An Analysis of Developing International Education in Universities:Taking Software College of Northeastern University as an Example

Siyao Gong, Dongming Chen＊, Zhiliang Zhu

Abstract: Under the influence of globalization, it's a trend to develop international education in universities around the world. China, as a giant education country, also takes part in the international education market, developing international education in universities, and recruiting international students to study in China. In this paper, it analyzes the rational reasons to develop international education in terms of globalization, nature of universities and consistent development.What's more, based on the experience of developing international education in Software College,Northeastern University(NEU), China, it introduces three aspects of internationalization implemented in the college.

Key words: international education; internationalization; higher education; globalization

1 Introduction

With the expanding of globalization in areas of economy, politics, culture etc., education is also involved in the globalization. Internationalization of education, as the developing trend of education, is the educational philosophy as well as a global educational practice in universities. On the other hand, students are required to be cultivated with the international view to face the fierce competition in the international market. During these years, universities all over the world are striving to develop international education.In China, it is required in China's Medium- and Long-Term Talent Development Plan (2010-2020) that China will make efforts on expanding the scale of international students in China by increasing scholarship from Chinese government, developing preparatory courses, increasing English-taught programs, etc[1].

2 Rational Reasons to Develop International Education

Developing international education is not a special case in one certain university or a coincidence in several universities, but it has become a widely developed pattern in most universities in the world. Following the trend of globalization, education, as a service in the market, turns to be international. For cultivating professionals, universities spare no efforts to attract talents, home and abroad, which leading to the mobility of professionals across borders; international education brings premium of finance and human resource for supporting future development.

2.1 It follows the trend of globalization

With the globalization economy and liberalization of trade, the international education trade market is becoming an increasingly important part of international service trade[2]. Education, especially higher education which offers knowledge and technologies, is a key element in service industry. For winning the fierce competition, international education with good quality and strong educational background emerges in the service market. Like any other industries, it follows the needs of market and satis fies people’s urge to be educated at higher level.

As the product of globalization, international education is evolving with the development of the educational market. International education is not only existing by recruiting international students and training personal skills, but also by exchanging programs, joint research, collaborative degree programs, etc.

2.2 It ref ects the nature of universities

A university is a place to cultivate professionals with knowledge and skills. The ultimate goal of higher education is to foster globally competitive professionals who have comprehensive skills, excellent technological merits and global perspectives to meet the demand of corresponding internationalization of the industries[2].For reaching the goal of higher education, universities prefer developping international education to attracting excellent students around the world who are potential to be professionals in different industries.

Benefits are given to high-level international professionals (as teaching and research faculties) and potential international professionals (as students),such as high salaries and scholarships, to attract them to teach and study in the universities. Therefore,international education causes the mobility of professionals globally.

2.3 It supports the consistent development of universities

The desire to increase opportunities for higher education for students from abroad is motivated by numerous factors; the most obvious being economic[3]. In general,international students pay higher tuition fees compared with those paid by local students, though they shared the same educational resources. For instance, if a Chinese student who would like to study computer science at bachelor level in Loughborough University, the UK, his tuition fee is ￡19,900, which is 2.21-fold of the local students[4]. The premium paid by international students brings benefits to universities, which will support future development in various aspects including infrastructure construction, talents introduction, students’ cultivation,etc .

Through cultivating international students, a positive circle of international education would be established when good students could transfer to be qualified international teachers. Since high-level professors are the fundamentals to give high-quality education,international education could support consistent development in terms of education quality by offering potential qualified facilities all over the world.

3 International Education in Softwar e College, NEU, China

Following the booming of international students’education, Software College of Northeastern University follows the trend to recruit international students majored in software engineering based on its solid foundation of international education. After several years’ exploration, a full-scale software education at bachelor, master and Ph.D. levels is established in Software College of NEU China.

Growing out of nothing, Software College of NEU has implemented internationalization in three aspects.

3.1 Curriculum internalization

Giving lectures are the basic of higher education,so curriculum internationalization is the first step to develop international programs. The key to talents cultivation is the curriculum internationalization,which is necessary for cultivating international talents with international view and competition abilities[5]. According to the needs of international students and software industry, Software College of NEU internationalized its curriculum to cultivate the international software talents.

3.1.1 Import & localization

For internationalizing the curriculum of Software College, NEU, it adapts various teaching materials from different universities and institutions and selects the core and advanced technologies. Combined with the standard teaching plan of Chinese students majoring in software engineering, a localized teaching plan for international students covering domestic and international cutting-edge technologies and skills is customized.

Besides, according to the situation that many international students are weak in foundation of software engineering, some basic knowledge on software is added into the curriculum, helping students cover their shortages.

3.1.2 Learning & practice

Especially in software education, there is a big difference between software colleges and any other colleges in respect of teaching as a result of unique personnel training goal, facing up to enterprise's demands and cultivating engineering and international software talents[6]. The final goal for software talents cultivation is satisfying the needs of industry.Therefore, training the practical skills of students is necessary, especially for the international students, who may confront fierce competition in the international market. In Software College of NEU, some courses are delivered by working staff of Neusoft, which is one of the largest software companies in China. They are familiar with the current software industry and the courses they give are connected to the real international software industry.

In addition, all the international students at master level will spend six months in Neusoft for the advanced project training. Students will join the real cases in the company and improve their programming skills in the real industry. For the bachelor students, they will also take one compulsory course named practical training at the end of the third year. By spending two months in the companies, they are trained by the teachers from companies and experienced the real software industry.

3.1.3 Transmission & deletion

Because of different political, historic, geographic and cultural differences, international students are confronted with culture shock to some extent,while culture transmission is one important part of international education. Therefore, some courses on Chinese and Chinese culture are added in the curriculum, which are helpful for engineering students enriching humanism knowledge as well as overcoming culture shocks.

On the other hand, some courses with Chinese characteristics on politics, military, and moral rules,which are not related to their career or contradictory with their values, are deleted from the curriculum to reduce their learning burden and respect their cultural background.

3.2 Faculty internationalization

Giving lectures to the students is a process from initiator (teachers) to the terminator (students). As the initiator of giving lectures, teachers are the important roles when delivering knowledge to the students. For educating international students, it is an important step to internationalize the faculty based on the international curriculum. Two methods are applied in Software College of NEU for the faculty internationalization,importing overseas teachers and internationalizing local teachers.

3.2.1 Importing overseas teachers

For developing international education, importing overseas teachers is an easy but effective way to start.Software College of NEU invites overseas teachers from the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Italy, etc. to spend two to three weeks giving lectures in software college. The teachers are authorized to adjust teaching plans offered by NEU to meet the international education trends.All the lectures are given in English, so no language obstacles exist. Until now, there are around 30 overseas teachers giving lectures in Software College every year.

Inviting teachers from different countries brings international atmosphere to the college, even the whole university. International students are more accustomed to the international learning environment compared with Chinese students, which will benefit the international education in the long term.

3.2.2 Internationalized of faculties

In Software College, NEU, each overseas teacher is assigned an assistant teacher who will support the teacher’s teaching and living in NEU. Moreover,assistant teachers are required to participate in the teaching process, learning teaching methods as well as modules design. To some extent, importing overseas teachers gives professional knowledge to the students and international education methods to the faculties of Software College.

What’s more, faculties in Software College are encouraged to study and do research abroad as degree seeking students or visiting scholars. It may cause the shortage of teachers temperately, but accumulate internationalized faculties for future development.

Until now, 11 teachers have delivered 11 fully English- taught major courses in Software College. An internationalized faculty has been built preliminarily.

3.3 Management internationalization

For one international education program, curriculum,faculty and international students are separate fragments connected by management. A well recognized management team supports a program running well in every process, so management internationalization,meeting the international standards, is necessary for international education.

3.3.1 Internationalized management team

As members of international management team,working staff should own intercultural communication competence, international view and high-level use of foreign languages. Besides, they must be precise and scrupulous when dealing with problems. In Software College of NEU, the management team is composed of two members, one male and one female, whose educational backgrounds are both English related. After several years’ practice, they are familiar with different culture and habits of international students, so they can understand students’ thoughts and satisfy their needs.In addition, for better serving students and teachers,they are required to pass the professional post exams,which is different from the requirements for other staff.

3.3.2 Internationalized management methods

Because of various culture backgrounds, differences are existing between Chinese and international students. Therefore, the management methods should be changed. In general, students are only listeners and followers, but in the internationalized management methods, students are also listened and followed. In Software College, NEU, the managing team respects international students’ habits and respects their culture.For instance, since international students prefer to study in the evening and at night, so classes are always avoided to be arranged in the morning. Because of religion, most students go to church every Sunday, so courses are only arranged from Monday to Saturday.

4 Conclusion

It is the trend to develop international education in universities all over the world. It follows the trend of globalization in economic and liberalization of trade. It reflects the nature of universities to cultivate professionals with comprehensive skills, excellent technological merits and global perspectives. It also supports the consistent developing of universities in economy and human resource.

In China, more universities start developing international education. Based on the case of Software College, NEU, international education has been developed by internationalization of curriculum,faculty and management. After several years’ practice,Software College, NEU has achieved some staged fruits. A full-scale software education at bachelor,master and Ph.D. levels is running on in the college.

However, there are still some obstacles existing while developing international education in universities.In the view of initiating international education collaboration, the difference of educational system may lead to difficulties of connection, but students shouldn’t miss any knowledge and practical skills because of transferring between two education systems. In the view of consisting development, cooperation may easily break down by turn over, though it may be established with efforts of the former staff. Many anthropogenic factors may in fluence on international education, but no insurance system could protect the achievements before.In the view of further development, cooperation always exists between two universities with similar level and background, which will limit the further cooperation.International education cooperating with similar universities can’t meet the various needs of students.All the universities are exploring cooperation with higher level institutions, but few ways are available. These obstacles are worth discussing and solutions should be explored in the later study.