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New report modifies old prejudices

Both Danish and international students sometimes lack an independent approach, and they aren’t always very good at English. But we notice such problems more in international students than in Danes.



By Ida Hammerich Nielson
ihn@adm.au.dk

International students lack an independent approach to their studies. They are uncritical, and their English is poor. Attitudes like these are common enough within the university system. But a new report shows that this is not the whole story by any means. Associate Professor Hanne Tange from the Aarhus School of Business has interviewed a wide range of researchers from Danish universities in order to find out what teaching international students is really like.
“Some teachers say that the international students are less critical than they might be. But others say that the best international students are just as critical as the best Danish students. The teachers also report that there are Danish students who are not particularly critical. But we probably have a tendency to focus on the fact that international students are different, looking for a cultural explanation,” says Hanne Tange.

Different educational cultures

“The reason why teachers have difficulties with uncritical international students is often linked to the educational culture in their home countries rather than to their culture in general,” says Hanne Tange.
“Some international students come from a tradition of education in which they are expected to learn some degree of academic truth. To a Danish teacher their assignments often seem to simply reproduce the work of others – the tradition in Denmark involves working in problem-oriented fashion instead,” she says.
Professor Philipp Schröder from the Department of Economics at the Aarhus School of Business has met the problem too, because he has both Danish and international students in his classes. He occasionally feels that the international students risk simply repeating what other people have said in their assignments instead of approaching the material in an analytical and critical fashion. This is due to differences in the traditions of research and learning in different cultures.
“In some academic traditions the argument seems to be that if a world-famous researcher has said something and won the Nobel Prize, then how can I possibly say it better than they have done? In fact, for some international students, criticising existing literature of ANY kind is a major challenge,” he explains.

Athletics or weightlifting?

According to Hanne Tange and Philipp Schröder, the solution to the problem involves adjusting the
expectations of the international students. And this actually happens already: on their arrival at the Aarhus School of Business the students are given information about the Danish way of working with academic material, and a language screening process ensures that their English is up to scratch. Even so, some international students fail to make the grade – both during the teaching and at examinations. It’s like learning to play a totally new form of sport, explains Philipp Schröder.
“If you’re expected to be good at weightlifting back home, but you’re told that at Aarhus University athletics is the most important thing, you will start trying to improve your speed around the
track. But the Danish students have been training for three years already, so of course they can run faster than you can. It’s important to remember that there are big differences in the international students. Some of them learn what studying at a Danish university really means faster than others,” concludes Philipp Schröder.