Internationalization and Intercultural Competence in Chinese Higher Education

Introduction: Internationalization Of Chinese Higher Education

Within the context of globalization, internationalization is regarded as a response of higher education to the “requirements and challenges related to the globalization of societies, economy and labor markets.” (Van der Wende, 1997, p.18). Particularly, the emphasis on the knowledge society, the increase in cultural diversity, and the mobility of labor market make the student development an important rationale for internationalization of higher education (Knight, 2007). In addition, universities are urged to prepare more globally, internationally, and interculturally competent graduates (Bennett, 2009; Brustein, 2007; Deardorff, 2004, 2006; de Wit, 2010; Hunter, 2004; Knight, 2007, 2008; Mansilla & Jackson, 2011).

Driven by the rationales for internationalization, China is becoming an emerging power in the sector of internationalization of higher education followed by English-speaking industrial countries. China has engaged in promoting internationalization of higher education since the country’s implementation of the reform and opening policy in the 1980s, and the country has since made great progress in internationalization both in research and practice over decades. In 2010, the Central Government of the People’s Republic of China released China’s National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020), which requires universities to engage in “broad and multiple collaborations for enhancing internationalization” and to “prepare graduates with a global vision, well-versed in international rules, and capable of participating in international affairs and competition” (The Central Government of the People’s Republic of China, 2010). It is for the first time that internationalization is prescribed as China’s national educational policy and that preparing graduates globally ready is becoming our important goal of internationalization. Zhang and Liu (2017) concluded the six major achievements on internationalization of Chinese higher education: (1) many foreign scholars visited China every year to give lectures, attend academic conferences, and participate in cultural exchange activities; (2) an increasing number of international students enrolled at Chinese universities; (3) some universities were conducting educational and research projects with international standards; (4) a large number of qualified foreign textbooks and courses were introduced to Chinese universities, and Internet technology was being widely used on campus; (5) multiple forms of transnational education have been adopted and developed in China; (6) more and more international academic conferences were held in China. These achievements on internationalization of higher education revealed that China had laid a solid foundation for the development of internationalization in terms of personnel exchanges, curriculum settings, research conducting, and technology applications. Bedenlier et al. (2018) documented the major themes of the internationalization of higher education in the Journal of Studies in International Education (JSIE) between 1997 and 2016, summarized that following the United States and Europe, Chinese was present as a concept in the the major themes in JSIE, and further explained that the emergence of the concept of Chinese reflected “increased engagement of the Chinese in both research and the practice of internationalization” (p.126).