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This paper is interested in the way the concept of culture is deployed in documents aimed at investigating, informing on and promoting aspects of ethnic minority health. Within a health-political discourse focusing increasingly on individual lifestyles, ethnic minority health became subject to increased political and professional interest in the last decades of the twentieth and the first decade of the twenty-first century. Analysis of the discourse on ethnic minority health emerging in five texts addressing health professionals shows that the culture of ethnic minority citizens is primarily seen as contributing to low levels of knowledge about health and to adverse health behavior. Thus, the texts present cultural beliefs and practices as contributing to the high prevalence of lifestyle diseases among ethnic minority population groups. The analysis, however, demonstrates that a more nuanced discourse is evolving, taking the complexity of the culture concept into account. In accordance with Danish health-political priorities, the most recent text analyzed in this study promotes an individualistic approach to both ethnic minority and Danish ethnic majority citizens.

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This article investigates the views of quality in higher education held by two groups of international students: Chinese students at a Danish university and Danish students at Chinese universities. Given that there are no agreed international 'quality standards' in higher education, we analysed the students' understanding of the 'quality values' of their host institution and their own preferences and priorities. Representatives of the two groups participated in an interview study addressing the experience of academic quality at their study-abroad university. An intriguing trend was identified in the data. Danish students felt confident that they themselves were able to judge the academic quality of programmes, classes and lecturers both at home and abroad. The participating Chinese students tended to express themselves in slightly depreciatory terms regarding the academic quality values of their home universities. Regarding research methods and theoretical knowledge, they adopted the quality values of the Danish host university and referred to these values when evaluating their home universities.