Westernization or internationalization? Academic expectations and challenges faced by international postgraduates in China

ABSTRACT

China has become a main host country for international students, but its international programmes for higher education still need improvement. This study aimed to examine the academic challenges that international postgraduates in China face based on Luc Boltanski’s idea of ordinary critique. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and data were collected from 18 international students in two universities in China through semi structured interviews. The ordinary critique of academic difficulties by international postgraduates suggests that Westernized learning content is not sufficiently present in curricula, teachers do not have strong academic recognition from Western journals, the value of diplomas is questioned, and English is not regarded in local institutions as a mark of internationalization.Thus, they equate higher education internationalization with Westernization. These findings are analysed in light of common standards for the internationalization of higher education and offer possible implications for higher education internationalization in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• International postgraduates in China
• academic difficulties
• internationalization of higher education
• cosmopolitanism
• global justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province [2022GXJK194]; Guangdong Office of Philosophy and Social Science [GD22YJY06]; Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China [22YJA880030].