Dr. Ruslan Ramanau and Dr. Sheila Tyler, Faculty of Business and Law, Open University

1. Dr. Ruslan Ramanau and Dr. Sheila Tyler, Faculty of Business and Law, Open University International Management Learning: Comparative Study of the Open University Students Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

2. Description and Goals • Teaching and Research Grant supported by the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Business Management Accountancy and Finance • It seeks to explore from a student-centred perspective student views of internationalisation and to counter-approach the predominantly top-down commercial and higher education funding imperatives that drive internationalisation of the sector • The project focuses on part-time postgraduate students in Business and Management, who remain in their home country and are expected to bring to bear their work experience on their learning and apply new knowledge in their work places • The course under study was The Professional Certificate of Management which is presented to students based in the UK and in continental Europe in English; and in Russia in Russian through the International Institute of Management (IIM) LINK, the Open University’s official partner Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

3. Questionnaire Survey • Questionnaire on student views on the degree to which international perspectives are built into their learning experience and on other cultural indicators, designed by the project team and translated into Russian • Four sections to the questionnaire: a) demographic information about the respondents (age, gender, highest educational qualifications, country of residence, national group etc.); previous exposure to other cultures (through travel, work, family visits etc.); cultural intelligence scale (CQS, adapted to the survey); integration of international perspectives in learning (usefulness for own management context, factual information on other cultures, cross-cultural collaboration) • The questionnaire was pilot tested on a group of students, whose characteristics were similar to that of the target population and the main instrument was administered online in March-April 2011 in both English and Russian Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

4. Sample Characteristics Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

5. Regional/ National Profile Country of Residence or Region • UK and European: 63.4% - England; 19.2% - continental Europe; 15.4% – Ireland, Scotland and Wales • Russian: Russia – 81.4 %, other former Soviet countries - 18.6 % Which national group do you most identify with? • British – 39.1%, English 21.7%, Irish or Scottish 21.7%; German -11.6%, other groups (Polish, Bulgarian, South African etc.) - 10.1% • Russian – 74.5%, Ukrainian – 13.3%, other (Belarusian, Kazakh, Tatar etc.) – 12.2 % Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

6. Language Fluency and Contact at Work Do you speak more than one language? (% of the total) Does your work involve working with people from other cultures and/or nationalities? (% of the total) Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

7. Cultural Awareness 5-point Likert scale (agree to disagree), based on the cultural strategy and cultural motivation scales of the CQS (one-way ANOVA – n.s.) Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

8. Usefulness for Own Management Context 5-point Likert-scale (agree to disagree); one-way ANOVA significant for differences between Russian and Ukrainian samples (p = 0.002) Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

9. Factual vs. Collaborative Orientations in Cross-Cultural Management Learning Factual orientation Collaborative orientation Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

10. Discussion • Diverse sample both in terms of intercultural characteristics and cross-cultural comparisons • European and UK respondents similar in terms of their exposure, interest in other cultures and cross-cultural awareness, although UK respondents are less likely to speak more than one language and have family abroad • Russian and Ukraine samples show less cross-cultural experience and awareness, but Ukrainian sample showing most experience in both factual information on other cultures and in cross-cultural collaboration • Data analysis is provisional and to be continued • Future areas of research – relating demographic characteristics and cultural exposure to cultural indicators and learning experience on present and future Management courses Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

11. Questions for Discussion • What is the degree to which cross-cultural awareness should be fostered in international students coming from large, relatively homogenous national cultures (e.g. Russians in this study)? • Is it natural that more cross-cultural perspectives are integrated into teaching and learning in higher education settings where knowledge, experience and awareness of other cultures (e.g. countries of continental Europe) is higher than in other contexts? Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler

12. Questions? • References: Stohl, M. (2007). We have met the enemy and he is us: the role of faculty in the internationalization of Higher Education in the coming decade. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11 (3/4), 359-372. Contacts: • R.Ramanau@open.ac.uk • S.Tyler@open.ac.uk Ruslan Ramanau and Sheila Tyler