Academic Challenges for Chinese Transfer Students in Engineering

Abstract

This article describes a research study determining the most significant academic challenges experienced by Chinese transfer students in engineering at an American university. The survey-based study examined eight areas where transfer students may have academic difficulty and determined that the most significant of those concern transfer credit issues, student–instructor and student–student language difficulties, and classroom culture differences. The cultural differences, related to course syllabi, classroom discussion and group work, and frequency of assignments and exams, are partially explained in terms of a theoretical framework based on Hofstede’s power distance and risk avoidance elements. Recommendations are made of ways to ease these challenges and make the intercultural experience richer for both the transfer students and their American hosts.

International Research Experiences and Global Competency Development for Graduate Students in Engineering and Science

“…Omachinski (2013) found that engineering students studying abroad in Germany experiencing frustration and low interest to improve language skills, which interfered with their ability to learn. O’Connell and Resuli (2020) reported that language difficulties of Chinese engineering students studying in the U.S. impeded their communication with students and professors, affecting academic progress.…”

A Systematic Review of Engineering Students in Intercultural Teamwork: Characteristics, Challenges, and Coping Strategies

“…Teams are formed for a particular program which includes a structured set of lectures, trainings, workshops, group projects, laboratory experiments, and other activities that support students' professional learning and competence development [53][54][55]. Examples of such programs that were reported in these 23 studies include an articulation program [56,57], Global Engineering Teams [58], Innovation Research and Education of Asia [59], and European Project Semester [53,54,60]. These programs took place over a longer duration of time, ranging from one semester to five years or more.…”

“…These limitations also lead to difficulties in managing different communication styles (e.g., expressive and straightforward communication vs. reserved and indirect communication) [15]; negotiations with different ideas and understandings [8]; and reluctance to build interpersonal relationships with each other outside of academic activities [57]. In some cases, the high costs of international study trips hindered students' face-to-face interactions [97].…”

Engineering Students' Perspectives on the Learner Agency Development in an Intercultural PBL Context in Denmark

“…Fourth, in terms of the learning goals that engineering students intend to achieve in their courses, projects or programs, the frequent use of multiple learning goals (combining both engineering disciplinary goals and intercultural learning goals) was reported. This shows that some engineering institutions now make an effort to equip their students with a broad range of skills and knowledge across different areas, and to promote students' transferable skills so that they can adapt to different roles and contexts, as what also stated in some prior literature such as Resuli, 2020. Fifth, several methods for evaluating students' intercultural team learning outcomes are reported in the literature, with students' self-reported assessment being the most common method.…”