CGHE Webinar

Internationalisation of Chinese Higher Education: Is it Westernisation?

Date: Tuesday, 25 February 2025 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Location: Hybrid. Teams and Seminar Room C, Department of Education

Speaker(s):

Event Materials

This event is now archived and we are pleased to provide the following event media and assets, along with the original event overview.

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As globalisation intensifies, the internationalisation of higher education in China is happening at a rapid pace. Many Chinese universities place internationalisation as one of the strategic policy priorities in the process of becoming world-class universities. However, there is little research on Chinese students’ perspectives and experiences of internationalisation. Drawing from the concept of “social imaginary”, we examine how internationalisation policies at a university in China were interpreted and experienced by Chinese undergraduates. In this talk we share some of the findings in terms of how participants critiqued the inequality of internationalisation and how they equated internationalisation to Westernisation. The findings interrogate the unidirectional orientation of internationalisation between China and the developed Western world.

Booking

For in-person attendance, please head to Seminar Room C, Department of Education.

Professor Shibao Guo

Dr. Shibao Guo is Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada. He is also Honorary Professor of the University of Nottingham. Over the past twenty years as a transnational academic and scholar, Dr. Guo has developed research expertise in the areas of transnational migration, diaspora studies, internationalisation of higher education, international student mobility, and comparative and international education. He has numerous publications including books, journal articles, and book chapters. His latest book is: Reimagining Chinese Diasporas in a Transnational World (Routledge, 2024). He is former president of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada. Currently he is co-editor of Canadian Ethnic Studies. He edits two book series for Brill Publishers: Transnational Migration and Education, and Spotlight on China.

Professor Yan Guo

Dr. Yan Guo is a full professor in Educational Studies in Language and Literacy at Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. She was born and raised in China. She obtained her BA and MA in English from Shandong Teachers’ University. From 1989 to 1992, she taught English to English majors at the same university. In 2004, Dr. Yan Guo joined the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary where she teaches graduate courses in Teaching English as an Additional Language and literacy and undergraduate courses in the teacher education program. Her research examines the intersection of language, race, culture, and identity from sociopolitical and sociocultural perspectives. While some focus on Canada, other works are more international. Her research interests include the internationalization of higher education.