The Inclusive Campus:Exploring the Social Capital of International Students in UK University Campuses

Dr Mark HoltonSchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Plymouth University

Outline

• International students• University campuses• Inclusive / diverse spaces• Cultural heterogeneity

Students’ Union

Halls of residence

The campus

“University campuses are contested locations in terms of how they shape the production of knowledge, students’ lifecourse trajectories and politics and power relations”

(Hopkins, 2011, p. 158).

The campus

International students

• Social, cultural, emotional and geographical transitions (Brown, 2009).

• International students can feel (temporarily) ‘out of place’ within the context of their new learning and social environments (Waters and Leung, 2013).

• Implications for student support networks (Hanassab, 2006).

• But, international students can be highly influential in the transformation of campuses (Collins, 2010).

Inclusive Campus Spaces?

• Students’ Unions are key contact zones designed for social, political and leisure activities (Long, 2015).

• Increasingly neoliberalised spaces (Brooks et al., 2015b).

• The student experience often involves alcohol consumption (Andersson et al., 2012).

“I prefer a bar or a restaurant to go out rather than clubbing. I would much rather be in a more relaxing environment than being in all the chaos of the Union, especially on weekends. In this country, it’s kind of traditional for students to get wasted and I don’t really like that” (Interview Respondent - Male).

Self-segregation?“I joined the Afro-Caribbean society, which helped with overall self confidence and, well even though I don’t do much there I make new friends there and I also go to church with them so there’s a bit of self development there” (Interview Respondent - Female).

“I think it’s much easier because when I arrived I didn’t really know any Russians here. It was a bit difficult getting different people from different groups together to go out, have fun, play cards, I dunno [sic] do something whereas now, if I can’t get my house or my friends from my class together then I can just call the guys from the Russian society” (Interview Respondent - Male).

“I made a definite choice not to be involved in any Malaysian or oriental societies because that wasn’t the point. I have Malaysian friends and I do speak to them but I don’t join gatherings or things like that no. […] I’m into this whole multiculturalism, intercultural experience, things like that. I think that because I was more open to different cultures, it made me more accepting to different cultures. I want to learn from them and not just from one cultural perspective. I make an effort to mix with other people and not just mix with the same people again and again” (Interview Respondent - Female).

Resisting mono-cultural social networks

[Un]intentional segregation

Institutional assumptions (Holton, 2014):

“[Halls] will provide you with a unique opportunity to make friends with people from around the UK or even the world” (University of Kent).

“You may find that your flat mates are from different parts of the country or world, or have a different religion to you, so what seems normal to you may not be to them” (Manchester University).

“You’ll meet others from all over the world that share your interests” (Heriot-Watt University).

“They're very focused on their work. They're also very driven by their parents. And it's not about ‘I want to meet Australians and all that sort of stuff’” (Interview participant cited in Fincher and Shaw, 2009, p. 1893)

“[…] the people who move into them know what they are moving into and a lot of them are from high-rise cultures. So you have got lots of kids coming from Hong Kong and Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and so on and ... a lot of them are out of exactly those types of buildings” (Interview participant cited in Fincher and Costello, 2003, p. 174).

[Un]intentional segregation through stereotyping and stigma

(Source: Fincher and Shaw, 2011).

LOCAL INTERNATIONAL

“I was expecting halls to have more diversity, with different people from different cultures, countries. But actually my whole flat is Chinese, with one other girl from Africa. I was quite disappointed […] I didn’t know that before I arrived and I think they thought that because we were all Chinese we would all get along in the same flat” (Interview respondent - Female).

In my flat, things are quite diverse. I am from Hungary and I have a flatmate who is Caribbean, and one from Qatar. Its really nice and our diversity has never been a source of problem in any way. Its nice to be around them and learn from them, particularly as culture often translates into food and that’s really nice (laughs)” (Interview respondent – Female).

Transforming capital to access social spheres more selectively.

"We’d all hang out together and then we’d all go our separate ways, you know, I’d want to go and get a drink, maybe a coffee somewhere quiet and they’d want to go and get wasted in Tiger Tiger. We all got on really well but we didn’t hang out like that. But after that we’d sit and bitch about everybody else, things like that, but we didn’t really go out together because that would be horrible, I don’t even want to think about it" (Interview Respondent - Female).

"In first year [...] my housemates were being a bit annoying and they didn’t really get living around different people, they expected me to go out with them and party hard, things like that. I was homesick and missing home badly so I had to go to counselling to speak to someone and then I spoke to all of my flatmates together and we sorted this out" (Interview Respondent - Female).

Conclusion

• The appetite for international student societies may promote inclusion but can appear marginal and exclusive to the wider University network.

• Cultural inclusivity is heavily marketed by University accommodation services but is often written out of the living environments themselves.

• Hence, international students may face complex inter and intra-cultural differences which can be overlooked by Universities and other students.

Thank you