Part of being a global citizen is recognizing the perspective of others,
writes Professor Wai Fong Chua, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Students) at the
University of New South Wales.
The recent discussion over a
proposed ‘reverse Colombo Plan’ has been too narrowly focused.
Student mobility is a wonderful,
rich, personalized and largely successful means of achieving the globalization
of education. From personal experience, it’s no exaggeration to say that it
changes lives.
I came to Australia and the
University of New South Wales via a very circuitous route. Having grown up in
Malaysia in an ethnic Chinese family, I learnt rudimentary German at school, in
between Cantonese, Bahasa Malaysia and English, before going to Britain to
study at university. While there I spent a summer brushing up my German in
Austria.
Our German teacher introduced
herself by promising to speak nothing but German for the duration of our
program. One had to adapt – quickly – and not just to a foreign language. I
learnt that no matter how unfamiliar the environment, confidence and
cross-cultural experience could take you a long way.
No matter how enthusiastically we
promote the benefits of people to people links, only a small percentage of
students will ever have the opportunity, means or inclination to study
overseas.
At UNSW in 2011, for example,
1,900 international students were on student exchange programs here and only
1300 of our students, about 3 percent, were on exchange overseas. And while,
student mobility is soaring worldwide, the four-fold increase in students
studying outside their country of citizenship since 1975 to some 3.7 million is
still just a tiny proportion of the world’s fast growing cohorts of tertiary
students.
That means finding effective ways
of promoting a global perspective and developing commensurate skills in situ.
Firstly, we can internationalize
our curriculum. At UNSW, we have over 100 courses with a specific international
focus and can infuse many more of our courses with international content. The
kind of case studies we use in teaching, in particular, can make the difference
between seeing another society as foreign, or feeling familiar with its
economy, society and people.
But the most important resource
we have for producing global graduates is largely overlooked: the 20 percent of
enrollments from overseas students. It’s not unusual to have over 100
nationalities studying together. At UNSW, among our 52,000 students are 11,000
from 120 countries.
We need to put into place
structures that facilitate integration, not only to more effectively build
social links, but to create incentives for students from across cultural groups
to collaborate academically. That can mean more imaginative group work in
class, which utilizes the cultural literacy and range of knowledge of the
diverse student body.
We have a diverse body of
teachers and researchers who have trained overseas and who can bring those
experiences into our classrooms. We have started a practice group at UNSW and
run workshops to enable academics to share their teaching practices and thereby
become more effective teachers of a cosmopolitan outlook.
We have started an intern program
so international students can work in parts of the university, like the
library, where they have the widest possible exposure to other students.
Part of being a global citizen is
simply having the confidence and interest to step into another culture or
society and to be willing to recognize other perspectives.
We all know that one can travel
and yet stay still by sticking to familiar resorts or food. Nowadays we have
more opportunity than ever before to stay still and yet travel. But we need to
be constantly and creatively thinking – and teaching – about the globalized
environment in which we work and live.
Professor Wai Fong Chua is
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Students) at UNSW.
——
Reproduced with permission
from UNSW.
This opinion piece first appeared in The Australian.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
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