in the next 10-20 years? From 2014, emergency investments required in new energy sources as oil declines and existing power stations decommissioned. Significant increase in cost of energy = Increase in cost of living. Problem with global food supplies. Increased (student) poverty? Shift from mitigation to adaptation efforts. Decrease/suspension of democracy. Increase in resource wars drains public funds. De-growth in developed countries. 2008-09 = 'peak' of public spending on education. Contraction in HE sector (real estate/staff/students). “Uneconomic.” Growth in informal and/or non-institutional education. Increased spending on STEM at cost of all else. Unfailing faith in tech.

60. In this way, and following Bourdieu’s notion of ‘forms of capital’ (Bourdieu 1986), students who move to study in an international arena, especially if they attend high-prestige universities, accumulate multiple and mutually-reinforcing forms of capital – mobility capital (cf. Murphy-Lejeune 2002), human capital (a world-class university education), social capital (access to networks, ‘connections’), cultural capital (languages, intercultural awareness) and, eventually, economic capital (high-salary employment). HEFCE (2010). International student mobility literature review: Final report: http://bit.ly/c6be49 Capital

61. Is HE resilient in the face of disruption? Do our approaches to internationalisation and the place of students in HE limit re-invention?

62. the ‘contact hypothesis’ suggests that rather than intercultural encounters automatically increasing intercultural competence, they can reinforce stereotypes and prejudices if critical incidents are not evaluated on cognitive, affective and behavioural levels. Students need to be able to learn about ‘differences’ and get to know each other with sufficient intimacy as to be able to discern common goals and personal qualities. This in turn suggests reflection on individual and collective social experiences with people from other cultures Equality Challenge Unit, 2010: http://bit.ly/emsYwg

63. It’s not like we can’t do this (however loaded): UN IPCC Human Genome Project Participatory Action Research Projects Student solidarity See, Chatham House (2011). Asia and Europe: Engaging for a Post-Crisis World: http://bit.ly/fyrgkR

64. So what might this mean for student voices in HE? Can the voices of international students help HE become more resilient?

65. Resilience: adaptation not BAU “ the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change, so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks” Rob Hopkins (2009). Transition Culture: http://bit.ly/3ugobl Systemic diversity, modularity, feedback

66. resilience at scale “ we have a choice between reliance on government and its resources, and its approach to command and control, or developing an empowering day-to-day community resilience. Such resilience develops engagement, education, empowerment and encouragement” DEMOS (2010): http://bit.ly/15yRl9

68. Student-as-producer The Student as Producer project re-engineers the relationship between research and teaching. This involves a reappraisal of the relationship between academics and students, with students becoming part of the academic project of universities rather than consumers of knowledge. “ The educator is no longer a delivery vehicle and the institution becomes a landscape for the production and construction of a mass intellect in commons.” Neary and Winn (2009). The student as producer: http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/1675/

69. Student-as-producer collaborative relations – teaching and research networks; refashioning in fundamental ways the nature of the university; redesign the organizing principle, (i.e. private property and wage labour), through which academic knowledge is currently being produced; open, collaborative initiatives. Neary and Winn (2009). The student as producer: http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/1675/

72. Are there other ways of producing knowing? What authority does HE/do universities have? How relevant are fixed institutions/programmes in a disrupted world? How do internationalised student voices help to adapt to disruption? In a knowing world, rather than a knowledge economy, what does curriculum innovation mean? Does a pedagogy of production need to start with the principle that we need to consume less of everything? What does this mean for ownership of the institution at scale [local, regional, global]? How can internationalised student voices help in the struggle to re-invent the world? See: http://globalhighered.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/a-question/

73. Licensing This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/