Universities have prioritised internationalising their campuses for a long time, but lately the conversation has shifted towards decolonisation. Yet these are not two separate initiatives: international students’ experiences would improve if universities thought more about the impact of empire on them too.
UK universities’ attitudes towards international students have evolved since they first started arriving after the second world war. This was initially seen as a form of international aid, based on the assumption that western universities’ knowledge was superior and would benefit developing nations. This imperialist attitude created a hierarchy of education between the west and the rest of the world.
By the 1980s this aid mentality had shifted towards trade as higher education became a commodity on the global market, an idea which continues today. On the one hand, universities genuinely want to support intercultural understanding and promote access to education, but on the other they’re forced to compete in a highly aggressive marketplace in which international students are an important source of revenue.
This is why attitudes towards international students are conflicted. They are supposedly valued by universities, which last week successfully pushed the government to introduce a more favourable visa regime enabling them to stay and work in the UK for longer after graduating.
Yet this enthusiasm for international students isn’t always replicated in the classroom. From the outset they are labelled and singled out as “international”. They have different induction activities, fee arrangements, webpages, attendance monitoring and so on, which creates a divide reminiscent of the approach of imperialist colonisers. It may seem practical to use the “international” label, but if we are to truly decolonise universities we need to remove the baggage of colonisation and strip away segregating labels.
This continues when international students enter the classroom, and they are bombarded with assumptions about how they should learn and what they should know. It is compounded by the persistence of the belief that western knowledge is superior, evidenced by the fact that students from all around the world want to study in the UK.
But teaching and learning styles in the UK can differ markedly to an international student’s earlier schooling. From the number of hours children spend in school to preferred assessment types, no two education systems are identical. An Equality Challenge Unit study across universities in the UK and Australia found that international students felt marginalised and inferior compared to home students.
To genuinely decolonise curriculums, universities need to do more than just update reading lists. They need to think about how teaching, learning and assessment are structured. For example, do sessions give students the time and space to share their knowledges and histories? Do students have a choice of assessment beyond exams and essays that is innovative and allows them to draw on and develop their existing skills? This matters both for students from backgrounds underrepresented in higher education, and those who have come from other countries.
Universities also need to consider whether they are properly preparing international students for employment after graduation. When courses, teaching and activities are being designed with employability in mind, which labour market are students being prepared for? International students deserve specialist employability support, which should go beyond two-year work visas after graduation and aim to enhance their job prospects wherever they choose to settle.
Universities need to acknowledge that each student is on an educational journey that has started long before they enter the classroom, and will continue long after they leave. The experience they offer should be both inclusive and tailored to the individual as far as possible, and understand what international students have learned and give them the chance to showcase it. To do this, universities need to have more critical discussions about knowledge, how it is produced and what that means for different people.
This might sound like a tall order. But a good start is talking to students, and asking them for their input on making courses more representative, inclusive and empowering. After all, decolonisation efforts have already shown how powerful real voices and stories are in advancing genuine learning and knowledge.
