LinkChinese UK News

University College London (UCL) is asking public to submit their suggestion of a new Chinese name. The winner will get a £1000 reward. The current Chinese name of UCL, 伦敦大学学院, the literal translation of Unversity College London, sometimes causes confusion in China where the concept of traditional English ‘college’ need some explanation. Also the current name is, as UCL admit, not very inspiring. As many other British universities, UCL have attracted many Chinese students. Having a classy and easy to remember Chinese name should improve the image and competitiveness of UCL in China.

The requirment, submission form and contact details can be found here.

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China Daily reports:

About 40 percent of the top students in college entrance examinations have chosen overseas universities for their postgraduate studies, according to a survey.

Most of them have stayed overseas after finishing their intended courses, showed a survey that tracked 130 top performers in college entrance exams from 1977 to 1998.

Dubbed zhuangyuan, which means top contestants in the imperial examinations in feudal China, these students have been lauded by the media as examples for their younger peers.

UNESCO figures show Chinese students comprise 14 percent of international students, the highest in the world. Their favorite destinations for higher studies are the US, Britain and Japan. Some experts said handsome scholarships, better job prospects and more opportunities to pursue further studies are the main attractions of foreign universities.

The full report.

 

A recent report published by Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) argues that UK universities should lower fees in order to attract more interantional students, who will ultimately contribute much more to UK economy than the cost to the universities. The report, based mainly on the figures of 2004-05 academic year, quantifies the contribution of EU and non-EU students to UK economy, combining the direct cash injection, fiscal effects and their contribution to the GDP growth. The report concludes that each EU student contributes £23,600, and each non-EU student £24,400 each year to UK economy. Even if only the direct contributions (tuition fees and expenditure) are calculated, the total injection (3.74 billion) from international students makes higher education a bigger exporter than broadcast and media (3.7 billion), alcohol (2.8 billion), and publishing (2.3 billion).

However, although UK has good share of international students market so far (11%, only second to the US, 20%), it is facing increasing competition from other countries, who charge less fees. The report argues that it’s in the national interest to subsidise UK universities to lower their fees in order to attract more international students.

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Des Moines Register of Iowa, U.S. reports:

The West Des Moines school district will offer a high school Mandarin Chinese curriculum for the first time in fall 2008, thanks to a roughly $600,000 federal grant.

Valley Southwoods Freshman High School and Valley High School will be the second and third schools in metropolitan Des Moines to teach the language, said Phyllis Staplin, director of curriculum for the West Des Moines district. The other is Des Moines’ Central Campus, a regional academy for central Iowa students.

“We have wanted to do this for quite awhile,” Staplin said. “We want our students to have not only global awareness and understanding, but we want them to build proficiencies in language. … The grant has enabled us to do this.”

The district received word last month that it was awarded a three-year U.S. Department of Education grant that will funnel about $197,000 into the new program for each of the next three years, said Donna Wilkin, associate district superintendent for teaching and learning services.

Read the full story.

 

Pupils in five UK state schools are going to study Chinese in their schools, helped by a project sponsored by Hanban, China’s equivalent of the British Council. The five schools are to become ‘Confucius classrooms’, which is dedicated to promoting the study of Chinese culture and language, the Independent reports.

All five schools, which include grammar and comprehensive schools and privately sponsored academy, were chosen by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The schools have already started teaching Chinese. The new project means more resources for the Chinese teaching. Hanban is giving each school £3,000 to help the project off the ground.

Next week 175 pupils and their teachers will leave UK next week to attend a summer camp in Beijing.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is redrafting the syllabus of GCSE Chinese exam so that it can be learnt as a foreign language in the same way as French or German. This is believed will help the Chinese teaching in schools.

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British educational system has great reputation among Chinese students, however British universities shouldn’t be complacent, or just see Chinese students as revenue, a new report by Glasgow University’s Media Group for the British Council suggests. Chinese students are becoming more sophisticated in choosing schools, demanding better value for money, and increasingly take words and suggestion from their friends and relatives, which forms a kind of ‘unofficial league table’.

One of the findings of the report seems to confirm that cultural stereotyping is universal. The popularity of some classical British literature and TV series in China means some of the Chinese students have a Jane Austen theme park image of Britain when they arrive, before being stunned by the reality.

John Grace of the Guardian writes:

Imagine a chocolate-box Jane Austen theme-park Britain, where the poor are kept safely out of sight and the gentle-folk heave their bosoms with repressed emotion. Don’t laugh. That’s precisely the image that many Chinese students have of modern Britain, according to a new report carried out by Greg Philo, head of Glasgow University’s Media Group, for the British Council. Cultural stereotyping isn’t the preserve of Brits, and many Chinese students come to this country with their expectations framed in a 19th-century gentility.

No wonder, then, that so many students have their preconceptions shattered when they get here. Most say they feel unsafe out walking on the streets and are shocked at the behaviour of young people, whom they describe as drunk and out of control. More than half also felt they had suffered discrimination - including abuse and physical attacks. So why, even given all this, would most rather study over here than in a university back home?

Read the full report.

 

The Indiana Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Humanities received a $378,279 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to begin a three-year Mandarin Chinese program. The Mandarin Chinese lessons will be filmed in the classrooms, then be made available for distribution across the country. The Academy will also produces an educational DVD for fourth graders and a “Chinese I” DVD for high school students, followed by DVDs for fifth and sixth graders. The grant is part of U.S. National Security Language Initiative which will invest $8.7 million to increase the number of Americans studying Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, and other languages.

Jill Blocker of DN Online reports:

he Indiana Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Humanities received a $378,279 grant from the U.S. Department of Education Friday to begin a three-year Mandarin Chinese program. The Academy, located on University Avenue, west of the L.A. Pittenger Student Center, is overseen by Ball State University.

The Academy requested the grant through the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Language Assistant Program, Kevin Burke, director of University Communications, said.

“A distance learning modular will be produced in classrooms at Burris Laboratory School and the Indiana Academy,” said David Williams, executive co-director and director of Academic Affairs of the Indiana Academy. “Then, they will be formatted for distance learning that will allow any school to use them.”

Burris is a K-12 school and part of the Muncie Community School system, while the Academy is a high school for gifted Indiana juniors and seniors.

Read the full report.

 

Starting for this September, Moorhead Sports College in Accrington, Lancashire is about to offer Mandarin lessons for the first time in East Lancashire.

In September, independent Westholme School in Blackburn became the first in East Lancashire - and one of only a handful nationwide - to make the language a compulsory subject for its 11 to 14-year-old pupils, in recognition that it looks likely to become one of the most useful languages.

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The somewhat surprise success of Californian Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD)’s federal language grant application has generated much interest. PAUSD has since published the abstract of the original application on Palo Alto Online News website:

Abstract of original language-grant application

Following is the original summary of the grant application that has turned up with a pledge of federal funds a year later. The high-school instruction was proposed an an advanced-placement class.

ABSTRACT – Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive K-12 Mandarin Chinese Program with a Dual-Immersion Elementary Component in Palo Alto Unified School District

TYPE OF PROGRAM: FLAP-LEA

SCHOOLS: Elementary School TBD, Middle Schools TBD, Henry M. Gunn High School,

Palo Alto Senior High School

The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), Palo Alto, CA proposes to develop and implement a model K-12 Mandarin Chinese program beginning with elementary dual-immersion and culminating in Advanced Placement Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture. The program will begin in August 2006 with two classes of Mandarin Chinese Level I in each of the District’s two comprehensive public high schools and in August 2007 with two kindergarten classes of dual-immersion Mandarin Chinese/English to be located at one of the District’s 12 elementary schools.

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Califonia’s Palo Alto Unified School District has received from $200,000 federal grant to fund its foreign language programmes.

The grant is part of the federal National Security Language Initiative intended to address the shortage of critical foreign language speakers. The initiative aims to boost the number of Americans studying Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and others in programs from kindergarten through college.

Susan Hong wrote on Palo Alto Online News:

Palo Alto Unified School District can expect to receive $201,418 in federal money to help increase foreign language instruction, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling announced today — surprising school officials.

They had applied for the grant a year ago but missed getting it by a half a point. They did not re-apply this year, but apparently the original application was kept open.

The grant is part of the federal National Security Language Initiative intended to address the shortage of critical foreign language speakers. The initiative aims to boost the number of Americans studying Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and others in programs from kindergarten through college.

Full article.