O'Dea, Xianghan (Christine) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1533-1067 (2014) The key issues Chinese top up students experiencing in a UK university. In: SRHE new researcher conference 2014, 2014/12, Newport, Wales, UK.

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Abstract

Purpose
The paper sets out a theoretical framework that has been developed to help understand the transitional experience of Chinese top up students at university. The framework has been developed from two psychosocial student development theories, Schlossberg’s transition theory (Schlossberg, 2005) and Chickering's identity development theory (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).

Since 2000, Chinese students account for the largest proportion of all international students worldwide. As a result, the transition of Chinese students in Western universities has become a popular research topic in the higher education field. However, most of the published studies consider Chinese students as a single category and do not distinguish between traditional entry and direct entry. This work will look specifically at the transition experience of Chinese top up students.

Nature of Research
The paper outlines the initial stages of a PhD study. It will present the development of the conceptual framework for the study and the literature review.

Methodology
The study is a case study of Chinese students studying at UK universities. It will use the Portrait Methodology (Bottery et al, 2009). Individually written “portraits” will be used to show how each individual participant handles the issues students face in transition. The sample size will be approximately 15 students, they will be interviewed both prior to and after they have commenced studies at a uk university. It is intended to take samples from students at a university in north of England.

Main arguments
The transition process is considered to be a “stress coping” process. In particular, it is a cultural adjustment issue and can be considered to comprise three factors: language anxiety, social anxiety and the academic anxiety (Zhou & Todman, 2008; Liu, & Jackson, 2008).

Work on general student development considers a transition to be a developmental process consisting of moving in, moving through and moving out stages of each individual transition (Schlossberg, 2005). Chickering defines it as consisting of 7 vectors, which are stages of development of identity.

The theoretical framework takes the work on general student development and applies it to the transitional process. It synthesizes the work of existing student identity development theories into a process that looks at both temporal and identity development and applies it to the transitional development of top up Chinese students.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education L Education > LF Individual institutions (Europe)
School/Department:	York Business School
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/5544

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