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Students as links between cultures

It is probably true that there is hardly anywhere in the world today that a university graduate born after the Second World War has not seriously considered both the advantages and disadvantages, and the costs and benefits of studying abroad. In the mid sixties about 300,000 students---2% of the world students population at that time---actually did study abroad. Students were then competing for 170,000 scholarships. In most countries foreign students constitute only a small minority of the national student population, approximately 2% in the USA and 0.5% in Japan, while in a country like Switzerland, on the other hand, 30% of the student population comes from abroad. University graduates make up a rare type of international community which shows considerable interdependence, frequent encounters and sometime isolation, and dispute and cooperation. Rejection and acceptance are the two essential characteristics which are common to every level.

This book tries to look more closely at some aspects of these international, crosscultural, and academic encounters. In the first part professors and scholars like Thomas Marshall, Otto Klineberg, and Dieter Breitenbach, who have spent years of their academic careers organizing and educating foreign students, describe the situation of the foreign student, and those who assist---or impede---his academic pursuits. This part also includes a survey and criticisms of research in the field of foreign study indicating where we lack systematized experience. There is a bibliography at the end of the section.

The second part of the book reports the findings of a research study initiated by UNESCO and carried out by research groups in three different countries, namely the United Arabic Republic, Iran, and India. Students who had returned from the USA, the UK, and West Germany were interviewed, and consequently learned more about the cultural content of studying abroad. Through these nine combinations of cross-national contact, we can see the adjustments students have to make, and their selections of items rejected and accepted under different conditions. The data were analysed locally, and at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo.

The book aims at reaching beyond the group of social scientists who have already contributed to our knowledge of foreign study. Public and private organizations engaged in facilitating study abroad, offering scholarships, helping in placement and adjustment, and individuals who more or less actively teach, or learn from, the foreign student, whether as fellow students, colleagues, professors, or as "ordinary citizens", and finally the foreign students themselves are among the projected readership of this book.

 

Contents Foreword Editor's Preface PART ONE: Cross National Education: Some of its Aspects Thomas Marshall: The Strategy of International Exchange Otto Klineberg: Psychological Aspects of Student Exchange Otto Klineberg: Research in the Field of Educational Exchange Diether Breitenbach: The Evaluation of Study Abroad Bibliography of Studies on Foreign Students, prepared by Diether Breitenbach PART TWO: Unesco Studies on the Role as Culture Carriers of Eastern Students                      who received their University Education in Western Countries Ingrid Eide: Introduction to the Unesco Studies Ingrid Eide: The Impact of Study Abroad Mohamed Khalifa Barakat: Report on the Study in the United Arab Republic Morteza Nassefat: Report on the Study in Iran B. Kuppuswamy: Report on the Study in India Ingrid Eide: Students as Culture Carriers Appendix: Excerpts from Tables

Editor's Preface

It frequently happens that people meet at a conference, experience meaningful communication, and express a hope that this communication be made available more generally.

The book was conceived in this kind of setting. We were a group of people, in various ways related to international exchanges in the field of education. We were people who had a research interest, a political interest, an administrative interest, and a humanitarian interest in this kind of activity. In our different positions around the world, we had some experience more or less systematically acquired --- in the field called 'study abroad'. We were indeed aware of the enormous number of people who had, or were going to have, similar experiences.

This book is only one effort, among many, to throw some light on a special case of international communication: the role of the 'foreign student' and the attempts to understand, through research, what this means at the individual, national, and international level. We hope that the various chapters will give something to the very different groups of people concerned with this role, including the students themselves.

To friends and colleagues at UNESCO, the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO), and Universitetsforlaget, I acknowledge grateful thanks.

Ingrid Eide

Oslo, March 1970

 

Foreword

The pursuit of learning has traditionally transcended the frontiers of the world. Students flocked to Alexandria, Bologna and Bagdad, for example, and took home from those centres of learning ideas which changed the course of modern history. If the student abroad is an age-old phenomenon, however, it is only recently that scholarly attention has begun to focus on the effects of this educational travel.

The subject is one that directly concerns Unesco, with its Constitutional mandate to promote 'the international exchange of persons active in the fields of education, science and culture'. In furtherance of this objective, Unesco has over the years charted and assessed international travel for learning in such publications as Study Abroad which provides information on foreign students as well as on opportunities for assistance in such studies.

The present book, published jointly by the Universitetsforlaget and Unesco, examines the effects of study abroad both for the country in which a student pursues his education and for the country to which he returns. Based on detailed interviews with students, it deals among other things with the role of study abroad as a link between cultures.

Students As Links Between Cultures was authorized by Unesco's General Conference, which called for 'studies in several countries of the Orient of the role as intermediaries between two cultures' of university students educated in the Occident. Research projects were initiated in the United Arab Republic and subsequently extended to India and Iran. The results of this research, together with supplementary material contributed by well-known specialists, make up this book.

A debt of gratitude is owed to the many persons who have contributed to the project, but most especially to the editor, Mrs. Ingrid Eide, for her long and patient labours not only in analysing and interpreting the data gathered but also in incorporating the ideas of various authors on a variety of related themes. While some of these studies have been published previously, they have never before been brought together in a single volume.

The views expressed by the authors are their own, and are not necessarily those of Unesco. Unesco joins with the Universitetsforlaget in the hope that the book will throw light upon some of the problems involved in the mutual appreciation of Eastern and Western cultural values. In so doing, it may also serve to promote a better understanding of the impact upon society of study abroad.

Unesco, Paris, April 1969

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