r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	meepmeep13
Comment	One thing to bear in mind is that their English is usually only learned in a classroom at that point - when they first arrive here, they can be absolutely fluent at reading and writing but struggle significantly with conversation because of the speed and the fact they are usually completely floored by Scottish accents. Usually they're fine after a few months. I teach a fair number of Chinese students each year and I find them to be mostly very driven - given the pressures on them from families sending them overseas at significant cost - and hard-working. There are of course a handful that don't take their studies seriously and treat their time abroad as a holiday, but I wouldn't say the proportions are any different to home students in that regard. I won't disagree with the issue around cheating being endemic in certain education systems - but we find that can be dealt with pretty well by making the UK's treatment of such concerns absolutely clear at the start of the year and clamping down hard. A huge part of this is communicating that our degrees are not competitive and assignments are not marked on a curve - for some nationalities it can be somewhat ingrained that they have to cheat otherwise they'll not keep up with their peers (who they assume are also cheating) and will fail as a result. If cheating continues to be a widespread issue on a course rather than an edge case then I'd say that's on the course organisers for failing to address it - we have the tools.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/18bls07/first_look_at_designs_for_glasgow_student_block/kcn4u21/
Created	Sat 9th Dec 2023 3:36pm
Status	normal ()

One thing to bear in mind is that their English is usually only learned in a classroom at that point - when they first arrive here, they can be absolutely fluent at reading and writing but struggle significantly with conversation because of the speed and the fact they are usually completely floored by Scottish accents. Usually they're fine after a few months.

I teach a fair number of Chinese students each year and I find them to be mostly very driven - given the pressures on them from families sending them overseas at significant cost - and hard-working. There are of course a handful that don't take their studies seriously and treat their time abroad as a holiday, but I wouldn't say the proportions are any different to home students in that regard.

I won't disagree with the issue around cheating being endemic in certain education systems - but we find that can be dealt with pretty well by making the UK's treatment of such concerns absolutely clear at the start of the year and clamping down hard. A huge part of this is communicating that our degrees are not competitive and assignments are not marked on a curve - for some nationalities it can be somewhat ingrained that they *have* to cheat otherwise they'll not keep up with their peers (who they assume are also cheating) and will fail as a result. If cheating continues to be a widespread issue on a course rather than an edge case then I'd say that's on the course organisers for failing to address it - we have the tools.