Studying Abroad: An Interview
On May 8th 2014, Breaking Barriers went to INTO Newcastle, a program
which works with Newcastle university to prepare international students for
higher education with foundation courses, specifically in language development.
Breaking Barriers conducted an interview with the Academic Director
of INTO Newcastle, John Timney. John specialises as a Chemistry teacher
but additionally deals with the disciplinaries (normally attendance or massive
underperformance issues).
Interview by: Alexandra Gibbs and Priscillia Charles
Tell us about the INTO Newcastle project and how it supports international students?
INTO itself started off in 2006 at the University of East Anglia, and how INTO is distinctive from other providers (Navitas & Kaplan), is it forms a ‘Joint Venture’ partnership with the university it is attached to. Our job at INTO Newcastle is to take students in and give them the right education that will allow them to go on to do a Newcastle University degree, whether that be undergraduate or postgraduate. If in some cases they don’t make the standard, we do our absolute best to get them into somewhere else.
What advice would you give to students who are considering moving abroad?
At INTO Newcastle, we give lots of pre-arrival advice to our students, for example: what they should expect and what they should supply themselves with. We have regional offices everywhere who give out lots of advice and go through all the pre-induction details with them before they turn up, including visa, police registration and what taxis to get from the airport. When they do arrive, the students are fully ready to join in with the course they’re part of. We make sure we give the ‘Wrap Around Care’ they deserve, to make them feel prepared and comfortable.
What services do you provide the students? How does the INTO process actually work?
It’s essentially a one-stop shop. A student will walk in to an agent’s office and say something along the lines of “I want to study in the UK”. The agent will inform them of their potential options and if the student says that they like INTO Newcastle, then our regional office would then become involved, which is passed down the line, and if the application runs smoothly it gets passed through, and if there’s any problems it comes to me, and I have to make decisions as to whether to accept or not. During an average week, I get around 50 applications sent over; yet only 25% of those applications actually turn up here. After they’ve been accepted, there’s the pre-arrival material they receive (possibly meetings) and then they fly over to the UK and our admissions team makes sure their visas are all validated. When they arrive, they are allocated rooms (we have two sets of halls of residence on campus, ). The student will then kick off their course the following day alongside a week of induction (meeting teachers, understanding the syllabus, tours of the university and city centre); to ensure that we make them feel as welcome as possible.
Students will always tend to be a bit bewildered or jetlagged, so we make sure that they’re ok. After a week, they start their course properly and they will normally know what classes they were studying, the examinations and what to achieve to gain a certain mark. The majority of students follow this efficiently and approximately 70% of them go on to Newcastle University.We have a fantastic set of teachers and a brilliant social program team, which ensures that there are always events going on. Our main services are: welfare, student services, admissions, accommodation, alongside teaching and assessment; which should hopefully lead to a final outcome of a transcript.
What do you think are the main struggles and challenges that students face?
There are two kinds of problems: the problems they bring, and the problems that being here generates. Students turn up with a measure of their English which tends to be little too generous and they can have trouble understanding what we do. Normally it’s fairly easy to remedy. Sometimes they don’t join in with the English language experience; for instance they study a 10 week English course and for 20 hours a week they practice speaking English and for the other 148 hours they will speak their native language. They just don’t buy into it at all, this however is a small amount, around 5 to 10%. The problems we give them, is that we are teaching them in a very different way from what they are used to. You have to be very careful about what you tell them and how you teach them. Some students don’t do argument or discussion very well in class, but they do soak up the information extremely efficiently. Additionally, we have problems with plagiarism, as students don’t see the issue in copying the wise words of some wise person. We do lots of anti-plagiarism sessions and use Turnitin, to check for plagiarism or other people’s work. Another challenge is that some students have trouble with interacting with people from other lands, as they may carry prejudices with them, so we have to wean them off that.
Why do you think some people refuse to integrate themselves properly?
Personally, I think it’s because they are initially shy, therefore it’s easier to retreat than come out of this shyness. Many of the students tend to stay in their room, whether it’s because they have an Xbox in there or not. We tend to find that many students will Skype their parents at odd times especially late at night, which inhibits their opportunity to engage with the university’s social aspects. That’s why the social program we do is very good, as it does bring them out of their comfort zone sooner or later. Sometimes people from the same culture who are shy will talk to another person who’s shy in their own language and not integrate themselves properly. We do try wherever possible to connect various cultures together, for instance in a presentation we will put four different nationalities together in a group of four, so they have to speak English.
In general, how would you help them integrate?
First off, its very difficult to pin every student down in one place, there’s too many! We use email and lots of briefings from the student services team., which brings all sorts of encouragement in and outside of class. For some, it doesn’t work at all, as they just use their hotmail or Gmail account. Getting them involved or even getting hold of them can be quite challenging.
What would be your advice towards a situation where students refuse to communicate or interact with their other housemates? How would you suggest they mix together?
So many variables on that question, as it will depend on each person’s characteristics. I would suggest to ‘keep trying’ over and over again until a connection forms. Try and celebrate certain cultural holidays and cuisines. Cook for one another and try different culinary skills. You just have to keep at it and not be discouraged; as you’re not alone!
Do you find there’s more help required towards a certain type of student? (For instance gender)
There are some of our students here who are genuinely very self-assured, confident and like to participate, however, there is definitely a gap between the male and female students. The men seem to be a bit more forward whilst the girls tend to be more reserved. Not all of them by any means. I think as a teacher here, you just need to watch out for it, so that it wasn’t getting out of hand in the classroom. Yet as students develop during the year, we’ll notice that they come out of their shell more and realise that these studies are for them as much as it’s for anyone else. They become much more involved. Girls do tend to flourish here.
INTO Newcastle deals with a 'melting pot' of nationalities, and you promote that through celebrations and festivals like Nowruz in March 2014. Do you think it’s important to celebrate different cultures?
Yes. Currently, we have 53 nationalities and we don’t want to ignore cultures, however we tend not to celebrate things that would have an impact of their education, for example Chinese New Year or Friday prayers, where students tend to absent themselves. We do recognise that these events are there though and try and promote them as best as we can.
What do you think are the benefits of getting a degree here?
A Newcastle University degree carries a lot of weight out in the world, as it is a very well-respected, highly-ranked university and has Russell Group status. So when they head back home, students are in a very good position with their Newcastle university degree and the ability to use English extremely well. We have a big Facebook group community of ex-students who keep in touch with the university and they are all doing extremely well in the working world.
Do you think that most of the students who come here, want to stay here and get a career?
Nearly all of our students here end up going home. We try to keep in touch through social media. Normally they have a year here with us and then another for a postgraduate or three for an undergraduate degree. After that, they nearly always end up heading straight back home to pursue a career.
