scholarly journals Student challenges and learning strategies at Hong Kong EMI universities

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0251564
Author(s):  
Jack Pun ◽  
Xina Jin

The rapid trend towards globalization has led to the expansion of English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) in tertiary education. The academic challenges faced by non-native speakers have been broadly discussed in Anglophone countries, whilst those learning through EMI in the Chinese context are still underexplored. To examine Chinese EMI university students’ perceived language challenges in learning, as well as their language-related learning strategies, this study investigated 73 students studying at EMI universities in Hong Kong, taking account of their gender, EMI experience in higher education, and English exposure prior to tertiary education. Participants completed a survey to provide self-evaluations of their academic situation and their perceptions of their disciplinary learning. The study found that students perceived a relatively low level of language and learning challenges, and they showed a preference for using their second language (L2)-related learning strategies over strategies related to their first language. Specifically, male students tended to be more actively engaged in communication with their peers than females, and were more likely to search for additional learning support in English. In addition, first-year undergraduates perceived a greater degree of challenges in knowledge application and relied more on L2-related learning strategies than their senior counterparts. Although the importance of English exposure prior to higher education has been highlighted in many existing studies, this study found that prior exposure to English was neither connected with students’ perceived challenges nor their learning strategies.

Author(s):  
B Jane Jackson

As internationalization efforts intensify across the globe, the number of students who are studying outside their home country for part of their tertiary education has increased significantly. The vast majority of students from East Asian nations (Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Korea, Macau SAR, Mainland China, and Taiwan) study in a second language while abroad, with English the most common medium-of-instruction. As institutions of Higher Education (HE) in other regions compete for students from this part of the world, increasingly, questions are being raised about what students gain from outbound mobility programs. Scholars have drawn attention to the need for systematic empirical research that critically examines the experiences of student sojourners in order to determine the most effective ways to support and enhance their learning (e.g., linguistic, cognitive, social, academic, (inter)cultural, and professional).


2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 777-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine G.W.S. Wong ◽  
Erik P.T. Cheung ◽  
Kitty K.C. Chan ◽  
Kamela K.M. Ma ◽  
Siu Wa Tang

Objective: The mental health of tertiary education students is an area of increasing concern worldwide. The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress in first-year tertiary education students in Hong Kong. Method: Depression, anxiety and stress were measured by the 42-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, completed on the web by participating students anonymously. Results: A total of 7915 students completed the survey, yielding a response rate of 27.5%. Depression, anxiety and stress levels of moderate severity or above were found in 21%, 41% and 27% of our respondents, respectively. Conclusions: The web-based survey methodology was well accepted by our sample group of tertiary education students. We found high rates of psychological morbidity in first-year tertiary education students in Hong Kong. The high prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in the first year of college life is alarming. It illustrates the need for primary and secondary prevention measures, with development of adequate and appropriate support services for this group.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 145-164
Author(s):  
KIN YUEN RAYMOND TAM

The purpose of this article is to uncover the trend of developing education courses for social entrepreneurship in higher education institutions in Hong Kong. The author had searched the syllabi or course descriptions across the websites of the higher education institutions in Hong Kong with the keywords of entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and social innovation. It was found that most of the social entrepreneurship courses offered were one-off single subject for undergraduate students, General Education courses, and minor courses, with only a few courses targeting postgraduates. It was also found that curricular differences among the courses offered by various schools or faculties were not that obvious. To understand this, the author had undertaken an analysis of the schools where these courses resided, course objectives, course content, and teaching and learning strategies among these various social entrepreneurship courses. Discussion of these has given insights to arguing for the need of multidisciplinary collaborations among social entrepreneurship educators.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (Suppl.1) ◽  
pp. 611-618
Author(s):  
Radko Radev

The main goal of the current publication is to presents the specific result from the analysis of the most important PESTEL factors, identified as crucial for the HR Sustainable Capacity evaluation. It examines the students enrolled in higher education. The methodological framework, through which the goal is achieved, consists of four steps: first - the number and the types of higher educational institutions accredited in Bulgaria is identified (there are four types of 54 institutions); second - the gender structure of the students is analyzed, which testifies to the fact that there is domination of the female part of them (the number of the women amounts to 130’803, which is 54.0% of the total of students, the male students amounting to 112’396 or 46%.); third - the number and structure of the students from different degrees is presented, as well as their geographical distribution of the higher degree students - there are four main cities with more than 10’ 000 bachelor students (Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo), where 2/3 of all bachelor and master degree students are educated. The conclusion is that the number of students (including graduating ones) studying at the different universities in Bulgaria are a very important part of the HR sustainable capacity evaluation on national and regional level.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy M.L. Ng ◽  
Jason K. Y. Chan ◽  
Tai Ming Wut ◽  
Man Fung Lo ◽  
Irene Szeto

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model to examine key employability skills that match workplace requirements and foster employability.Design/methodology/approachThis research comprises a cross-sectional study from self-financing institutions in Hong Kong. The current study adopted structural equation modeling to examine key employability skills that match workplace requirements and foster employability.FindingsBased on the empirical findings, the acquired employability skills of young graduates are entrepreneurship, professional development, work with others, self-management, communication and problem solving. Moreover, higher education institutions should work closely with industry stakeholders to get employers engaged with the work-integrating learning (WIL) programs and subsequently equip young graduates for better employability opportunities. In connection with employer engagement, employability skills of communication, problem solving and self-management would be improved. Furthermore, entrepreneurship and problem-solving skills could further be developed for young graduating students working in SME organizations during WIL.Originality/valueAs a notable gap exists in the current literature to examine young graduates' key employability skills in the context and content of Hong Kong self-financing tertiary education, this research explores key employability skills of self-financed young graduates and the relative importance of employability skills across company size using a quantitative approach.


2022 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-165
Author(s):  
Masha Krsmanovic

This study explored how international undergraduate students perceive their academic transition into American higher education. Schlossberg’s (1984) 4S Transition Theory served as the framework for exploring what academic challenges, if any, international students experience during their first year of undergraduate studies in a new cultural and educational setting. The findings revealed that students’ academic transition into the U.S. higher education was characterized by difficulties in understanding the academic system of their new environment; overcoming educational, instructional and pedagogical differences; building social relationships with domestic students; and receiving the support necessary from the appropriate institutional services.


2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 285 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Mouton ◽  
G. P. Louw ◽  
G. L. Strydom

The Education White Paper 3 on Higher Education aimed to transform the higher education system. Change within tertiary education included adjusting the size and shape of institutions, the meaning of autonomy and accountability, the nature of higher education, the character of student demographic distribution, management and governance, roles of student politics, models of delivery, the notion of higher education in terms of the relationship between free trade and public good, programme changes and the nature of the academic workplace. At this stage, transformation in higher education is leaping outwards to fulfil the criteria set by international competitiveness and related efficiency criteria that can be attributed to globalisation pressures and to deeper factors inherent in the nature of higher education, especially in terms of its resistance to change and modernization. In this regard, the tertiary higher education system in South Africa is faced with many multi-dimensional challenges that need to be addressed in this article. This includes stating whether Grade 12 results as the outcome of this exit point at school level are, internationally speaking, a reasonable predictor of first-year academic success at university. In South Africa, there is no benchmarking of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination; therefore, first-year students have difficulty in adapting to the university environment as they find themselves devoid of indispensable bases for the pursuit of their studies and the weakness of the level of education given at school level in a large number of instances. Furthermore, five universities were placed under administration in the 2011-2012 period because of appallingly poor levels of management, which adds extra layers of suspicion to the notion of the impact of higher education in South Africa. Many other challenges are facing the South African tertiary education system, which will be analysed and recommendations arrived at that will attempt to contribute to an enhancement of tertiary education in South Africa.


2020 ◽  
pp. 208-221
Author(s):  
Olena Davlikanova ◽  
Helmut Hofstetter

The fourth industrial revolution and integration of the human capital concept into policymaking attract more attention to the ways of shortening the gap between the demands of the laboгr market and the «supply» of educational establishments. One of the ways to approach ensuring the efficient response is to export and adapt the «made in Germany» dual education/studies models, especially in tertiary education. Ukraine had had no similar systemic approach before the launch of a project on the importing of the dual higher education or dual studies («Duales Studium», DS) by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Office in Ukraine in 2013 (FES-Ukraine). The article aims to present state of the art with the «import» of the Duales Studium as of 2020 and main findings of the author’s questionnaire survey on the results of the first year of the national experiment in Ukrainian higher educational establishments (HEEs) under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MES). The author’s questionnaire survey was carried out from February to August 2020. The respondents included 27 higher educational establishments listed in the ministerial Order №1296 on the launch of the national wide dual studies experiment to be conducted in 2019-2023. The answers were obtained from the 23 HEEs, though not all of the answers were valid. The data obtained allowed to do both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The findings show that principles of the dual studies may be successfully adapted and implemented in the Ukrainian tertiary education, despite the lack of many components of German dual system, as well as some misinterpretations or purposeful misuse of the suggested mechanisms on the ground. Ukrainian dual studies may not be called a «dual system» yet, as many elements are still lacking and some cannot be re-created in the national context, but it is a form of studies that may already now be chosen by a student, as is demonstrated by 60 cases implemented by 17 HEEs on the examples of 31 majors and 441 students, out of which 123 are female and 318 male. Therefore, the obtained experience is a source of valuable information for recommendations to the stakeholders (educational institutions, employers and their associations, students, ministries, the Government and local self-government bodies etc.) aimed at boosting their further cooperation. Thus, it creates favourable conditions for training a capable workforce, which is one of the factors of compatibility and growth of both individual economic actors and the national economy as a whole. The authors’ contributions are as follows: elaboration of the draft questionnaire, description of the methodology, data analysis of the first year of the dual studies introduction by Ukrainian HEEs, conclusions and recommendations (Olena Davlikanova); input on experience of Dual Studies organization in Germany from the perspective of companies and HEEs (Prof. Helmut Hofstetter). Keywords dual higher education, dual form of education, dual studies, dual study models, dual tertiary education, Duales Studium, employers, higher educational institutions, human capital, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, pilot project, students, tertiary education.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document