So how was it for you? Evaluating the transnational education experience, five years on.

This paper explores the experiences of a group of Chinese people who graduated with UK Business degrees in the late 1990s. It presents data about their perceptions of the influence of their studies on their ensuing lives and work. The paper briefly reviews literature about the changing role of education in China, commenting on developments following late twentieth century reforms. It also reflects on the practical management, teaching and learning issues inherent in transnational educational partnerships. The primary research draws on material from a longitudinal study begun in 1998/9 and ongoing. The research data is presented as excerpts from oral histories, where participants discuss their experiences in education and work and the implications of their educational choices on personal identity. The main conclusions are that: the impacts of transnational education on men and women in China may differ; graduates value aspects of the learning experience extrinsic to the subject of study more than disciplinary knowledge over time; structural issues in China affect both the motivation to study on and utility of overseas degrees after graduation; and that the transnational experience impacts on cultural and personal identity in ways that may influence graduates integration into the mainstream of Chinese society

Students from mainland China and critical thinking in postgraduate business and management degrees: teasing out tensions of culture, style and substance.

This paper explores the discourse of critical thinking within Higher Education (HE) practice and evaluates the experiences and achievements of mainland Chinese students within that context. It sets out to discuss teaching and learning as it was experienced by a small group of students who came to the UK for postgraduate study. The paper explores underlying assumptions behind criticality within HE classrooms and discusses this aspect of pedagogy from a cultural perspective. Chinese students, facing an acute need to bridge different ways of knowing and expressing what they know, are often characterized as unable to work in a critical context. The research accounts document students responses to the academic and critical context inherent in their programmes of study and make an account of the learning challenges they faced. The key conclusions include: definitions of critical thinking are often unclear, and emerge from cultural knowledge traditions rather than universal measures of higher learning; Chinese students are often stereotyped as cognitively limited because of their difficulties with critical expression; classroom strategies do not explicitly facilitate development or assess critical thinking but focus on stylistic and locally-valid academic conventions; international students may under-perform because of a lack of initiation into cultural practices rather than inability to engage with critical thinking

Reflecting on the relationship between standardized admissions, academic expectations and diverse student cohorts in postgraduate taught business and management programmes.

This paper discusses the relationship between admissions approaches which rely exclusively upon standard academic criteria to select students for Business and Management programmes and classroom diversity. It draws on a small-scale research project carried out with postgraduate Business students at a British university in 2003 and 2004. The empirical data identifies a wide range of underlying notions of key business and management concepts held by students at point of entry to the programme of study. The paper goes on to discuss the complexity of teaching and learning dynamics that result from such diversity and its impact on student performance. In conclusion, the paper proposes a broadening of admissions criteria to take account of both learning transitions and the intercultural learning inherent in such international educational programmes

Representations of Euro-Asian relations in 2010: South Korean newspapers report on ASEM and German newspapers on Asia (especially China). EU Center/Singapore Working Paper No. 2, December 2010

Empirical studies of EU-East Asian relationships as depicted in the media are increasingly moving into the foreground of discursive international relations analysis concentrated on the ASEM process. Yet region-to-region perceptions are still largely conceived within national, historical and linguistic prisms which are only gradually transferring into trans-regional ones. This working paper considers two interrelated moments, as indicated in the title, and hopes to make a modest contribution to the academic study of the construction of perceptions as a necessary precondition of and complement to an emerging sense of a common, shared and mutually beneficial inter-regional cooperation

A Comparison of Physical Activity and Dietary Behaviours of British Pakistani and White British Girls Aged 9 to 11 Years Living on Teesside

Introduction South Asian minority groups in the UK are at greater risk of heart disease and diabetes than the general White population. Physical activity and diet may play an important role in the onset of these diseases. Previous studies suggest levels of physical activity may be particularly low in British Pakistani girls. This mixed-method study aimed to test hypotheses that British Pakistani girls would be less active and more sedentary and would consume a greater proportion of energy from fat than White British girls. It also explored activity and dietary behaviours in the two groups. Methods Eighty-two British Pakistani and 82 White British girls, aged 9 to 11 years, were recruited from seven primary schools on Teesside, North-east England. Accelerometry was used to collect objective measurements of physical activity and sedentary time for four days. Three previous day physical activity recalls were used to determine participation in sport and exercise, outdoor play, screen-time and active modes of school transport. Food records and three previous day multiple-pass diet recalls were used to determine intake of energy and macro-nutrients and to characterise dietary habits. Parental interviews explored familial influences on children’s physical activity and dietary behaviour. Results British Pakistani girls accumulated: 148 (95% CI: 95, 201) fewer counts per minute per day; 19 (95% CI: 11, 26) fewer minutes in moderate-to vigorous physical activity and 5% (95% CI: 3, 7) more sedentary time, compared with White British girls. According to activity recalls British Pakistani girls accumulated: 14 (95% CI: 0.4, 28) fewer minutes per day in sport and exercise; 24 (95% CI: 13, 37) fewer minutes in outdoor play and 4 (95% CI: 0.1, 8.3) fewer minutes in active modes of school transport. There was no significant difference in screen time. British Pakistani girls gained an additional 1.7 (95% CI: 0.4, 3.3) per cent of their overall energy intake from fat, compared with White British girls. According to dietary recalls a greater proportion of British Pakistani girls consumed fast-food as an evening meal (p=0.034) and were more likely to consume food that had been deep fried (p=0.04) or shallow fried (p<0.001) during cooking. Conclusion The lower levels of physical activity and higher amounts of sedentary time, coupled with the higher intake of total fat found in British Pakistani compared with White British girls, may be associated with the increased cardiometabolic risk found in these populations, both in childhood and later in life

Teaching is a co-learning experience: academics reflecting on learning and teaching in an 'internationalized' faculty.

This paper reports on a study that took place in a faculty of humanities and social sciences at a UK university. The institution had recently undergone a radical restructure and the vision for the future presented by the new senior management team highlighted internationalization as one of four major areas for growth. The internationalization agenda was largely focused on increasing recruitment, but provided an opportunity to engage the academic community in a discourse about what internationalization meant for them and the challenges and opportunities it presented. Emerging themes relate to experiences and understandings of internationalization, with implications for learning and teaching, and student induction and support. The value of discourse about pedagogical development and practical innovations and the sharing of best practice are suggested as means to achieve conceptual change and a broader vision of internationalization

Competitive and cooperative impulses to internationalization: reflecting on the interplay between management intentions and the experience of academics in a British university.

This paper explores some of the practical tensions associated with higher education internationalization through the introduction of an institutional case study. The case highlights the interplay between policy-makers and academics around the emergence of an 'internationalization' agenda in a British university. It aims to illustrate aspects of the debate within the literature which discuss the gap between competitive and cooperative international motivations and to explore the impact of commercial internationalization upon the academic community. The key conclusions are that: cooperative and competitive impulses to internationalization respond to different ideological positions; linking a commercial revenue-generating approach with internationalist rhetoric may frustrate the development of an international orientation in an institution; and increasing academic disengagement with the commercial agenda possesses the potential to obstruct management intention

Just add water:prisons, therapeutic landscapes and healthy blue space

‘Healthy prisons’ is a well-established concept in criminology and prison studies. As a guiding principle to prisoners’ quality of life, it goes back to the 18th century when prison reformer John Howard regarded the improvement of ventilation and hygiene as being essential in the quest for religious penitence and moral reform. In more recent, times, the notion of the ‘healthy prison’ has been more commonly associated with that which is ‘just’ and ‘decent’, rather than what is healthy in a medical or therapeutic sense. This article interrogates the ‘healthy prison’ more literally. Drawing on data gathered from a UK prison located on a seashore, our aim is to explore prisoners’ rational and visceral responses to water in a setting where the very nature of enforced residence can have negative effects on mental health. In expanding the possibilities for the theorization of the health benefits that waterscapes may generate, and moving the discussion from healthy ‘green space’ to healthy ‘blue space’, the article reveals some of the less well-known and under-researched interconnections between therapeutic and carceral geographies, and criminological studies of imprisonment

Who does what in enabling ambidexterity? Individual Actions and HRM practices

In this paper, we explain how ambidexterity, the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation, is enabled at the individual level of analysis. Research on ambidexterity has been dominated by theoretical approaches focusing on the organisational level; however, we know little about how ambidexterity is enacted by employees. There is also limited work on the multilevel aspects of individual employee actions, for example, particular roles and specifically the level of seniority of the role. We address these gaps by asking: Which individual actions are undertaken by employees at particular levels of seniority in the organization to enable ambidexterity? In order to answer this question we draw on previous research to construct reliable measures of the individual actions that enable ambidexterity. The hypothesized mediation effect of these individual actions is confirmed on the basis of survey data from 212 employees from a UK-based Professional Service Firm. The findings indicate that senior employees are more likely to use ‘integration’, ‘role expansion’ and ‘tone setting’, whilst employees with specialist knowledge about their clients use ‘gap filling’ to enable ambidexterity. Finally, we draw together these findings with 35 interviews conducted to present the HRM practices which support ambidexterity