To identify issues that impact upon the acculturation and adaptation of Chinese Mandarin-speaking students taking undergraduate studies in British business schools
According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA, 2020), In 2018-19, the amount of student enrolments domiciled from China reached 115,435, 32% of non-UK domiciled students for their first year studies come from China. Despite the trend of more Chinese students studying in the UK, the problems and difficulties of acculturation and adaptation into local life and their academic studies are always challenging the Chinese students. This research aims to identify the impacting factors upon the acculturation and adaptation of Chinese Mandarin-speaking students during their business education at undergraduate level in the UK, so as to provide implications for all the stakeholders, including Chinese students, academics, and business schools, towards developing a more satisfying outcome for students during the period of their living and learning experience. Supporting this research investigation, the literature review works constructs a theoretical framework which encompasses the cultural difference at national, organisational, and personal level, the acculturation strategy and acculturation outcomes, the comparison of Chinese and British pedagogies, and the influencing factors in the intercultural learning environment. Eight research themes are identified from the theoretical framework, based upon which, to answer the research questions and to realise the research aims and objectives.Adopting interpretivism as the research philosophical stance, this research investigation chose to use the convergent parallel mixed methods, so as to collect and analyse data deductively and test the existing theories. A web based survey among three groups of total 172 Chinese students was administrated to collect quantitative data, who are going to study in the UK, who have been studying in the UK within three months, and who are going to graduate from their undergraduate studies within three months. Interviews with nineteen students and eighteen academics were conducted to collect the qualitative data concurrently.Theoretically, this research project implies that, for Chinese students, the short term immigrants who are pursuing academic achievement in the UK, the academic adjustment during their studies, should be added into the acculturation outcomes of their acculturation strategy that they may adopt, which is parallel to their sociocultural and psychological adjustments. Moreover, the trend of the effects on their acculturation during their life and studies is becoming mitigated from the sociocultural and psychological perspectives. Practical contributions from this study include propositions about the delivery of pre-departure training with the content of cultural and academic knowledge, the awareness of the Chinese students’ mindset development when an enquiry is formulated in the classroom, and the identification of the mediating role of the sociocultural adjustment in general life between Chinese students’ academic adjustment and their overall acculturation level.Based on the formulated theoretical framework and its underpinning research themes, and the mixed methods adopted within this research project, further research could be implemented on the acculturation of other ethnical student groups, Chinese visiting scholars, and professionals under the intercultural learning or business environment.
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