The challenges of a multicultural
university environment in the era of
crisis
Gyöngyi Pozsgai – Attila Kajos – Tímea Németh
University of Pécs
The aim of the presentation
• To examine how/if crisis can stimulate intercultural dialogue and
multicultural environment at the universities by the growing number
of international students
• To introduce the attitude of the international students towards the
domestic students and through their relationships towards the
domestic culture – comparing these data with the attitude of our
Hungarian students towards international students and their cultures
• Using the results of three surveys
World trends
Huge increase in international student enrollment
• 2001: 1 million international students worldwide
• 2009: 3,3 million international students
• 2025: 8 million (UNESCO estimation)
Reasons for growing importance of
international student recruitment in the era of
crisis
 financial benefits
1.on institutional level – to balance growing costs, decreasing
govenmental support
2.on societal level - important financial commodity
- contribution for the US economy – 19 billion USD, UK economy –
14 billion USD ( 2010)
• solution for demographic decline – keeping the workplaces of the
current lecturers, researchers
 bring new perspectives to the classroom experience - allow for
home students to benefit from international experiences – can help
their future employability on international Labour Market
University of Pécs
• Total student number ( 2010) : 27 963
• International students ( 2010): 1762 – 6,3 %
• Largest international student groups come from Germany , Norway,
Iran, Serbia, South Korea
International programmes:
• General Medicine and Dentistry in English and in German,
Pharmacy in English
• BA programme in Business Administration and MsC in Applied
Management (validated by Middlesex University, London)
• BA programme in Psychology
Surveys
1.
Survey I. (2010)
Aim : To explore the motivations and decision making process of
international students when choosing their place of study
Methodology: on-line questionnaire
72 completed questionnaires
conducted among the international students of UP
2.
Survey II. (2011)
Aim: To explore the attitude of foreign students to Hungarian students and
culture
Methodology : standard on-line questionnaire
Completed surveys: 152
3.
Survey III (2011)
Aim: To examine the attitude of Hungarian students to foreign students and
their culture
Methodology: on-line questionnaire
103 completed questionnaires
Carried out by 2 PhD students – University of Pécs, Faculty of Business and
Economics
Survey I.
Main source of information about UP
• Sequence of importance:
:
• The main source of information about the University of Pécs are the
friends – former and current international students of UP
Benefits of studying abroad
The third most important benefit is to learn about different cultures
Survey II.
Do you consider the University of Pécs (UP) to
have a mixture of different cultures?
Do you consider the UP to have a mixture of different cultures?
3%
Yes
No
97%
• 97% of them find that UP provides a multicultural environment
Do you consider that these cultures are
respected?
• 85% of the students feel that the different cultures are
respected - 15 % have experienced the opposite
Have you ever felt that you have been
treated differently due to your origin/culture?
Have you ever felt that you have been treated differently at UP due to your
origin/culture?
120
100
80
103
60
Yes
No
40
49
20
0
Yes
No
• 32 % of students experienced to have been treated differently due to
their cultures/origin – 68 % have not felt this
How important do you think it is that you
learn about different cultures at UP ?
• 49 % of students find it somewhat important to learn about the
different cultures - 45 % think it is very important, 6% of students
feel it is of no importance
Are you aware of any activities taking place
at UP that make students aware of other
cultures?
Are you aware of any activities taking place at UP that make students aware
of other cultures?
34; 23%
Yes
No
116; 77%
• 77 % of students are aware of activities, events that introduce the
different cultures of students , 23 % are not
Do you think that lecturers/ students at UP
respect other nations/cultures?
• 88 % think that lecturers respect them, whereas 12 % think they
don’t
• 80% feel that students respect them whereas 20% they don’t
Would you like to have more opportunities to
introduce your culture?
Would you like to receive more opportunities to introduce your culture?
74
73
Yes
No
•About 50 % of students would like to have more opportunties to
introduce their cultures – female students are more positive to do
so
Do you have any ideas that you think
would help UP to enrich the students’
multicultural awareness
• ‘Should organize more common events ( may be
obligatory ones) for international and Hungarian
students’
How much have you learnt about the
Hungarian culture since you have been
enrolled?
• 48 % learnt not too much about the culture of Hungary, whereas 2626 % learnt little and much
Please list 5 words that describe Hungarian
culture
• From the responses we created groups of words – categories:
absolute positive, mainly positive, neutral, mainly negative and
absolute negative
• 55 % have absolute positive or mainly positive attitude towards
Hungarian culture, 22 % neutral, 23 % negative or absolute negative
Please list 5 words that describe Hungarian
culture
• Friendly
• Proud (of their country, proud of their culture,proud of
their nationality )
• Wine
• Traditional
• Open
What nationalies do your friends at the
university – you spend most of your
free-time with - have?
What nationalies do your friends at the university – you spend most of your freetime with - have?
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Only with own
nationality
Own and other
Also with Hungarians
nationalities
(Hungarians excluded)
• 35 % make friends only with own nationality, 51 % with own and
other nationality ( Hungarians excluded) - Only 14 % of the
international students spend their free-time with Hungarians
How often do you meet Hungarian students
at the university?
• Most of them rarely or never meet them - only 27 % of the
international students meet several times or every day with the
Hungarian students
If you spend your free-time rarely or never
with Hungarian students what is the
reason for it?
•
•
•
•
•
•
‘I simply spend my time with others/ I don’t know any Hungarians’
‘Language barriers – Hungarians don’t speak English’
‘Hungarians do not want to make friends, they are very reserved’
‘Different schedule, no opportunity’
‘We have been socialized differently, we have no common topic’
‘Because we don't have so much connection, in this university
nations are like bands. All of them sticks together and they don't like
to spend their time with other nations so much’
• ‘It is very hard to get to know them. They tend to keep to
themselves.
Relationships between responses
• Those who feel that lecturers or students do not respect their
cultures have more negative opinion about Hungarian culture
• Those who feel that students do not respect their cultures have no
Hungarian friends at all
• Those who meet Hungarians more often feel that they have gained
more information about the Hungarian culture
• Those who meet Hungarians every day or several times a week
100 % feel that Hungarians respect other cultures
• The less time foreign students spend with Hungarians the more
negative attitude they have about Hungarians
Comparison of results Survey II. and III.
Foreign students – Hungarian students
Similar results were found 32% of Hungarian students felt that students are treated
differently due to their culture/origin
The data show that appr. 90 % of Hungarian students feel
that lecturers respect other nations, 10% that they don’t
20 % of Hungarian students are on the opinion that
students do not respect other nations, 80 % that they do
Would you like to receive more opportunities
to introduce your culture/ learn about
other cultures?
90,00%
80,00%
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
Yes
40,00%
No
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
International
Hungarian
• Hungarian students are more open to learn about the culture of
foreign students
How often do you spend your free-time with
Hungarian/ international students?
50,00%
45,00%
40,00%
35,00%
Never
30,00%
25,00%
Rarely
20,00%
Several times a week
15,00%
Every day
Occasionaly
10,00%
5,00%
0,00%
International
Hungarian
• Hungarian students spend a bit more time with international
students
What is the reason for not spending your
free-time with international students?
• ‘lack of opportunities to meet them’
• ‘I don’t know them’
• there aren’t any common activities/events’
Final conclusion - questions
• Important element in motivation concerning studying abroad –
learning about other cultures
Do the international students of UP learn about the
culture of Hungary? Are they really open to learn about
other cultures?
and/or :
Do we provide enough assistance and opportunity for them?
• Most common word about Hungarian culture: ‘friendly’
If Hungarians are friendly why don’t foreign studens make
friends with them?
Foreign language No 1 is English, most students have passed
a language exam from English- what makes foreign students
think that there is lack of English knowledge?
Final conclusion- answers
Most important source of information about a university are friends – former
and present students
•We have to make sure that our international students are MOST satisfied with
the university and with their stay – if we want them to recommend us/ help in
our recruitment
•
Financial crises can indeed stimulate to have more international students
BUT
that is not enough for a successful intercultural dialogue, and multicultural
environment
If we want to increase the number of international students – we have to:
1.respect their culture and treat them equally – make sure that all lecurers(!)
and domestic students have a positive approach towards them
2.arrange mixed classes and organize common cultural events
3.provide more opportunities for international students to introduce their
cultures
4.stimulate our domestic students to assist in their integration
5.find all ways to provide them with opportunitites to learn more about the
Hungarian culture
Thank you very much for your attention!