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Supporting Students: International Students Edited by B.S. Rushton, A. Cook and K.A. Macintosh The STAR (Student Transition and Retention) Project www.ulster.ac.uk/star Supported by the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (Phase Four) © B.S. Rushton, A. Cook and K.A. Macintosh, 2006 This publication may be reproduced in full or in part provided appropriate acknowledgement is made to the STAR Project and to the authors. ISBN 978-1-85923-207-1 Published by the University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, BT52 1SA Printed in the United Kingdom by the University of Ulster, Coleraine

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Page 1: (G) Supporting Students - International Students · 2017. 4. 12. · Supporting Students: International Students Contents Page Preface 4 The Challenge of Supporting International

Supporting Students: International Students

Edited by B.S. Rushton, A. Cook and K.A. Macintosh

The STAR (Student Transition and Retention) Project

www.ulster.ac.uk/star

Supported by the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (Phase Four)

© B.S. Rushton, A. Cook and K.A. Macintosh, 2006

This publication may be reproduced in full or in part provided appropriate acknowledgement is made to the STAR Project and to the authors.

ISBN 978-1-85923-207-1

Published by the University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, BT52 1SA

Printed in the United Kingdom by the University of Ulster, Coleraine

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Page 3: (G) Supporting Students - International Students · 2017. 4. 12. · Supporting Students: International Students Contents Page Preface 4 The Challenge of Supporting International

The STAR Project

Student Transition and Retention

Supporting Students: International Students

Contents

Page

Preface 4

The Challenge of Supporting International Students to Ensure Academic Success

7

Brian S. Rushton

Support for International Higher Education Students in the UK

13

David Southall, Brian S. Rushton, Anne Hagan, Claire Kane and Sinead McCormick

University of Sunderland Retention Initiatives for International Students

41

Siobhan L. Devlin

Acknowledgements 69

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PrefaceThe purpose of this booklet is to describe practices that have worked in some institutions to ease the stresses of students’ transition into Higher Education and to help to improve retention. This is important because student retention has become a significant issue both for students and for institutions. Students waste valuable time and resources if they drop out from a university course in which they have invested their hopes and aspirations and institutions waste money and staff effort. Early withdrawal of students frustrates the purposes of all. It is, however, just the measurable component of a more general malaise. For every student who takes the decision to leave a course there must be many more who are just able to pass, who are just able to cope with the stresses of Higher Education and who are failing to reach their full potential. Equally, there will be students at university who should never have joined or who should have joined a different course. They might be too immature, too deficient in the basic skills required or their talents might lie in different directions.

Every institution that has highlighted student retention as a significant component of its strategies has investigated the causes of early leaving and most will have drawn similar conclusions. The STAR consortium was formed at a time when the generality of these causes was becoming apparent but the responses to them were less clear. The first action of the consortium was to list a set of outcomes that, if achieved, would contribute to the alleviation of problems associated with student transition. These we published as the Guidelines for the management of student transition (Cook et al., 2005). The consortium then identified practices that were likely to assist the achievement of the outcomes in the Guidelines booklet and researched them.

The STAR booklets, of which this is one, are small compendiums of practices that have worked in some institutions to ease the stresses of students’ transition into Higher Education. Many have been shown to improve retention. Many are the practical expression of institutional policies. All are descriptions of the dedicated work of teaching and support staff in the Higher Education sector who have introduced, maintained or developed practices for the benefit of students. The practices are derived from three sources. First, some were identified through survey. These were researched by STAR staff and written in collaboration with practitioners. Second, some staff volunteered to write about their practices independently. Third, some new practices were introduced and some existing ones evaluated using funding provided by the STAR project. Most practices have been described by staff and then validated by students through questionnaires or focus groups. All the reports contained in these booklets have been refereed independently and then approved by the STAR Steering Group.

This booklet describes the practices in enough detail to allow others to adopt or advocate that practice in their own institutions. The practices, however, should not be considered as definitive. They work in the institutions in which they were implemented by the staff who implemented them and with the students who participated. They are unlikely to remain the same. They will almost certainly evolve further even in the institutions in which they have

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been described and, when adopted elsewhere, will need to be adapted to suit local conditions. They are, therefore, offered as foundations on which to build appropriate practices to suit the staff, the students and learning environments involved.

REFERENCECook, A., Rushton, B.S., McCormick, S.M. and Southall, D.W. (2005). Guidelines for the

management of student transition. University of Ulster, Coleraine.

The Challenge of Supporting International Students to Ensure Academic Success

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Brian S. Rushton, The STAR Project, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, BT52 1SA

The media spotlight has recently been focussed on the future of science, and particularly, though not exclusively, on physics and chemistry in our UK universities (Anon, 2005). The Institute of Physics has recorded a 30% reduction in the number of university physics courses since 1997 and since 1994 28 Higher Education institutions have ceased teaching undergraduate chemistry – and in the last two years, five universities have indicated that they intend to close their chemistry departments (Cookson, 2004); the latest to be threatened with closure was the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sussex (Hackett, 2006) though this threat has now receded. In schools, chemistry is often seen now as just a means of entry into medical and the veterinary sciences rather than as a means to enter chemistry-related degrees (Byers et al., 2004). Some of the difficulties experienced by institutions are thought to result from a general decline in students’ interest for ‘hard science’ and the application figures seem to support this view – from 1997 to 2003, chemistry applications fell from 3,900 to 2,700 whilst physics applications declined from 3,500 to 3,200 (Cookson, 2004).

Increasingly, universities are turning to the recruitment of overseas students to ‘fill the gap’. As Jaggi (2004) points out: “If science and research in UK universities has a problem, then overseas students are very much part of the solution – both financially and academically.” The total Higher Education course fees in 2002-03 were £3.4 billion – 31.8% of this total came from overseas (non-EU) students even though they represented only 8.5% of the student population (Jaggi, 2004). Whilst the number of EU (non-UK) science students has remained more or less unchanged at about 40,000 between 1999-00 and 2002-03 the number of science students from overseas, non-EU has increased from about 45,000 to over 70,000. Indeed, in some universities, international students now make up a significant part of the undergraduate population – within the Russell Group of universities about 33% of the undergraduate population is international (Jaggi, 2004). Inevitably, with the increased pressure on science departments, the size of this cohort will continue to grow.

Until recently, China has been the major country targeted by UK universities in their drive to maximise recruitment from overseas but recent data suggest that this source may have peaked. For entrance in September 2006, UCAS data indicate a fall of 13.6% of Chinese student applications (Tysome, 2006). However, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of students applying from India – this year (2005-06) has seen an increase of 7% and between 2002-03 and 2004-05 the numbers increased by 31% (Tysome, 2006). To support this recruitment, the Chancellor of the University of Oxford will visit India in 2006 and the University of Wolverhampton has opened an office in New Delhi. The British Council is also funding an education and research initiative (Tysome, 2006).

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This will, of course, pose significant problems for front-line academics, course directors, administrators, resource providers, technicians, etc. as they have to adjust to the cultural and academic differences between home and international students and the complexities of having classes with both groups. This problem is further exacerbated by the differences between international students; unfortunately, they cannot be treated as a homogeneous cohort. For example, at the University of Ulster there is a sizeable group from English-speaking countries (particularly the US), students from central Europe (particularly Germany, France, Italy and Greece) and from the East and Far East. In this last group, students from Taiwan, mainland China, Japan and Hong Kong are well represented but even they do not form a homogeneous group. Also, a switch from a support system focussed on one group (e.g. the large influx of Chinese students in recent years) to the different needs of students from another country (e.g. the large increases being seen in students from India) will, in itself, cause difficulties.

The experiences recounted in this booklet describe how two institutions, the University of Sunderland and the University of Ulster have attempted to support foreign students to ensure that they are well integrated into both college and academic life.

The case study centred on the University of Ulster outlines the extensive network of support that is available at many different levels within the institution and how these combine to provide a supportive framework for the international student. Specifically, this includes three main activities:

Language provision designed to ensure that the international students have achieved a minimum level of language skills before they embark on their chosen degree programme. This is a six-week pre-sessional intensive English Language for Academic Study course that aims to bring students to an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) level of 6.0 – the standard demanded for entry into honours degree programmes.

A bridging course in the Life and Health Sciences that helps students to integrate into the life of the local community as well as helping them develop transferable skills such as practical, research and report-writing skills.

An orientation course that precedes the start of formal teaching and that allows the international students to become familiar with the University and studying at the University whilst at the same time outlining some of the cultural differences that exist between their country of origin and the UK.

The case study from the University of Sunderland outlines a number of innovations designed to support international students. These include:

The International Student Forum in which students meet weekly to discuss matters relating to their course or institution. There may be: formal talks on aspects such as student welfare, counselling, health care, etc.; discussion and help on study skills (the agenda here often being dictated by factors such as dissertation preparation, examinations, vivas, etc.); and ‘surgeries’. A WebCT version of this forum has also been developed and this is proving useful for dissemination of information and publicising events.

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SLANG (Sunderland Language and News Group), modelled on a ‘book club’, in which international students are encouraged to bring along items (e.g. from local or their own national newspapers) that they have read for discussion with the group. This is a very social and informal event.

Community Outreach designed to extend the international student experience by allowing international students to visit and forge links with local schools.

Happy families, essentially a buddy scheme in which mutual support is provided by a network of both home and international students – ‘grandparents’ (level three students), ‘parents’ (level two students) and ‘children’ (level one students).

Both these case studies highlight the extensive support networks that must be in place in order to ensure that international students fully integrate into higher education in the UK.

REFERENCES

Anon (2005). Science Select Committee asks AUT. AUTLook 234, 4.

Byers, W., McKeown, S., Rushton, B.S. and McFarland, A. (2004). The customer is always right! The need to rethink secondary school chemistry education. In Krnel, D. and Glazar, S.A. European Conference on Research in Chemical Education (7th ECRICE and 3rd ECCE). Ljubljana, Slovenia, 58-60.

Cookson, C. (2004). The university challenge: “We need to evaluate the true cost of teaching science”. Financial Times, 4/5 December 2004, 11.

Hackett, G. (2006). University axes chemistry course. Times on line, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2081668,00.html.

Jaggi, R. (2004). Overseas students play a critical role. Financial Times, 4/5 December 2004, 11.

Tysome, T. (2006). UK eyes turn to India as China’s interest falls. The Times Higher Education Supplement, 24 February 2006, 9.

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Support for International Higher Education Students in the UK

David Southall, Brian S. Rushton, The STAR Project, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, BT52 1SA,

Anne Hagan, Claire Kane, International Office, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, BT52 1SA and

Sinead McCormick, The STAR Project, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern

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Ireland, BT52 1SA

SUMMARY

International students are now an important feature of the Higher Education institutions in the UK and their specific needs should be given attention. This does, of course, pose significant problems for front-line academics, course directors and administrators, as they have to come to grips with cultural and academic differences between home and international students and the complexities of having classes with both groups.

The experiences recounted in this case study describe three activities (language provision, a bridging course and an orientation programme) involving international students at the University of Ulster. These activities attempt to support international students to ensure that they are well integrated into both college and academic life.

Keywords: international students, student retention, student transition.

INTRODUCTION

International students are an important and significant part of the student population in the UK and they contribute enormously to the cultural diversity that is such an important aspect of the modern university campus. It is likely that the number of international students, who bring with them higher fees, is likely to rise as UK universities struggle to ‘balance the books’. However, international students present a suite of problems to teaching, administrative, resource and technical staff over and above those associated with ‘home’ students. Such problems include not just language difficulties but also cultural and social aspects, which provide a real challenge to university staff. Therefore, with the increasing importance of the overseas student population, it is imperative that policy and practices are developed to meet their specific needs.

The experiences recounted in this case study describe three activities involving international students at the University of Ulster. These activities are designed to support international students to ensure that they become well integrated into both college and academic life.

RELEVANCE TO THE STAR GUIDELINES

At its outset the STAR project researched, produced and published a set of guidelines based on the causes of student attrition and which pointed the way towards possible good practice. The STAR guidelines relevant to this case study are:

2.1 Induction activities should familiarise students with the local area, the campus and its support services.

2.2 Induction activities should highlight students’ academic obligations and the obligations of the staff to the students.

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2.3 Induction activities should support the development of those independent study habits suitable for Higher Education.

2.5 Induction activities should promote the development of good communication between staff and students.

3.2 The course and its delivery should assist students’ transition from their previous educational experience to studying at tertiary level as well as addressing the different needs arising from the subject backgrounds of the student cohort.

4.2 Staff should recognise that expertise in ensuring appropriate support and guidance of students is as important as expertise in their subject.

Cook et al. (2005)

THE PROBLEM

The University of Ulster has an administrative department, the International Office, which contains a teaching team (CELT – Centre for English Language Teaching) devoted to supporting the language development of international students. The International Office/CELT has recognised that international students accepted into all the University’s programmes of study face challenges in terms of adapting to new academic and social experiences. While some of these arise inevitably from language barriers many stem from cultural differences between the UK and students’ home countries. The cultural diversity encompasses students from English-speaking countries such as the US to those students from continental Europe (e.g. Germany, France, Italy, Greece, etc.) to those students from the East and Far East. At the University of Ulster there are sizeable groups from Taiwan, mainland China, Japan and Hong Kong and these, in themselves, form a very heterogeneous group.

Many cultural differences result from the values that underpin the teaching and learning styles in the country of origin. Different interpretations of these values may result in Higher Education institutions in the UK not fully appreciating the significance of this diversity and thus creating difficulties for efficient teaching and improved learning. For example, in some cultures it is inappropriate to question the authority and knowledge of the lecturer and so critical thinking, which is so valued in the UK, is not encouraged. Some cultures value silence in class and so active participation is inhibited; thus some students find it difficult to contribute in seminars and tutorials (and this is not unknown in home students) and hence teaching approaches need to be sensitive to both cultural and/or individual circumstances. Teaching methods at pre-university level may not encourage independent learning; again, this may also be true of home students. Additionally, there exists a problem of academic integrity as some cultures regard the virtual reproduction of existing published work as a compliment to the original author and an acceptable practice whilst this is heavily frowned upon in the UK.

While their determination and work ethic is mitigation for some of their difficulties, some international students can bring with them culturally based study strategies that permit

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neither independent learning nor confident speaking.

The problems faced by home-based students, i.e. a new academic environment, a lack of experience of independent learning, a new living environment, having to make new friends, etc. are exacerbated for international students. Many have to cope with the additional burdens of the perceived speed of spoken English, the variation in regional accents and the apparent directness of face-to-face communication. These problems, together with differences in climate, living costs, health care and social activities, all combine to prevent efficient and effective learning.

THE PRACTICES

In order to support and integrate such students into the academic community, a number of mechanisms have evolved. Three of these are detailed below.

International Office/CELT English Language Provision

The International Office and CELT are jointly responsible for the initial care and support of international students. Their policies acknowledge the importance of social as well as academic integration of these students and the difficulties encountered by international students entering Northern Ireland, most for the first time.

To help international students overcome the language barrier the International Office/CELT offers a six-week Pre-sessional English Language for Academic Study Programme (ELAS). The programme is obligatory for students who have achieved IELTS 5.5 (International English Language Testing System, http://www.ielts.org/) or equivalent. The University of Ulster asks for an IELTS score of 6.0 for entry to most degree programmes but, for example, entry into the BSc Hons Speech and Language Therapy requires an IELTS score of 7.5. Students offering an IELTS score below 6.0 are only conditionally admitted to the University and must attain a level equivalent to 6.0 before being allowed to proceed to a degree programme. The outcomes of the programme equate to an IELTS score of 6.0; a student who does not achieve this cannot continue on their chosen course until they do so.

Students who have already reached the requisite IELTS 6.0 score or equivalent can attend the programme and will benefit from attendance because it also aims to teach skills that are necessary for independent learning. Other added benefits to the pre-sessional ELAS course include introducing students to different teaching styles, particularly group work. Students become familiar with a small number of staff and they get to know them on a first name basis and learn about their roles in the University. This helps them to begin to feel part of the University.

Student Assistants are employed specifically for the Pre-sessional ELAS Programme. They are recruited through the University website, University notice boards and the Training and Employment Agency. They are normally university students but not necessarily from the

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University of Ulster and can be either home or international students.

The ELAS programme starts on a Wednesday but the students are asked to arrive in Northern Ireland on the Monday of that week. The Student Assistants meet and greet new arrivals at Belfast International Airport and Belfast City Airport. Courtesy buses operate to transport incoming students to the various campuses. Students on the ELAS programme generally stay on campus and so the first couple of days are spent orientating them to their new accommodation and environment. The first day of the ELAS programme is the induction session whereby students are given an overview of the next six weeks; they receive information on visas, meet representatives from Student Support and are given a campus tour. Additionally they attend a session on how to fill out forms, something of critical importance over the first few weeks at university.

Within the pre-sessional teaching, students are taught in multi-cultural groups and these groups (maximum of 20) are formed depending on the students’ level of English. All groups follow a common curriculum (which has the same learning outcomes and assessment criteria) but the lecturers teach the material at a speed and intensity in keeping with the group’s level of English. An excerpt from the pre-sessional timetable is given in Appendix 1.

During the pre-sessional ELAS course the students complete a written report and they also make a presentation using those skills acquired in the previous weeks. Additionally, those with a conditional offer have to complete an examination in the four skills of Listening, Reading/Use of English, Writing and Speaking to ensure their English is up to the standard required before proceeding on to a degree programme. Students also attend lectures by visiting invited speakers, in order to improve their exposure to a variation in styles and types of delivery.

The Student Assistants help plan cultural and social events during the six-week period, such as trips to local tourist attractions and shopping expeditions. Because of the nature and length of time spent with the new students, the fact that they are of a similar age and have also recent experience of being new members of the University community, Student Assistants become the link between the new students, University staff and the staff in the International Office/CELT. Over this time the Student Assistants get to know the new students extremely well, can identify problems and, if appropriate, pass this information on to the relevant staff.

At the end of the six-week ELAS programme there is a party. The University provides the room and the refreshments but the students themselves provide the entertainment. This has proven to be a highly successful end to the programme and as other international groups attend the party there is added integration.

The studies undertaken in the pre-sessional programme may be continued during the teaching semester through In-sessional English Language Workshops that are available to all international registered students of the University. These workshops have replaced in-sessional English Language modules that were taught previously. Whilst attendance is

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optional, it is highly recommended. The workshops are additional to the formal teaching within the degree programmes on which the students are enrolled. Students may apply for a maximum of three workshops per semester from the six on offer, as shown in Table 1. Workshops run at various times during the week in order to accommodate course timetables. Currently, these workshops are not credit bearing (though this is under review) but certificates of attendance are awarded to students who qualify.

In-sessional Workshops No. of WeeksAccuracy in English (available twice per week)

11

Listening and reading skills (available twice per week)

11

Academic writing (available twice per week)

11

Spoken English and cultural awareness (available twice per week)

11

Giving presentations (available twice per week)

5

Pronunciation (available twice per week) 1

Table 1: In-sessional English Language Workshops available at the University of Ulster.

Details of the workshops, including learning outcomes, are included in the In-sessional English Language Booklet; an excerpt is attached in Appendix 2.

Both the pre-sessional ELAS programme and the in-sessional workshops are free to full time students. In addition, students can attend up to three individual, one-to-one sessions per semester with Teaching Fellows within the International Office/CELT where they can receive support with assignment/report writing or any other problematic area of English-related study. Attendance at the workshops qualifies students to access these individual academic consultations and this acts as an incentive to attend.

The Teaching Fellows are permanent appointments. They do not have a research role and their primary function is the delivery of the core English language teaching to University of Ulster students on three of the main campuses (Magee (Derry), Jordanstown (just north of Belfast) and Coleraine) – the ELAS pre-sessional programme, the in-sessional workshops and the academic consultations. All have some administrative/managerial responsibilities and one of them acts as an Academic Coordinator. Some also have responsibilities for English language programmes in collaborative institutions in China and one Teaching Fellow is employed on a one-year collaborative English language programme in China.

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Faculty of Life and Health Sciences Summer Bridging Course

The University runs a summer bridging course for students entering the final year of some courses within the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, having completed a higher diploma at another institution. For international students the main aim of this course is to help them integrate into life in Northern Ireland and to help them begin to develop transferable skills such as research and report writing skills. A bridging course timetable is included in Appendix 3.

The international students take a ‘Use of English test’, administered by the International Office/CELT, at the beginning of the three-week course in order to gauge their ability to use the English language. If the student’s score is below 40, which is equivalent to an Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE; http://www.alte.org) level three, then the student is strongly advised to attend the in-sessional workshops described above. The students are then re-tested at the end of semester one to assess their progress in English. During the bridging course students attend workshops/seminars and lectures on presentation skills by the International Office/CELT and are assessed on these skills towards the end of the summer programme.

A student’s previous educational experiences leaves ingrained cultural values and is, therefore, an issue for all international students and not just those for whom English is a second language. Again, some of these students may have come from an educational background and a culture where communication is very much one-way from the lecturer or the person in authority and where class participation and critical reasoning are not encouraged. The bridging course explicitly addresses these cultural differences. The students are encouraged to participate; discussion sessions are built in, presentation skills are taught and the students are made aware that they are ultimately responsible for what they learn and how they learn it. Students attend lectures and practical demonstrations on how to use the library and IT resources to access information and then how to use this information appropriately in report writing sessions.

Staff Opinions of the ELAS and Summer Bridging Courses

Many of the lecturing staff value the pre-sessional and in-sessional English Language support given to international students. A member of staff commented:

“Right from the start the important aspect is their level of English. If their English is weak it is going to be a difficult year for them. So in terms of settling in it is an important aspect to support them from day one.”

Another acknowledged:

“For some students when you ask them a question it is hard for them to communicate with lecturers and their colleagues.”

However, it is important to note that international students normally have a relatively competent grasp of English prior to studying at the University of Ulster. The pre-sessional

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ELAS programme lasts six weeks and as one lecturer stated:

“Yes they do attend pre-sessional English classes but I think we can’t achieve a big improvement in the time frame we have.”

A Teaching Fellow from the International Office/CELT agrees that there is no huge improvement in their English but there are other benefits to the programme:

“In the time available we have to incorporate and develop reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. This is difficult; we do make a 0.5 IELT band progress but they also gain confidence and get nestled into society and life in NI. They get bank accounts opened, make friends, get to know their way around the University and people and places to go for help. They can then act as an unofficial buddy for other incoming students at a later date.”

In terms of trying to change behaviours ingrained in students from their previous educational background, the bridging course co-ordinator comments:

“By-and-large they haven’t had to take that responsibility before and so clearly if they are in difficulties they have to ask.”

“We have to get across the message that we need interactivity and discussion and I think the English classes help get this across. We also build in discussion sessions throughout the bridging course; we need to try to get them to participate. There can be limitations in terms of the lecturer – some are better than others at encouraging discussion.”

Another lecturer agreed with these limitations:

“Some people are gifted in their delivery, their style of delivery and how to make it interesting and they get that response. It is just an extension of ‘how do you encourage participation?’”

Both agreed that lecturers would benefit from some help when lecturing to international students:

“A programme to help lecturers know the right approach to encourage the students to participate. That could help.”

“It is really just building on the principles of small group teaching where you can deliver the content in an interesting way. I suppose in our case we break the session down as they can only truly listen for 15 minutes and do something different if it is only one-way. It comes down to how you get them to make a comment if something isn’t clear.”

The International Office/CELT advises:

“Speakers to speak slowly, clearly and not to use colloquialisms, as even the most fluent speakers will not understand them. Also to check at intervals for understanding.”

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The Course Director of the Bridging Course described an improvement in English over the semester one period in some of these students. However, it was not possible to attribute this improvement completely to the workshops but it certainly did help some students:

“Last year we found that there was a difference between two cohorts [doing the bridging course]; there was a Biotechnology cohort and we looked through their results and would say they improved their English and the other cohort of Food Technology Management certainly hadn’t. I think one aspect of it was attitudinal but there were other factors, for example, in terms of the timetable where they argued they couldn’t get to the English classes.”

In addition, it is possible to look at how the bridging course students performed overall. The Course Director of the Bridging Course comments:

“In Food Technology there were two [students who obtained] 2:2s and six [who obtained] 2:1s. In Biotechnology there were actually three Firsts, but this probably reflects that the Biotechnology group were a stronger group coming in with a higher average mark in their Higher Diploma. But certainly in terms of the English, our external examiner for Food Technology Management interviewed all the students and wanted to be confident that they could all communicate their knowledge in English and was unhappy with [the abilities of] two students. In general the external examiner was happy with the effort being made to ensure English was of a certain standard.”

The Main Orientation Programme

New international students, including those who have completed the Pre-sessional ELAS Programme and the Summer Bridging Course, are invited to attend an Orientation Week at the beginning of semester one in the week preceding the start of teaching. This programme provides them with the opportunity to become familiar with the University, the campus and studying in a UK university whilst experiencing a different culture. It is a much more intensive programme of events than the programme available to home students. The Main Orientation Programme’s timetable is given in Appendix 4. The following week is the beginning of the semester and deemed Freshers’ Week where there are orientation events for all students – home and international. International students attend departmental orientation activities in class cohorts and are welcome to attend any of the centrally organised events with their peers.

Notification of the international students’ main orientation programme is sent out from the International Office well in advance to enable suitable travel plans to be finalised. Organisation and support for the programme resides with the International Office/CELT.

Student Assistants, employed to help with Orientation Week and the immediate run up to it, meet and greet new arrivals at the two main airports. Again, free charter buses operate to transport incoming students to the various campuses. The Student Assistants are also

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responsible for putting together a welcome pack for the new arrivals.

On the day of arrival they are directed to the International Office/CELT where they pick up their information pack. This provides the following information:

A timetable for the Orientation Week (Appendix 4);

Sample time-tables (and direction to the University’s on-line timetable system);

Invitations to the Provost’s Reception and Coleraine Mayor’s Reception;

The transport time-table for the week (buses and trains);

Local tourist information leaflets; and

An Information Booklet, which is updated annually and prepared by Student Assistants.

The orientation aims to introduce students to Northern Ireland in general and the University, including its facilities, the local environment and shopping areas in particular. Students are introduced to administrative and academic staff, members of the Students’ Union and other international students. This orientation week gives students the opportunity to familiarise themselves with University procedures and working practices, as well as giving assistance with all registration formalities. Students are strongly advised to attend all sessions of the orientation programme in order to help them to settle into life at the University of Ulster more easily. However, experience shows that Asian students prefer a more formalised, structured orientation whereas SOCRATES (European) and North American students, etc. prefer to ‘do their own thing’.

There are opportunities for students to meet and stay with local families. ‘International Friends’ is a group of local people who help to link international students on the Coleraine campus with local families. International Friends provides an ideal opportunity for international students to meet local people outside the University, to learn about Northern Irish family life and culture, and to make new friends. International Friends also organises local walks and local ceilidhs (Irish set dancing evenings).

For those living in University owned accommodation, the Accommodation Office is involved in the international students’ orientation in terms of facilitating their access to information related to health and safety regulations, e.g. fire alarm protocol, etc. and general ‘ground rules’. Thereafter, many of the students are in almost daily contact with accommodation staff and so problems can be easily identified and dealt with.

In the week following Orientation Week the international students, along with home students, meet the Residents Assistants who live in University accommodation and provide peer support and leadership to both home and international students living alongside them. Residents Assistants are students often in their final year so they bring to the role recent experience of adapting to life at university. Several of the Residents Assistants are international students and thus can empathise with and help effectively their (usually)

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younger peers. Residents Assistants organise events to help students mix socially. Each student pays a booking fee for their accommodation a portion of which is allocated to a social fund called ‘Resident Life’; students can apply to this fund for money to hold events and excursions to promote integration.

The Students’ Union are also involved in the orientation and induction of international students. Members of the Students’ Union accompany the students on a tour of Ireland’s North Coast and the world-renowned Giant’s Causeway. That evening they host a night of entertainment with food and icebreaker games. The Christian Union also hosts evenings such as Irish ceilidhs and it actively encourages all students to drop in to have a chat and meet each other and this forms another source of support.

A senior officer of the Students’ Union also meets with the students to let them know the role of the Union, what it can do for them and where they can get help.

Students’ Union Site Vice President at Coleraine commented:

“International students play a vital role as part of the cultural diversity and vibrancy at the University of Ulster. The Students’ Union is here to support international students during their stay and to ensure that their time at the University of Ulster is enjoyable and memorable”.

This year, 2005-06, the Students’ Union aims to have an international student in place as the International Officer – it has not necessarily been the case previously. An international student has the added advantage of having an insight into adapting to life and study in a new country and so would be more effective in answering queries and helping solve problems.

The Students’ Union also has an International Students’ Society that organizes cultural events, weekend breaks and sporting activities for both international and home students. As a lecturer commented, there are many advantages to these extra-curricular activities:

“As far as integrating we encourage them to take up sports, it is a great common ground and their English does improve with the interaction.”

Staff and Student opinions

Helping students orientate to life in Northern Ireland and inducting them into the University is important. As a lecturer commented:

“Social integration is key to them for success and settling quickly. If they can’t get their money from home or can’t get settled in accommodation it’s going to have a big knock on effect … even in terms of the campus, getting to know where things are, where the sources of help are, that the first port of call is the Course Director but sometimes it is more effective to go straight to the module co-ordinator or to the Faculty Office so sign-posting this is valuable.”

The International Office/CELT do not consider the students’ orientation to be complete after the initial Orientation Week:

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“We take the view that orientation does not stop at the end of that week, it continues throughout their time here. Initiation and familiarisation is very gradual for them.”

A lecturer acknowledges that orientation and induction encompass longer-term objectives:

“We can help somewhat but their value and behaviour systems are different from the ones here and it is hard to change. We can encourage them to ask questions openly and express opinions but I don’t think we can change that a lot. In my experience cultural differences need more than one year.”

An international student welcomes the orientation activities:

“This is my first time studying at the University of Ulster so a welcome event for international students provides a great introduction to the University and to the cultural attractions of Northern Ireland.”

CONCLUSION

Good practice in relation to induction suggests that opportunities should be available to facilitate both academic and social integration (Carter et al., 2003). This is of particular importance to international students who not only face the task of settling into a new academic environment but also a new country and a new culture. These problems can be exacerbated by the need to communicate in a different language.

University staff need to understand the cultural diversity within the international student body and help them integrate into the university community in order for them to become successful, independent learners and to benefit fully from their time in the UK.

CONTEXT

University of Ulster >1000 international students from over 60 countries.

REFERENCES

Carter, C., Stone, M., Shobrook, S., Gadd, D., Guyer, C.F. and Smart, C. (2003). Student Progression and Transfer (SPAT). http://www.spat.ac.uk/pReport.html

Cook, A., Rushton, B.S., McCormick, S.M. and Southall, D.W. (2005). Guidelines for the management of student transition. University of Ulster, Coleraine.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Anon (2004). The International Student Support Charter. University of Ulster, Coleraine.

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http://www.ulster.ac.uk/international/pdf/issc.pdf

Anon (2005). University of Ulster Handbook for International Students 2005/2006. University of Ulster, Coleraine. http://www.ulster.ac.uk/international/pdf/handbook.pdf

Hughes, R. and Hardy, J. (2002). Feeling at home: a guide to issues of cultural awareness for those working with international students. The British Council, London.

APPENDIX 1. Pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes 2005, Coleraine

Excerpt from the student timetable

Week Three 22-26

August 2005

Friday Project writing

Student/staff consultative meeting

Supervised guided studyReading – Unit 5

Thursday Writing – Unit 8Grammar – Tense review

Guest lecturer ‘Culture kick’

Wednesday

Project workshopReading – Unit 5

Listening skillsTutorial participation skills

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Tuesday Writing – Unit 5Grammar – Unit 5

Listening – Units 3 and 4

1hr

Monday Writing – Unit 4Internet – Unit 6

Presentation skills

1hr

9.15-12.15

12.30 1.30-3.00 Tutorials

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APPENDIX 2. Examples of In-sessional Workshops

Accuracy in Spoken English

Aims and objectives

To improve sentence structure accuracy in the context of assignment writing;

To help you recognise and correct grammatical inaccuracies;

To help you choose appropriate sentence structure and vocabulary;

To improve accuracy in punctuation use;

To examine use of appropriate register;

Examine areas of grammatical difficulty according to the group’s needs; and

Examine areas of vocabulary difficulty according to the group’s needs.

Workshop Description

This is an eleven-week workshop of two hours per week. The workshop aims to clarify and extend your understanding of key grammar and vocabulary areas in spoken as well as written contexts. There are tutor input activities and work in pairs, as well as opportunities to discuss how to overcome commonly occurring or individual problems in accuracy in writing, grammar and vocabulary.

Who Should Attend?

International students who find that their written or spoken communication is often unclear to the reader or listener because of inaccuracies. Students who wish to clarify or improve sentence structure, tenses and other areas of grammar and vocabulary.

Spoken English and Cultural Awareness

Aims and objectives

Practice in communication in various social and academic situations;

Focus on correctness in conversation;

Strategies and language for effective discussion;

To exchange information on your culture with other students and explore the differences; and

To recognise that a knowledge of culture is essential to the study of the language.

Workshop Description

This is an eleven-week workshop of two hours per week. There is tutor input and monitoring, a small amount of listening to examples, awareness of natural spoken English and a great deal of practice in pairs or groups. There is also a focus on acquiring language and strategies to gain control over your contribution to discussion. Workshop methods

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include small groups and work in pairs, so that you will take a highly interactive role while the tutor acts as a facilitator.

Who Should Attend?

International students who would like guidance and practice in spoken English and who would like to improve their cross cultural awareness.

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Giving Presentations

Aims and objectives

To focus on the language of presentations;

To analyse video extracts of academic presentations; and

To practice giving sections/whole presentations using PowerPoint and to receive feedback.

Workshop Description

This is a five-week workshop of two hours per week. There is considerable tutor input on approaching and preparing effectively for a presentation in English and on use of language. There is also emphasis on practice in giving presentations, with tutor and peer feedback.

Who Should Attend?

International students who wish to learn and practice how to give seminar presentations in English.

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APPENDIX 3. Summer Bridging Course Timetable

(Location information has been omitted for brevity.)

Friday Induction 10.15 Meet for sight-seeing of Antrim Coast

Thursday Induction 10.15 Library seminar and assignments12.30 Student supportBMS333 14.15 Skills for presentations (CELT)

Wednesday BMS333 9.15 Graduate skills10.15 Scientific report writing, plagiarism12.15 Statistics BMS33314.15 IT Services15.15 Data analysis, Excel

Tuesday Induction10.15 Welcome, campus and library tour12.30 BriefingBMS333 14.15 Use of English test (CELT)17.15 Reception

Monday HolidayWeek 29th

Aug.

BMS333. Continuation of practicalFree to work on the practical report for the DPP visit essay

10.15 Submit final practical reportModule evaluation and Final year briefing11.15 Use of additional ‘use of English’ classes (CELT)

BMS333 Continuation of practicalBMS33314.15 Skills for presentations (CELT)

Free to meet tutor and to work on the practical reportBMS33314.15 Assessed presentations (CELT)

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BMS333Continuation of practicalBMS33314.15 Data analysis using SPSS

BMS33310.15 Write an essay under exam conditions about the DPP visitFree to work on assessed presentation

BMS3339.15 Visit to Dairy Product Packers (DPP) and sight seeing in Belfast

Submit draft practical report to your tutor for feedbackFree to work on the practical report and revise for essay exam question

BMS33310.15 Health and Safety11.15 Micro lab PracticalsContinuation of practicals

BMS33310.15 DPP visit workshopFree to work on practical report

5th Sept.

12th Sept.

APPENDIX 4. International Student Orientation

Timetable of events

Date Time Session VenueMonday 18.00-19.30 Informal welcome –

to meet other international students

Senior Common Room

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Tuesday 10.30 Welcome and information session, International Office

LT9 Central Buildings

11.00 Getting to know the University

12.00 English language teaching, CELT

12.00 Campus tour12.30 Campus tour13.00 Provost’s induction LT 815.15 Shopping tour

(optional)Meet in entrance hall

18.00 Provost’s Reception Bannview Dining Room

Wednesday 10.30 Library and information services

LT 9 Central Building

10.50 Health care, guidance and counselling

11.10 Accommodation11.20 Tourist information,

Northern Ireland Tourist Board

11.40 Riverside Theatre12.30 and

13.30

Library tour for inexperienced speakers of English

Central Library

14.30 Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Coastal Building seminar room

Thursday 10.30 Students’ Union and Sports Centre

LT 9 Central Building

11.00 PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland)

11.10 HOST UK11.20 International

Friends11.30 Chaplaincy11.40 Campus tour Entrance hall13.00 Faculty of Business

and ManagementLT 12

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15.15 Mayor’s reception Entrance hall at 14.30

Friday 09.30 Registration for all exchange students

See separate information sheet

Saturday 11.00 Day trip to Giant’s Causeway and evening entertainment at Students’ Union (£10)

See separate information sheet

If you cannot register at the times specified on this timetable, or if you would like further information about registration, please contact your faculty office.

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University of Sunderland Retention Initiatives for International Students

Siobhan L. Devlin, School of Computing and Technology, University of Sunderland, St Peter’s Campus, St Peter’s Way, Sunderland, SR6 0DD

SUMMARY

The initiatives described in this study form a series of support mechanisms that have attempted to enhance the experience of the international students studying in the University of Sunderland’s School of Computing and Technology, which contains around a third of

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the University’s total number of on-campus international students. Some were implemented due to the author’s part time secondment over two years to study the international student experience, in the form of a University Teaching Fellowship. The initiatives are discussed in turn, with reference to their resourcing implications.

Keywords: Student retention, international students, induction.

INTRODUCTION

The University of Sunderland, like Higher Education institutions across the UK, has experienced a significant increase in the number of international students registering on its programmes of study in recent years. Since the Prime Minister’s Initiative in 1999 which gave UK universities the target of attracting an extra 50,000 international students by 2005 and the subsequent EducationUK branding campaign of the British Council, the numbers of full fee paying international students studying on campus at Sunderland have increased more than threefold to almost 1,500.

Continued recruitment of international students cannot, however, be seen as a consequence of our teaching practices and support mechanisms. On the contrary, there are likely to be many reasons why overseas students choose to study in the UK (Waller, 1993). Our challenge is to ensure they continue to want to come here which means our programmes must be appropriate, in terms of content, delivery and evaluation and so too must our support services. With appropriate support, students may successfully make the transition to the different learning and living environments and progress through the system to achieve their potential. The personal experience of staff at our institution, however, has until now been that:

Many international students have not been achieving a smooth transition;

The difference between the level of achievement of some of these students at home and in the UK can be quite marked, notwithstanding the different grading conventions used; and

Students often struggle to flourish in the new environment both academically and socially.

In a study carried out by the author in 2003, as part of her Teaching Fellowship, a questionnaire was distributed to staff in the School of Computing and Technology, concerning their perceptions of the Chinese student experience. Analysis of the responses revealed that 94% of staff believed that Chinese students experienced problems over and above those of UK students and 58% felt that these same students presented problems, largely because it was difficult to get meaningful feedback from them. Fifty-five per cent of staff admitted knowing nothing about the Chinese educational system. When asked whether Chinese students should be given additional help in making the adjustment to the UK system, 10% emphatically stated that the differences between the two systems did not

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justify such help. This case study seeks to present some of the measures taken in the last two years in order to facilitate this academic adjustment process and a wider social integration.

OUTLINE OF PRACTICE

The initiatives outlined are aimed at international students studying in the School of Computing and Technology, which contains around a third of the University’s total number of on-campus international students. Within the School, out of a total on-campus population of almost 1,700, there are currently over 500 international students, compared with 1,150 home or EU students. In 2003 the author began a two year University Teaching Fellowship investigating the experience of and provision for Chinese students studying within the School (the study was widened to encompass all international students after the first year). The background to the fellowship was the author’s concern that as Higher Education institutions become increasingly committed to opening their doors to students whom they have not traditionally taught, there is a need both to recognise that while all students have the right to a high quality learning environment this concept means different things to different students, and to consider what values are placed by these students on the approaches to teaching and learning that we adopt. The Fellowship inspired the setting up of a regular meeting that became known as the International Student Forum, and also provided the resources required to run it. (The Fellowship scheme pays for a member of academic staff to be seconded from their academic duties two days per week, for a period of two years, in order to undertake research into an aspect of teaching and learning relevant to the University’s learning and teaching strategy.) Although the Fellowship came to an end in the spring of 2005, the forum continued to be staffed on a voluntary basis until the decision to formally incorporate it into the school’s retention strategy for the coming academic year.

The mechanisms described here are: the International Student Forum – both real and virtual; the Sunderland Language and News Group (SLANG); the Community Fellowship project International Students into Schools; and Happy Families. The driving force behind all four is the desire to adopt a wider, culturally informed and more holistic view of students’ ability to engage in the learning process. The following sections first of all indicate the relation to the STAR guidelines of each initiative and then present each one in turn with a discussion of the level of success achieved so far and the implications in terms of resources.

RELEVANCE TO THE STAR GUIDELINES

Implementation of the four initiatives has contributed to the achievement of guidelines 2.1-2.6 of the STAR project (Cook et al., 2005), which address “Induction and Beyond”. It is important to view induction as a process that should continue throughout Higher Education because the students are in frequent transition between modules, learning experiences and changing expectations both academically and socially. Furthermore, in

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timetabling the International Student Forum so that it is a formal part of students’ studies, their course is assisting their “transition from their previous educational experience” (guideline 3.2). The following illustrates where and how the relevant guidelines are addressed.

Star Guideline 2.1: Induction activities should familiarise students with the local area, the campus and its support services.

International Student Forum (ISF) features guest speakers on campus and support services;

International Students into Schools (ISIS): Local school visits engender familiarity with local people and places;

The local daily paper is used in the SLANG meetings, so local stories are discussed widely; and

Happy Families: Level two and three students (parents and grandparents) show their ‘children’ around the campus during induction week, having been primed with key areas to visit, e.g. the help desk, the learning resource centre, the library, etc.

Star Guideline 2.2: Induction activities should highlight students’ academic obligations and the obligations of the staff to the students.

Academic obligations and expectations are covered in ISF; and

Happy Families parents and grandparents help new students understand processes, obligations and expectations of staff.

Star Guideline 2.3: Induction activities should support the development of those independent study habits suitable for Higher Education.

ISF allows PDP related reflection and development and practice of skills;

ISIS has been shown to aid development of time management, communication skills, etc.;

SLANG promotes critical thinking and discussion; and

The ‘family’ network allows students to understand through others’ experiences and advice the difference in the study and learning requirements between the levels, e.g. discovering what a TCT is and how difficult it is likely to be in the computer programming module.

Star Guideline 2.4: Induction events should provide the foundations for social interactions between students and the development of communities of practice.

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ISF fosters social bonding between students;

ISIS encourages students to work together and also provides social interaction between the students and the outside community;

SLANG is very much a social, non-academic, event with a strong community identity; and

Happy Families is an excellent way of promoting social activity, which the students organize themselves.

Star Guideline 2.5: Induction activities should promote the development of good communication between staff and students.

Students view ISF as a ‘safe’ place to voice their opinions as they feel very comfortable speaking to staff they clearly see as interested in their welfare;

ISIS students have commented that the staff involvement in the activity allowed them to see course staff as friends rather than teachers; and

Happy Families social events have taken place on campus during the year involving both students and staff.

Star Guideline 3.2: The course and its delivery should assist students’ transition from their previous educational experience.

By embedding the ISF into the students’ timetables, the assistance given to the students becomes part of the course rather than an addition to it.

INITIATIVES

The International Student Forum

In the beginning, weekly meetings were set up for Chinese students only, as it was the experiences of that group of students that the study was initially addressing since they were the largest international group in the institution and their educational background was so markedly different from that of the UK students. An initial publicity flier was produced in both English and Chinese. However, during the first year, students from other countries asked if they could attend and when, at the end of the first year, the Fellowship was renewed with the premise that the study would be widened beyond Chinese students the forum became international. It is held specifically for students from the School of Computing and Technology, but it is not uncommon for students from other schools to also attend. It meets weekly and its format can vary, depending on the time of year – for example, students who are nearing the end of the dissertation stage of their studies will be keen to gain advice on presenting their work and the viva process – and whether the students have particular issues they wish to discuss. In general, the formal meetings were set up with the following structure:

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Invited talk;

Study skills; and

Surgery.

Often, however, students may want to spend the session chatting about anything that is bothering them at the time, academic or social.

Invited speakers typically speak on:

The Students’ Union and international student issues;

Information Services;

Opportunities, both voluntary and paid;

Welfare issues;

Counselling;

Health care; and

The HOST System – through which international students can visit the homes of British families for short stays.

Study skills encompass matters such as understanding assessment, writing reports, group work, presentation skills and understanding the University regulations.

The forum meets for a total of two hours per week so there is a need for a member of staff to be available to cover that period. Some preparation time is required, but not a great deal after the first run through. The forum was initially staffed voluntarily by the author, who is an academic, and the school administrator who was especially valuable in helping the students understand University regulations, etc. Occasionally the staff were present together, sometimes one or other of them. From this academic year, the author has the two hours recognised on her timetable, which means the same allocation is allowed for preparation. Attendance by the students has varied according to the time of year, whether or not an assignment deadline is looming, whether or not the topic of a particular week is held to be relevant by particular students, timetable clashes and other commitments such as paid employment. We have come to expect around 30 students when there is a ‘hot topic’ and less at other times. Of the attendees, the majority are Masters students as they represent the largest proportion of international students and their needs are more acute as they need to understand the obligations towards and expectations of the institution very quickly due to the brevity of their course. Often, undergraduates will attend during their first year and then not subsequently.

WebCT Forum

The WebCT International Student Forum was created in parallel with the actual forum but

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has never been as effective a method of interacting with the students as the latter. This may be due to: cultural reasons (see for example Marcus and Gould, 2000; Tylee, 2001; Miah, 2004), and the author is currently investigating this phenomenon; or to the students’ unwillingness to engage in something that is not compulsory or that they do not see as directly affecting their progress through university. The virtual forum has in more recent months, however, grown as a mechanism for publicising events and disseminating useful information/materials for the students. As Higher Education institutions across the country expand their provision of virtual learning environment delivered materials it is important to investigate the use of these systems and the potential barriers they may or may not create to students of different cultures.

SLANG

One of the planned tasks of the Teaching Fellowship study was to look into setting up a mechanism for improving the social inclusion of the students and facilitating their development of English language skills. What emerged were the Sunderland Language and News Group (SLANG). This is another weekly meeting although it meets at the weekend to further enforce the idea that it is not an academic event. Whereas the student forum is an international students only event, SLANG is open to all students, home as well as international, and this is deliberately so because the University is a regional institution, with many local students having had very limited contact with people of different cultures until they come to university. Thereafter, unless specific attempts at getting the students to mix are made (and 61% of staff in the 2003 study said they did not integrate students in group work but rather let them pick their own groups) the students are likely to remain in groups of their own cultural background.

In the initial weeks the meeting was kept as just an international event while numbers increased and students began to find out about it and feel at ease to participate. Based around the idea of a ‘book group’, the meeting is a social event and is very informal (refreshments are provided). As the students already have an abundance of reading to do on their degree programmes and this task is magnified by the fact that the students have English as an additional language, the author did not wish to burden them with the task of reading even more books. Spending a relatively short period of time skimming newspapers for interesting stories, however, seemed to be a manageable task and one that would allow the students to find out more about local and national culture. In practice the students tend to bring along the free Metro newspaper which they pick up as they travel on the Metro train system, or in the library, or else they bring printouts from online news web sites. In addition, the students bring along stories from newspapers in their own countries, and thus everyone present gets to learn more about cultures, political events, etc. right across the world. The processes of reading English newspapers and discussing the stories in English should, the author believes, lead to an improvement in English language ability and confidence in using the language. Of the regular attendees, some are family members of students at the University, so membership of the group is not restricted to students alone.

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Nor is it closed to staff and both UK and international members of staff have attended the meetings. The core weekly attendees number around 20, with other students attending regularly but on a less frequent basis.

The desire for another mechanism for the development and practicing of English language aside from the existing assessed English for Academic Purposes (EAP) provision arose from both feedback from the students and the author’s judgement that the students could perhaps benefit from ‘classes’ taking place in the physical and subject context of their degree studies. In her experience, students were not attending EAP classes for a variety of reasons: physical location was far removed from their subject content classes; their subject content timetables/programmes did not allow for them to take the English classes as part of their programmes and required a lot of additional work – often in the evenings which required the students to be far from their homes late in the evening (which may have safety implications); they were mixing with other international students and so not interacting with native English speakers; and topics they were covering were not relevant to their studies. SLANG addresses some of these issues but not all and there are still tentative plans to develop ‘English in Context’ instruction, in the first instance English for Computer Studies.

Community Outreach to Enhance the International Student Experience

Our wish to expand the experience of international students and to attempt to forge links with the local community, that might in some way help to promote a more tolerant attitude in the city, resulted in the development of International Students Into Schools – a community outreach initiative that began with a link with a single school where a small number of Chinese students initially began visiting to spend time with the children and to help prepare some staff members for a visit to a partner school in Beijing. The students continued to visit regularly and also completed the University’s certification programme for their work in the local community. The author submitted applications to the HEFCE Active Community Fund National Awards in both 2004 and 2005 to showcase the outreach work and both bids reached the finals of the awards, with the students, staff and participating schools receiving runners up certificates at the ceremonies. The national panel of judges said the entry in 2004 showed:

“How a simple idea (but one that was also novel) which was well executed, has brought huge benefits to all parties. The evidence … of the students’ commitment, achievement and personal benefit was very strong.”

While that of 2005 demonstrated:

“[Expansion of] an excellent idea into a highly successful, sustainable project, with many reciprocal benefits for international students and school pupils.”

We have now had students from China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Vietnam, Africa, Spain, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Iraq, Mexico, India and Pakistan visiting six different schools, with several more in the city waiting for students to become available for visiting. By registering with the University’s additional certification

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programme, which is open to any student who is volunteering in the community, the students are able to chart their personal professional development and improve employability and communication skills. This is in addition to Personal Development Planning that the students may also engage with as a means of developing these skills.

Happy Families

Buddy schemes are being implemented in many Higher Education establishments at present. In the School of Computing and Technology, the Happy Families initiative has been instigated on two undergraduate programmes. The scheme aims to provide a network of support among a whole programme of students that can clearly be of benefit to international students in their unfamiliarity with western Higher Education and also their social acclimatisation. Happy Families groups’ students together with level three ‘grandparents’, level two ‘parents’ and level one ‘children’. The interaction is both ‘virtual’ through WebCT, MSN Messenger, etc., and ‘actual’ through social events that, to begin with, the programme team organizes but, thereafter, the student ‘families’ can do themselves.

In contrast to more formal schemes such as the University of Bournemouth’s Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme, the higher level students are not selected and trained for their role. Happy Families seeks to involve all students and aims at a holistic approach to support rather than a purely academic approach. The families are mixed, so we do not limit international students to ‘parenting’ international ‘children’.

OUTCOMES OF INITIATIVES TO DATE

The initiatives, particularly the forum and the outreach activity, have been disseminated across the institution through seminars and the University’s annual Academic Conference and its Equality and Diversity website, as well as at several international conferences. Staff from other schools have been encouraged and advised on how to set up similar initiatives and international student fora have been set up recently in a further two schools in the University. By necessity, some things need to be school based – for example, a computing assignment will usually be very different from a tourism studies assignment. However, there have been discussions among staff about setting up a cross-university forum, meeting much less frequently than one based in a single school, to cover generic issues – such as politics, local issues, etc.

Probably the most important point to address is how successful these initiatives have actually been. One way to measure this would be to simply look at the retention figures. However, the initiatives have been in place for varying periods of time (from one to three years) and it may not be possible to pinpoint the ‘active ingredient’. Far better is to judge by the feedback of the students who are taking advantage of the initiatives and the response of the school and the wider institution to the work that has been done. This section therefore focuses on the opinions of the students and also offers some ideas as to how the level of

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engagement might be improved. The institution’s response is evidenced below and is further discussed in the final section of this case study.

Outcomes of the International Student Forum

Feedback from the forum has always been positive since the meetings began. Common themes that have emerged about what the students want are:

The chance to integrate in the academic and larger society;

The chance to practice speaking English;

Help in adjusting to new styles of teaching, learning and assessment;

Help in organising their time/studies;

Information about where to go for help;

Making sure that lecturers are aware of them – in course preparation and delivery;

A safe and welcoming society;

More chance to take English classes and English classes that are more finely tuned to their needs; and

Better information on accommodation.

Specific comments on the problems the students experience are presented below. They are wide ranging, from specific academic points to personal and social issues and are fully representative of the feedback received.

“As a new student from China I don’t know where I can get help.”

“Yes [I get enough help], but sometimes I don’t know how to ask the questions because of my bad English.”

“I do [like the way classes are taught] but I am not used to it as in China we have at least eight hours’ class each day.”

“In the class, I only understand 40% of what the lecturer has said. I haven’t made any friends with my classmates.”

“The UK teens are not friendly.”

Specific areas of help the students have pinpointed:

“Teach me how to prepare and go over my studying.”

“Please tell me more education and life rules of UK, thanks. It’ll [be] good for me to understand UK.”

“Offer some extra skills (such like more living skill).”

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“More placement chances for postgraduate students from outside UK.”

“Please tell our teachers: do not speak too quickly in class. I do not like too many assignments run together, and they run with the final project.”

“Provide security.”

“Keep, run the Chinese student forum.”

“Open more English classes to help me improve my English, especially speaking.”

“Put more concentration on international students especially during the tutorial and lab sessions.”

Comments on the helpfulness of the forum have included:

“I am really very glad that you are really doing very much for international students ...”

“It’s really good idea for help student improve them writing skills.”

“It’s useful because this subject [university regulations] was what I worrying.”

“I’m glad to see a lot of Chinese can get much help from now on.”

“The student will know more things ... better and faster than they found themselves.”

Attendance at the forum, as previously indicated, can be sporadic. However, when the author has e-mailed students to ask whether they would prefer the forum to be redesigned, they have always responded with an emphatic wish to keep it going in its present format, citing other pressing concerns such as timetable clashes and assignment deadlines as their reasons for non attendance. For example:

“I like to attend the international forum meeting but sometime very busy with my assignment and working. I hope student forum still can continue to help student.”

The staff involved with the forum strongly believe that the students feel more at ease and air their problems more than has been the case in the past using the personal tutoring system. Indeed, the 2003 staff survey found that 73% of personal tutors found Chinese students to be less willing than UK students to approach them with a social or personal problem and 41% felt that they were less willing to present academic problems. Since the inception of the forum, students have a recognised facility that they feel able to use to share their problems, and staff will readily refer students to the forum for help if they feel this is appropriate.

In an effort to encourage more students to attend, the forum has been formally timetabled since September 2005 so that not only does the staff member facilitating it have it formally acknowledged in her workload (for both preparation and delivery), but also it is printed on every student’s timetable. Thus student awareness of the forum is not left to chance.

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Moreover, this serves to demonstrate the school’s commitment to the initiative as they clearly consider it to be of benefit to the students. In addition, the new academic year has seen the students on the institution’s International Foundation Programme timetabled to attend the meetings. This is an attempt to ensure that this group of students progress onto undergraduate programmes following a successful foundation year improving English language skills, gaining a firm grounding in the subject area and practices adopted by the institution and, importantly, feeling a part of the University community.

Outcomes of SLANG

SLANG seeks to improve social inclusion, cultural awareness and English language development. Of course, it does not happen in a vacuum and it would be difficult to prove that the language practice that occurs as a result of SLANG leads directly to an improvement in linguistic competence. However, qualitative feedback from the students so far suggests that they see it as beneficial. Some comments appear below:

“The Saturday session helped me to know more about the British culture. I can understand the newspaper deeply. For example, I can realize the royal family in England, something about Dr Who, etc. It is a good place for the international student to grasp the live in England. I appreciate of it.”

“Every Saturday morning there is a group meeting for both international students and local students. We shall pick some our interested topics from the newspaper such as from Royals wedding to the Pope’s funeral, from top chef Jamie Oliver’s TV program to North East children top junk food eating league. We could expose our own opinion or experience and/or what’s the difference between UK and our own countries. When I stay in UK, I get used to drinking tea, travelling on English buses and handling English money. In the meeting, I get used to speaking English and before long I could understand almost everything that people said to me.”

“Advantages of attending this meeting:

The ‘bring in’ articles have no limitation, which makes the discussion unexpectable and active;

Because of the unknown discussions stimulate students’ brains thinking in English instantly. This way of training brain to adapt into daily communication on spoken English is better than using of prepared presentation;

The discussion often reveals different culture background, and help students understand more about things outside their own countries; and

This meeting is often in a chatting atmosphere without any pressure, which is a joyful way of learning.”

“As an overseas student you don’t dare to speak up in class in case your

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English might not be right. You need confidence – SLANG does this.”

“I did some project vivas yesterday. What I learnt was that I was confident in asking students questions, which I wasn’t before. I think that last year’s SLANG meetings were really helpful. Thank you very much.”

Recently, in an effort to expand the reach and remit of SLANG, the author together with two of the regular attendees (both international PhD students) secured a University Community Fellowship. Like the Teaching Fellowships, Community Fellowships afford staff time to spend on activities beyond their normal remit. Unlike the Teaching Fellowships they are short term (single semester) and much less generously funded (around £3,000). A key part of a Community Fellowship is its sustainability. The SLANG Fellowship is about training students to take a leading role in the meetings so that they may in turn lead further SLANG groups across the University. It is also allowing us to develop and maintain a website to publicize the group’s activities and to act as a point of contact and source of information for interested parties. The website has created a real sense of identity and ‘branding’ for the group and is also a repository for recently discussed stories and viewpoints aired. In addition, the grant is enabling us to expand the group’s activities to incorporate trips to places of interest. We are encouraging the participation of more people by ‘marketing’ the meetings as opportunities for UK volunteers, especially those wishing to work in teaching or in the University’s Graduates Abroad scheme. We are also hoping to use our existing connections with local schools to encourage participation by local people.

Outcomes of Community Outreach

Two consecutive University Community Fellowships funded the International Students into Schools initiative. In point of fact this scheme is the only one to have been funded twice by the University’s Higher Education Active Community Fund Steering Committee, which is a strong indication of the institution’s belief in the measures undertaken. To establish and run the outreach activity necessitated time spent: contacting schools, publicizing the initiative to students, organising visits, providing liaison between schools and students and organising presentation events at the end of the volunteering period. The activity has had a hugely rewarding outcome for both students and schools. This is just some of the feedback from students (gathered for the purpose of feeding back to the Community Fellowship funding group and for inclusion in the successful volunteering award application):

“We really enjoyed the visits to the school during the past days. We are very happy that we can help the pupils learn something and develop our communication skills. We’d like to express our sincere gratitude to you for your kindness and all the effort made for us.”

“The aim of this project was not only to live outside the campus but also we knew that it was a good chance to show our country’s culture and build strong, friendly relationships with English and Chinese people.”

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“The project has given us a lot of benefits. All of the skills are now really useful in our study, in life and in the future job market. We are not afraid anymore to do presentations in front of people, and we know how to manage our time. As an overseas student who has been in England for two years already I travelled to a lot of cities to find out what is the real England and English people. However, until now I think I had just touched the surface of realising the culture and people here.”

“Cooperation is the key, and we needed to keep in touch with teachers in the primary school. Simple and clear language skills were required for children studying in primary school. We were forced to speak in English to communicate with each other so our English improved impressively. We enjoyed every conversation both with the teachers and children.”

Feedback from the schools included:

“The project has added much value to our pupils’ experiences, and to our efforts to enrich our curriculum, and we feel the students deserve recognition for their valuable efforts. The pupils gained first-hand experience of another culture, which is immensely valuable in eradicating prejudice. We value this link and look forward to it continuing.”

“The students are really good with the children. Year three really enjoy their visits. They are teaching cricket and have arranged to come in to take another class. They are really nice boys and we hope they continue to visit.”

In the first, pilot, year of the project four students were awarded certificates for their commitment to it – and they reached the finals of the Higher Education Active Community Fund Awards (student category) – and in the second, ten students were awarded a University volunteering certificate at a formal ceremony, with a number of others being eligible but having already returned to their home countries for the summer break. The second year also saw the project reaching the finals of the Higher Education Active Community Fund Awards (staff category). As a result of the ensuing local press publicity, a middle school in a neighbouring Local Education Authority, which is too far away for the students to visit regularly, requested them to attend a Multicultural Day event at the school. This was a huge success with 20 students from 12 countries attending and feeding back:

“We did enjoy a lot today, cause first we’re afraid those kids might not like us, but they’re usually very polite and very good, I like them!”

“I had a wonderful day. Thank you for the opportunity showing them our culture. By this chance I had seen other people’s different culture from Chinese.”

“I really enjoyed yesterday’s trip and believe the memory will always be fresh in our minds because I believe it will be the very first time that most of us were

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much accepted in UK implying that there are lots more lovely people out there in UK who believe the world is one. It was really a wonderful experience! Thanks for making me part of it.”

“I learnt the way they study and study environment. Like how their teacher taught and communicated to them. Although, I met some problems in communication to the children there. But I’ll appreciate this golden opportunity. Finally, I think this kind of activity is very helpful to the international students because we can know each other better and improve communication and expand our friendship.”

We subsequently received a letter from the school’s pupil council stating:

“We feel we were able to develop a greater understanding, appreciation and awareness of the various cultures related to other countries.”

Outcomes of Happy Families

Compared with the International Student Forum and International Students into Schools, Happy Families is in its early stages and so evidence of its effect is perhaps more anecdotal. However, students have given positive verbal feedback on the system: “the family idea – met some good friends”, and there has been evidence of them using the virtual forum to ask questions about programme and module issues such as the format that certain assessments would take, etc. (The programme leader can monitor the WebCT online discussion, and this information also comes out in conversations with the students.) It is felt that the true benefits may only be reaped after the system has been in a place for a few generations, i.e. once the ‘children’ become ‘grandparents’ and fully understand the value of peer support.

It can be said, though, that the school management is very supportive of this initiative: as the University’s current retention strategy calls for all schools to implement a PAL-type scheme, the School of Computing and Technology is continuing with Happy Families which it sees as a more holistic approach to student support, addressing peer assisted social welfare as well as academic issues.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESOURCING INITIATIVES

As previously indicated, the belief of the school management in the initiatives has already led to a commitment to resource the activities now that the author’s Teaching Fellowship and one of the Community Fellowships has come to an end. The sustainability of SLANG is not in question, as the maintenance of a website is not onerous to computing students and the ‘training the trainers’ approach adopted will ensure a steady supply of group leaders. The International Student Forum’s formal timetabling this year will have a threefold benefit: students will not have timetable clashes with the meetings; they will see the forum marked clearly on their timetables; and the staff involved will have the teaching and preparation time

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acknowledged in their work load statements.

International Students into Schools is set to continue as it is without further funding because the foundations laid and friendships established with the schools means that less time is needed for organising and overseeing the project. The University’s International Office recently approached the author with the offer to take on the administrative side of the project and to help expand it across the University. Thus the resourcing implication of the project will all but disappear from the school if the University takes it up centrally. However, it is likely that the activity will be expanded if funding can be secured, for example to set up links with secondary schools or community organisations and to establish more Multicultural Days of the type undertaken recently. Moreover, like the International Student Forum, SLANG and International Students into Schools now feature in the school’s retention strategy for the upcoming year and thus there is a commitment made to recognising the time involved of the relevant personnel.

Happy Families is also a strand in the 2005-06 retention strategy. In the last year it showed that social events were needed to help build families and build better relationships between staff and students and this is scheduled to be addressed both in the induction week events and across the academic year. The resource requirements of this initiative are access to a VLE, regular meetings with the students and the time needed to establish the families in the VLE and physically through induction activities. These are activities that naturally fall in the remit of the students’ course leader/personal tutor who, in the School of Computing and Technology, is allocated one hour of personal tutor contact time and a corresponding hour of preparation for each tutor group.

The International Student Forum is being adopted as a mechanism through which Personal Development Planning (PDP) may be facilitated for Masters students in particular – recent figures indicated that 61% of full time taught postgraduate students are international (HESA, 2003) – and international students in general where specialised knowledge may be required. For example, the focus of careers information will be different and the kinds of skills development that international students may seek to develop as part of their personal plan may also differ from home students (time management, for instance, is often signalled as a difficulty faced by students from China). However, any increased input by careers staff into the forum would not be an additional resource caused by the forum itself but rather would reflect the University’s commitment to PDP and the forum is a conveniently timetabled opportunity for them to gain access to the students.

CONCLUSION

In the introduction, Waller (1993) was noted as saying that there are many reasons why students choose to come to study in the UK. Waller (1993) also states that “it is unfair for tertiary institutions to reap the benefits of enrolling overseas students without acknowledging the language, cultural, and personal difficulties these students face”. As Higher Education professionals it is our duty to acknowledge the existence of the potential

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barriers international students face in order to have equity of experience with our home students, and from there to implement measures to either eradicate the inequity or to support the students in getting to the ‘level playing field’. The initiatives presented in this case study have been in place for varying periods of time and so the amount of evidence of their effect varies. The data are largely qualitative at present and clearly illustrate that students are appreciative of our efforts and have taken the opportunities to gain an improved understanding of University procedures and a richer experience of life in the University and in the city at large.

Furthermore, it is clear that both the school and the institution are convinced of the benefit of the initiatives. Staff awareness of the issues relating to international student academic performance and academic and social integration has been raised – the school last year hosted an ICS subject centre event ‘Supporting English as a Second Language Students’ and this year’s school conference featured an afternoon of workshops on cultural awareness – and there has been acknowledgement that initiatives such as the four that are the subject of this study are positive and worthy of support. In terms of social integration in the wider context of the city, a number of international students have made a significant impact on a large number of school children across the city and the posters that the children have drawn to represent their friendships with the students are about to be displayed across the city, in public buildings and on local transport. (We successfully applied to the Local Strategic Partnership’s Community Cohesion Group for £5,000 to fund this.) Addressing the problems highlighted at the start of the paper is however a long process. By implementing academic and social support initiatives, in addition to the curriculum based changes we have made as part of our wider review of both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, it is hoped that, in time, many more of our international students can be as successful as this student from China:

Laura, a Chinese student who provided several of the feedback comments in this case study, graduated last year with a 2:1 degree classification. Following a very poor first year, she was keen to turn things around. She became involved in International Students into Schools and was one of those short-listed at the HEACF Award Ceremony in 2004. Since doing this she has sought every chance to improve her skills and to promote her University, her country and her fellow students, including presenting with the author at the University’s academic conference in front of senior University staff and the deputy-vice chancellor. In her own words: “We are not afraid anymore to do presentations in front of people”. We awarded Laura the International Student Excellence Award that we have set up this year for outstanding contribution to the cause of international students in the community and/or academic achievement.

REFERENCES

Cook, A., Rushton, B.S., McCormick, S.M. and Southall, D.W. (2005). Guidelines for the management of student transition. University of Ulster, Coleraine.

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HESA (2003). Non-UK domiciled students by domicile and qualification aim 2002-03 in Students in Higher Education Institutions 2002/03. HESA, Cheltenham.

Marcus, A. and Gould, E.W. (2000). Cultural dimensions and global web user interface design: What? So what? Now what? 6th Conference on human factors and the Web. Austin, Texas.

Miah, M.D. (2004). Accessibility improvement of multicultural educational web interface by using the User Centred Design (UCD) approach. Proceedings of the 2004 Informing Science and IT Education Joint Conference. Informing Science Institute, Flagstaff, Arizona.

Tylee, J. (2001). Cultural issues relating to access perceptions and learning styles in the online environment. http://www.education4skills.com/jtylee/culture.html

Waller, D.S. (1993). Teaching marketing to Asian students: are they missing the message? Journal of Marketing Education, 15, 47-59.

FURTHER INFORMATION

http://my.sunderland.ac.uk/web/support/equality/a_home – Equality and Diversity Website, University of Sunderland.

http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/~slang/ – SLANG website, University of Sunderland.

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Acknowledgements

This booklet is the result of the activities of the STAR consortium. The STAR Project was funded through the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (Phase Four) by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland. The ideas and impetus of the project have derived from the enthusiasm of a core group of academic staff:

Tony Cook (University of Ulster)

Mark Davies (University of Sunderland)

Bill Norton (University of Liverpool Hope)

Helen Richardson (University of Manchester)

Brian S. Rushton (University of Ulster)

Steve Waite (University of Brighton)

This group has been ably assisted by STAR development officers Katrina Macintosh, Sinead McCormick and Suzanne McLaughlin and placement students Leslie-Anne Buchanan, Gina Smith and Dave Southall.

The project’s external evaluator, Mantz Yorke (University of Lancaster), has also made constructive contributions.

The printing of this booklet has been with the sympathetic cooperation of Stanley McCahon of the Reprographics Department, University of Ulster.

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