What do ethical practices with international students look like?
- Dr Jenna Mittelmeier, University of Manchester
- Dr Sylvie Lomer, University of Manchester
- Dr Josef Ploner, University of Manchester
- Dr Heather Cockayne, University of Manchester
- Dr Miguel Antonio Lim, University of Manchester
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Panel session led by Jenna Mittelmeier
Contributions from Heather Cockayne, Sylvie Lomer, Miguel Lim, and Josef Ploner
Over the last few decades, university staff have seen increasing numbers of international students and growing institutional pressures to ‘internationalise’ teaching provisions and services. However, the practicalities of teaching in intercultural settings can bring up a number of uncertainties and ambiguities, meaning ideas about ‘standard practice’ are challenging, impractical, or even impossible. We argue that one outcome of this is that discourses about international students are often positioned through a deficit lens, assumed to lack certain skills or qualities for success, particularly compared to their home student peers. Scholars on this topic have also questioned the harmful stereotypes and ‘othering’ of international students through assumptions that they should assimilate to academic cultures of their host countries, rather than developing more transformative intercultural pedagogies. This panel session offers critical perspectives on issues of ethics in our work with international students, reflecting on the potential for more meaningful and inclusive approaches in higher education. The panel includes the following presentations:
Jenna Mittelmeier: What is currently unethical about our practices with international students?
Sylvie Lomer: The implicit coloniality of UK HE pedagogy
Josef Ploner: Ethics or etiquette? International students and academic hospitality
Heather Cockayne: Meaning making – Evidence from international students
Miguel Lim: International students and local communities – Building contacts and partnerships
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Dr Jenna Mittelmeier is a Lecturer in International Education in the Manchester Institute of Education (MIE) at the University of Manchester. Her area of research expertise focuses on international students’ transition experiences and broader aspects of internationalisation in higher education.
Dr Sylvie Lomer is Senior Lecturer in Policy and Practice and founding co-convener of the Higher Education Research Network HERE@Manchester in the Institute for Education at the University of Manchester. An established researcher in international higher education studies and critical higher education policy, her book on the topic is Recruiting international students in higher education: Rationales and representations in British policy (Palgrave Macmillan).
Dr Josef Ploner is a Lecturer of International and Comparative Education in MIE at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on international student mobility into the UK and Europe and how this intersects with concurrent forms of global migration, diaspora and exile. Josef has also a keen interest in tourism, heritage and the cultural industries as meaningful sites of education, cultural encounter and contest.
Dr Heather Cockayne is a Lecturer in Education at the Manchester Institute of Education and founding convenor of the China and Higher Education Network. Her work focuses on the intersection of education, (im)mobilities and internationalisation, with a particular interest in international student experiences.
Dr Miguel Antonio Lim is Senior Lecturer in Education and International Development, Research Coordinator and Research Impact Coordinator at the Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester. He is also co-convenor of the International Researchers’ Network of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) and the Higher Education at Manchester (HERE@Manchester) Research Network. Previously, he was EU-Marie Curie Fellow at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research interests include transnational higher education, performance metrics, internationalisation, and reputation management in higher education.
