The global embrace of English as the language of instruction in higher education has left many students ill-prepared for employment in non-native English-speaking countries, ����Vlog’s Asia Universities Summit has heard.

Shenzhen-based internationalist Laurie Pearcey said the adoption of English had removed a longstanding barrier to study in countries like China. But the downsides became evident when students sought placements during their courses, or jobs after they graduated.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen – where Pearcey is adviser to the president – teaches exclusively in English. “That’s very attractive to international students, because you can have…a substantive experience of mainland China without speaking fluent Chinese,” he told the summit, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

“However, if you’re doing a clinical medicine degree, and you need…a placement in a hospital in Shenzhen where you’re going to speak Chinese, I wouldn’t want to be the patient, and I wouldn’t want to be the aspiring doctor.”

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The university is tackling the problem by requiring international students to meet a certain threshold in the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi – the Chinese language equivalent of IELTS English proficiency tests – before they undertake clinical placements. More generally, Chinese language is among the “core credit requirements” for all of the university’s students, including those from China.  

“It is one of the fascinating by-products of internationalisation of higher education that in so many places around the world, you lose some local depth and context as part of the rush to build programmes as quickly as possible in English,” Pearcey told THE at the summit. 

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The University of Bristol faces similar challenges in its new and its transnational education (TNE) operations in Guangzhou and Malaysia. “You teach in English, but you need the local language for employability,” said Michele Acuto, Bristol’s pro vice-chancellor for global engagement.

He said graduates seeking work in Mumbai’s innovation sector needed “almost diplomatic-level” capacity in Hindi. Bristol is considering offering bilingual instruction through its partners in the venture, including the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. But this raises questions for the regulator as well as the university. “How do you teach a UK-accredited and quality-approved degree, and do that in a different language?” Acuto asked. 

He told THE that “genuine partnered” TNE meant treating collaborating institutions as “equals”, and not assuming everyone should teach and work in English. “It’s an incredibly interesting puzzle to solve. National systems haven’t thought about this at all.”

Austria has unveiled plans to give non-European students who graduate from its universities automatic access to work permits, to help meet the country’s skilled labour needs and recoup its investment in a higher education system where most foreign students pay tuition fees of less than €1,500 (£1,300) a year.

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However, as Austrian universities increasingly adopt English language instruction, graduating foreigners are finding themselves unsuited to work in an economy which is dominated by small and medium enterprises operating primarily in German.

Dominik Reisner, director for international networking with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Women, Science and Research, said recent research had found that 40 per cent of international graduates had no idea whether they would still be in the country in two years’ time. He said Austrian universities were experimenting with the introduction of German classes as “extracurricular credits” towards foreign students’ degrees.

“It’s very important…to incorporate the language skills necessary to remain in the country,” Reisner told the summit. “This is something most countries will deal with, where English isn’t the native language. How can we keep international students and provide an environment for [them] to flourish?”

But Sunway University vice-chancellor Sibrandes Poppema said such tensions were less acute in Kuala Lumpur, where a proliferation of foreign corporations created demand for graduates with proficiency in English, Malay, Chinese and other languages.

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Poppema said Sunway had a database of 8,000 local employers offering internships that often led to jobs. “Many…companies want people that speak their original language. They want people that speak Japanese, speak Vietnamese, speak Hindi. It makes them very, very employable – not just our Malaysians, but also our international students.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com