International Staff in UK Business Schools: Difficulties and Student Perception Magda Abou-Seada & Michael Sherer BMAF Teaching Research and Development Grants 2010/11

 Introduction  Aims  Data collection  Findings  Recommendations Presentation Outline

 The number of international staff increased from 8.6% in 1996/97 to 21.8% in 2007/08 (HESA, 2009)  The “move from elite to mass higher education in countries such as the UK, USA and Canada has especially contributed to this growth” (Richardson, 2009, p. S162)  Kim (2009) argues that the increased recruitment of international academics in the UK is driven mainly by improving research rankings Introduction

 To identify the difficulties faced by international staff teaching in UK business schools and how such difficulties are dealt with by HE institutions  To investigate students’ perceptions of international staff Aims of Study

 Data is collected via staff interviews and student focus groups at six UK business schools  The business schools are chosen to reflect research intensity (pre and post 1992 universities) and regional variations  The sample selected includes:  International staff with varying experiences, backgrounds and mother tongues  under- and post-graduate students with varying backgrounds and mother tongues Data Collection

Induction and preparation for teaching  “Apart from the general induction to the university I didn’t receive any proper preparation for teaching”  “I was asked to be module leader and they gave me some materials from the previous year but that was it. I was left to figure out everything”  “They asked my to do the PGCert which didn’t help much” Findings – Staff Views

Difficulties faced during teaching  Most staff interviewed indicated that they faced communication problems at the start of their careers in the UK  Some had problems in understanding international students  The lack of confidence led staff to believe that it was their problem not students’ accents “I was too embarrassed to tell students that I had not understood them” Findings – Staff Views

 Negative comments from students resulted in some lack of confidence “I felt that students were more focused on my language skills rather than my competence in explaining the subject”  Schools were more supportive of students and in some cases students were allowed to change classes in response to their complaints about a lecturer’s accent  When asked about their relationships with students coming from their home countries, there were mixed reactions Findings – Staff Views

Mentoring and peer review  The interviewees criticised the current mentoring and peer review systems and agreed that the presence of a supportive mentor would be of great help to international staff  Some indicated that they did not have any mentors when they started their jobs and some of those who had mentors did not even know who their mentors were Findings – Staff Views

 Some, especially overseas students, indicated that they did not expect to be taught by international staff  Most found it difficult to understand the accents of some international staff “even if their language was good, I came here to learn the British accent”  They noted that being lectured by staff of varying accents made learning more difficult for them “In the first year of my studies in the UK I had to cope with lots of things and the last thing I wanted was to try to understand the accent of my lecturers” Findings – Student Views

 Some, however, were supportive of being taught by international staff: “being exposed to varying accents enhances our employability skills” “lecturers coming from overseas understand our problems better, I think because some of them were once overseas students” “native British lecturers speak too quickly and I don’t understand them” “at least our overseas teachers respond to our s” Findings – Student Views

 Research students had different views with regards to their supervision preferences  Some students preferred to be supervised by native British staff as this would be perceived in a better way by their home institutions  Other students indicated that being supervised by staff coming from their home countries facilitated communication, especially when the student’s spoken English was not at a high standard Findings – Student Views

 The mentoring and peer review policies, especially for international staff, need to be reviewed  Schools/departments should be more supportive of international staff who receive negative feedback from students by designing relevant development courses to improve communication skills  Recruitment policies should not be driven by improving research rankings regardless of teaching skills Recommendations

Thank you If you’d like a copy of the paper or to take part please contact me: Magda Abou-Seada Essex Business School