Reconsidering graduate student international exchange: From a social psychological perspective

1. JiroTakai, PhD Department of Educational Psychology Nagoya University Reconsidering graduate student international exchange: From a social psychological perspective

2. Exemplary statistics of international graduate students in advanced countries • In the United States: • 15% of all grad students are international (temporary residents) • 242,061 in number (2009) • More men (58.9%) than women (41.1%) • Dominantly majoring in Science, Engineering, Technology fields • About half of all grad students in Engineering, and Mathematics/Computer Science are international • International students require 7.5 median years to a PhD, compared to 7.7 for US citizens/permanent residents

3. US graduate students by gender and ethnic group 2009 (Council of Graduate Schools, 2010)

4. US graduate students by field and residential category 2009 (Council of Graduate Schools, 2010)

5. Synopsis • International graduate students tend to concentrate in the applied sciences • They waste little time in degree attainment, perhaps because they cannot afford to

6. The hardships of the international graduate student • Graduate students are placed in a highly stressful climate in which they must compete for resources amongst their peers, be it scholarships, research funding, assistantship positions, and even time they receive from their faculty advisor. • Given such a climate, graduate students have less time and energy to allot to befriending international students, as compared to undergraduates.

7. Graduate student • Undergraduate student

8. International graduate student needs • International students have special needs to be met, above and beyond those of ordinary graduate students. These include academic, financial, living, social, and identity needs. • They also have needs not shared with their undergraduate counterparts

9. Academic needs • Language and communication • Learning how to learn • Learning styles may not be congruent with what courses offer • Tutoring needs in area of major • International students may not be coming in with the necessary theoretical and methodological foundations • Faculty guidance • Academic writing needs • Writing research reports and manuscripts in the particular language of education

10. Financial needs • Some typical tuition rates for 2011 • U of Oxford $22,000 US • U of Tokyo $9,200 US first year • UCLA $34,000 • U of Adelaide $26,000 • Living costs • Can run another $1500 or more a month in most advanced nations • The same financial concerns are shared with local graduate students, but perhaps to a lesser extent with lower tuition rates

11. Social needs • Social adjustment needs • Cross-cultural adjustment (culture shock) • Role adjustment (role shock) • Social support needs (House, 1981) • Emotional support • Appraisal support • Informational support • Instrumental support • Matching hypothesis of social support (Cutrona, 1990) says the right kind of support is needed from the right kind of supporter • International students need support from hosts and compatriots matching their needs

12. International student social support needs and desired source at Time=0mos. (Takai, 1994)

13. International student social support needs and desired source at Time=12mos.(Takai, 1994) Data based on international students in Japan within 12 months of start of studies. Figures are percentage of sample choosing the support source as the most important source

14. Identity needs • Maintaining individual identity • Self-concept formation, self-esteem issues • Maintaining cultural identity • Integrating own culture identity with identity as a resident of the host culture

15. Maintaining cultural identity: Berry’s (1997) typology of acculturation Is it important tomaintain good relations with hosts? YES NO YES Is it important tomaintain own cultural identity? NO

16. The issue • What social, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal forces might be there which may impede the international student from attaining his/her goals and needs?

17. Factors hindering academic need fulfillment • Competition amongst grad students for faculty attention and time • Communication (in)competence • Adjustment to a different learning culture • Academic writing deficiencies • Lack of theoretical and methodological foundations for conducting research

18. Factors hindering financial need fulfillment • Scholarships and fellowships may be exclusive to nationals • Currency fluctuations • Lack of language ability to serve as teaching assistants • Competition amongst grad students for very limited resources

19. Factors hindering social need fulfillment • Lack of time to build interpersonal relationships, hence social support networks, especially host networks • Reliance on existing home networks for support, thanks to internet technology (Skype, online chat, e-mail) • These are cyber relationships, not face-to-face • Fellow graduate students are not interested in socializing, unlike the undergraduate level • Overall, social support acquisition may pose a burden, and international grad students may likely turn to existing home networks, or to internet to meet support needs

20. Factors hindering identity need fulfillment • If host supporters are not required, there is little need to place importance on learning and respecting the host culture, so compatriots and home networks become the most important support providers = segregation • Adjustment to the cultural, social, and institutional environment may induce psychological overburden, hence identity issues = marginalization • In most cases, graduate school life leaves little spare time for cultural and social exchange

21. The result of needs being unfulfilled • The stress from attempting to fulfill academic needs, combined with the lack of time for social needs to be addressed, and furthermore, the air of competition for securing financial resources may hamper positive intercultural interaction between host and international students • Subsequently, both hosts and internationals may increasingly become aware of the “us” versus “them” distinction, which we call the ingroup/outgroup distinction • This has implications toward identity needs, i.e. social and individual identities

22. Would these graduate students be able to mingle and support each other?

23. Social Identity Theory (SIT: Tajfel and Turner, 1979) • Social psychological theory forwarded by to explain intergroup conflict • We have both inclusion and differentiation needs, hence see ourselves in terms of group membership in social categories • Those in our group are the ingroup (“us”), those who are not are the outgroup (“them”): this functions to clarify our identity, and serve our identity needs • We gain our self-esteem depending on how our ingroup is evaluated, so we like to keep our ingroup superior to the outgroup • Because of this, we favor our ingroup while we disrespect the outgroup

24. Intergroup contact hypothesis • Social psychologists have delineated some specific conditions on which ingroup-outgroup contact can become constructive, and hence, successful • For example, Allport (1954) claims that equal-group status within the contact situation, common goals, intergroupcooperation, and institutionalsupport are the antecedents to successful exchange • Amir (1976) suggested the additional conditions of voluntary participation, and intimacy of the contact

25. Applying SIT principles to international graduate education • Universities, or individual departments within universities, must therefore, concern themselves on how they can structure the interaction between host and international students such that the goal of international educational exchange can be realized at the micro-level • Some international education models based on SIT and contact theory tenets will be proposed

26. The solution: Get rid of categories • If international students see themselves differently from the hosts, and vice versa, we have intergroup contact, and they won’t be able to see each other beyond their social categories • The two groups perceive one another as competing for limited resources, and cooperation will not likely materialize • One way around this is to emphasize the fact that they are all fellow grad students, having membership in a single, mutual category • We need to induce recategorization, decategorization, or subcategorization

27. Decategorization model • Person-based contact as opposed to category-based • If grad students can become unaware of the categories of international and host, this can be actualized • Decategorization can be institutionally induced by increasing personal level contact between students, through collaborative projects, parties and other informal social gatherings, study groups

28. Decategorization model International Student International Student Host Student Host Student

29. Recategorization model • Create a common-identity, superordinate group that subsumes both international and hosts • No need to deny the existence of these categories, but make students aware they are part of a larger, more important category • Emphasizing the laboratory, or the department that the students belong to should do the trick • Accentuate the notion of teamwork • Students gain a common, more salient membership within a group consisting of mutually compatible goals, and their ethnicity or nationality becomes unimportant

30. Recategorization model International Student Graduate Student Inter- national Host Host Inter- national Host Student Host Inter- national

31. Subcategorization model • Respective category identities remain salient, but structuring the nature of their relationship in a manner such as to foster collaboration and cooperation is induced • Without the presence of the other group, nobody can realize any goals • Mutual interests, and dependence in pursuing them bring groups together, but if one party does not live up to the expectations of the other, this can seriously backfire

32. Subcategorization model International Student International Student Host Student Host Student

33. Institutionally managing positive contact and category awareness • The air of competition may hamper positive intercultural interaction between host and international students, and they may increasingly become aware of the “us” versus “them” distinction • Managing the level of awareness of the classes of students is often overlooked, and this can lead to unpleasant experiences on both international, and host students • Of course, this is easy to say, but when it comes down to doing it, it’s another story

34. Some suggestions • Increase personal level contact between international and hosts (including graduate students and faculty) • Hold parties and get-togethers • Encourage collaborative research • Launch some group projects • Induce “buddy systems” or tutoring systems • “International residences” should be just that, having host students live with internationals rather than being exclusive quarters for the latter • Grants and fellowship not toward individuals, but to host/international constituted groups

35. Conclusion • In this presentation, reference to social psychological theories of intergroup contact were made in offering some models of international exchange at the graduate student level • What can be done, at what level remains to be seen, but the scope of this presentation is to give food to thought

36. Thanks for your attention! Address inquiries to: JiroTakai Nagoya University jtakai@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp

37. Reference • Berry, J.W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 5-34. • Council of Graduate Schools (2010). Graduate enrollment and degrees: 1999 to 2009. Retrieved 2010/09/25 http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/R_ED2009.pdf • Council of Graduate Schools (2010). Research report: Time to degree for doctorate recipients. Retrieved 2010/09/25 http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/DataSources_2010_03.pdf • Cutrona, C. E. (1990). Stress and social support – In search of optimal matching. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 3–14. • House, J.S. (1981). Work, stress and social support. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. • Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations. Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole . • Takai, J. (1994). Host contact and cross-cultural adjustment of international students in Japan. Intercultural/Transcultural Education: Bulletin of Intercultural Education Society of Japan, 8, 106-116. (In Japanese)