An Analysis Of Factors Influencing Chinese International Students’ Academic Competence: A Case Study At A British University

This is a study of Chinese international Master’s students’ academic experience in a Britishuniversity. It is an empirical case study which builds on previous research. From the students’point of view, it explores Chinese and British academic culture disparities, academicchallenges and the coping strategies which these students employ. A mixed-method researchmethodology has been adopted, under which interviews and questionnaires were conducted.In addition, Creswell&Miller’s (2000) and Gibbs’s (2007) strategies were evaluated toenhance the validity and reliability of this study. Data was analysed in terms of the thematiccontent analysis approach.The results of this study have suggested that the Chinese and British academic culturedifferences play a significant role in students’ academic experience. Even though they haveencountered different sorts of academic challenges, Chinese international Master’s studentsgenerally appreciated their learning experience in the British university. In order to deal withthose academic obstacles, Chinese students adopt mainly three strategies, which are:independent hard work; seeking help from other students; support from course tutors.The findings of this research have produced both expected and unexpected results. Forinstance, making friends with native peers is not considered as significantly beneficial forChinese Master’s students to relieve their academic stressors. This study has made acontribution to the previous literature in that it considers the academic experience of ChineseMaster’s students not international students in general. Furthermore, it considers carefully theexperiences of Chinese students who are going to study in the UK.