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English in Asian and European Higher Education

SARAN KAUR GILL AND ANDY KIRKPATRICK


The internationalization of higher education has led to a noticeable increase in the number of courses and degrees taught through the medium of English. One of the main reasons is the fact that higher education is a lucrative industry. As a result, there is a need to internationalize curricula as part of the strategy to attract students from different parts of the world to universities in varying locations of the globe. Another reason is for nations wanting to be active players in the knowledge economy and thus there is the need to be able to access and contribute to latest advancements in the eld of science and technology. All of these align with the need to attract international students and staff and to publish and be cited internationally, both important criteria of the Shanghai Jiaotong and the Times Higher ranking schemes for universities. In a study commissioned by the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), Wachter and Maiworm (2008) investigated the number of English-taught programs in European higher education for the year 2007. They discovered that some 2,400 degrees were now taught in English in continental Europe, with the major move towards English-taught programs being in the Netherlands and Northern Europe, although there was also evidence of a signicant shift towards English-taught programs in Spain. They identied 774 Englishmedium degree programs in the Netherlands, 415 in Germany, 235 in Finland, and 123 in Sweden. Phillipson (2009) questions the Swedish gure, saying the data from the Swedish National Agency of Higher Education shows that as many as 480 out of a total of 680 MA degrees are taught in English. Wachter and Maiworms ndings for 2007 contrasts with those of their earlier 2002 study which reported that English-medium tuition in continental Europe was still a relatively marginal phenomenon with only 700 English-medium degree programs (Maiworm & Wachter, 2002). This sudden and rapid increase of English in higher education has led Coleman to argue that it seems inevitable that English, in some form, will denitely become the language of higher education (Coleman, 2006, p. 11). Nevertheless, Wachter and Maiworm hold a more sanguine view, pointing out that despite the steady growth, in no country are English taught programmes anywhere near challenging the survival of the domestic language (Wachter & Maiworm, 2008, p. 91). This increase in English-medium programs has been mirrored by the increase in scholarly publications in English. For example, Hamel reports that even the journal of the Association Internationale de Linguistique Applique (and note the French title of the organization) has, since 2003, become an English-only publication. He states that the present pre-eminence of English language use in scientic publications has already severely reduced multilingualism in the eld, and may eliminate the status of any other language as an international language of science (Hamel, 2007, p. 66). In the European context, this relatively sudden and rapid shift to English-medium programs is one consequence of the Bologna Process, named after the Bologna Declaration signed on June 19, 1999 in Bologna. The main aim of the Bologna Process is to create a European higher education area (EHEA) which will facilitate academic cooperation and staff and student exchange within Europe. To date 46 countries have signed up (Bologna Process, 2010). The adoption of English as the common language to facilitate academic
The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, First Edition. Edited by Carol A. Chapelle. 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

english in asian and european higher education

cooperation and exchange has led to the argument that what emerges unambiguously is that in the Bologna Process, internationalization means English-medium higher education (Phillipson, 2009, p. 37). In order to attract international students, many countries in Asia have opened their doors to a model of transnational education with collaborative links with foreign institutions of higher learning, a move that itself necessitates a change in language policy from national languages to English. Malaysia was one the earliest Asian countries to develop transnational private higher education opportunities for its citizens and to also develop the nation as a regional hub of education (Gill, 2004, p. 140). Malaysia provided higher education opportunities in English as far back as the 1980s. This was when Malaysian educational entrepreneurs responded to a sudden local need for cheaper international degrees by developing a system whereby students did two years at a Malaysian private college and then through credit transfer could enter the third year of US universities. Based on this model, they then went on to initiate twinning programs (1 + 2 and 2 + 1) with British and Australian universities in the late 1980s. As a consequence, Malaysia has come to have some 100 private colleges and private university-colleges, which have partnership programs with universities in Australia, Great Britain, the United States, and other English-speaking countries. In addition, there are now a total of more than a dozen private universities established after 19978 when the economic crisis set in. These include engineering universities set up by the three public utility corporations in Malaysia, Telekom (the national telecommunications company), Tenaga Nasional (the national electricity board), and Petronas (the national petroleum company) to branch campuses of foreign universities, as mentioned below (Gill, 2004, p. 141). Presently, in the Asian region, private higher education has become a signicant money making ventureall of this contributes to the global academic capitalism. As a result, there is tremendous interest from British, American, and Australian universities to export their education to Asia. This has contributed to the growth of English-medium universities in Asia. Examples include Nottingham University which has campuses in Ningbo, China and in Malaysia. Chapman University from the United States of America has a campus in Singapore as has the University of Newcastle, UK, which has set up a medical campus in Malaysia. Leeds Metropolitan University has a campus in Bhopal, India and the University of Liverpool has a campus in China, and Monash University has a campus in South Africa and Malaysia. These Asian countries and universities are trying to establish themselves as education hubs and attract international students from the region. Not only does this bring the university income and prestige, it can also be attractive to regional students as fees and living expenses are appreciably lower than those in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Australia, where many international students currently study. In China, as the country prepares to participate fully in the World Trade Organization (WTO), universities and colleges have been instructed to use English as the main teaching medium for selected professional subjects, including information technology, biotechnology, new-material technology, nance, foreign trade, economies, and law. This change was afrmed in a circular from the Education Ministry in China, which said that 5% to 10% of universities total courses must be taught in a bilingual manner in 3 years time. These instructions came after Premier Zhu Rongji made the following statement in June 2001 at one of the premier business schools in China (the Qinghua University Economics and Management School): I hope all the classes will be taught in English. I dont worship foreign languages, but we need to exchange our ideas with the rest of the world (South China Morning Post, 2001).

english in asian and european higher education

Even Indonesia, the country that was a role model for Malaysia in its own language planning stages, is pragmatically relaxing its control over mother-tongue medium of instruction in favor of English, in order to attract international students. This is reected by an advertisement for a medical degree from Padjadjaran University as a program that is conducted fully in the English language (The Malay Mail, August 14, 2001). In Japan, Waseda University is one of the universities nominated by the Japanese Ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology to participate in the Global 30 Project for establishing core universities for globalization (http:/ /www.waseda.jp/eng/ news09/100215e.html). This has led the university to offer a total of nine undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in English in politics, economics, science, and engineering, beginning in September 2010. The rise in the number of Asian universities offering degree courses through English has been seen as a threat to the privileged position occupied by prestigious universities in the United States and the United Kingdom (Kirkpatrick, 2009). In a report compiled in 2009 for the British prime minister, Gordon Brown (UK/US Study Group, 2009), leaders of several American and British universities call for the establishment of an Atlantic Trust by which American and British universities will partner universities from other parts of the world, ostensibly to foster the development of a global civil society which will bind universities and countries together through common values and principles. Yet this is framed as part of a challenge of extending the UK/US model to third locations (2009, p. 3) and the language through which this will be achieved is English. Despite the increase in English-medium programs, the national languages in respective Asian and European countries are not forgotten (although other languages often are). Apart from Singapore, which made the decision to use English as their main medium of instruction in the entire educational system including universities, many other nations in Asia have adopted a bilingual system of education. This is to ensure that there is a balance between national and international needs and challenges manifest through linguistic educational policies. A clear case is demonstrated by public universities in Malaysia that use English for courses of science and technology and Bahasa Melayu for social science and humanities. Yet, how precisely to introduce this limited notion of bilingual education (the national language + English) remains the subject of controversy and experimentation. One principle being tried is that of parallel languages (Preisler, 2009), but this has yet to be dened. At one extreme it means that all subjects should be taught in the national language and English. At the other extreme, universities may simply offer courses in English as they so wish. Preisler suggests, however, that the notion of complementary languages needs to be introduced where the two languages will be functionally distributed within the individual programme according to the nature of its components, that is, the national or international scope of their academic content and orientation of their students (Preisler, 2009, p. 26). At the Hong Kong Institute of Education students take degrees in Cantonese, Putonghua, or English, and many degrees have some modules taught in Cantonese and others in English. However, the situation at the other seven government universities in Hong Kong demonstrate how slow institutions have been to embrace the notion of complementarity as all, with the exception of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, are English-medium only universities. This is despite the governments policy of creating a citizenry that is trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua, and English and biliterate in Chinese and English. Thus the overwhelming majority of higher education degrees and programs in a Chinese city with a population of more than 7 million are taught (ofcially, in any event) only through English. In other words, complementarity is not the norm for higher education in Hong KongEnglish-medium only is. In forecasting global demand for international higher education, Bohm, Davis, and Pearce (2002, cited in Ng, 2009) found that by 2025, Asia will represent some 70% of total global

english in asian and european higher education

demand and an increase of 27% from 2000. Within Asia, China and India will represent the key growth drivers, generating over half of the global demand in international higher education by 2025 because of their booming economies. SEE ALSO: English in Higher Education in the Postcolonial World; Language Policy and Planning; Multilingualism and Higher Education; Multilingualism in Economic Activity; Status Planning

References
Bologna Process. (2010). The Bologna declaration. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from www.ond. vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/ Coleman, J. A. (2006). English medium teaching in European higher education. Language Teaching, 39, 114. Gill, S. K. (2004). Medium-of-instruction policy in higher education in Malaysia: Nationalism versus internationalization. In J. W. Tollefson & A. B. M. Tsui (Eds.), Medium of instruction policiesWhich agenda? Whose agenda? (pp. 13552). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hamel, R. E. (2007). The dominance of English in the international scientic periodical literature and the future of language use in science. AILA Review, 20, 5371. Kirkpatrick, A. (2009, September 10). Global? Not remotely. Times Higher Education Supplement. Maiworm, F., & Wachter, B. (2002). English-language-taught degree programmes in European higher education. Bonn, Germany: Lemmens. Ng, S. W. (2009). What internationalization of higher education should aim at. Hong Kong: Centre for Governance and Citizenship, Hong Kong Institute of Education. Phillipson, R. (2009). English in higher education: Panacea or pandemic? Angles on the EnglishSpeaking World, 9, 2957. Preisler, B. (2009). Complementary languages: The national language and English as working languages in European universities. Angles on the English-Speaking World, 9, 1028. South China Morning Post. (2001, September 20). China varsities to teach in English. UK/US Study Group. (2009). Higher education and collaboration in global context: Building a global civil society. A private report to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Wachter, B., & Maiworm, F. (2008). English-taught programmes in European higher education. Bonn, Germany: Lemmens.

Suggested Readings
Mortensen, J., & Haberland, H. (in press). Englishthe new Latin of the elites? Danish universities as a case. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. Rassool, N., & Mansoor, S. (2007). Global issues in language education and development. In N. Rassool (Ed.), Global issues in language, education and development (pp. 21841). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Tan, A. M. (2002). Malaysian private higher education: Globalisation, privatization, transformation and marketplaces. London, England: ASEAN.

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