英媒：中国留学生为何不能取得好成绩？_BEC初级作文

英媒：中国留学生为何不能取得好成绩？

According to Cristina Iannelli, professor of education and social stratification at the University of Edinburgh, part of the problem may be the changing socio-economic background of Chinese undergraduates. Using figures from the Hesa, Ianelli found that while 85% of Chinese undergraduates at British universities in 2000 and 2001 were mature students, often funded by the Chinese government, since 2004, they have have been younger, more likely to be women, funded by their families and therefore more in need of support. "We accept all these students but we don't know much about them," says Ianelli. "I see some of them struggling because they really don't know before coming here exactly what is expected of them." She says it can be difficult to measure how well they are prepared academically because it is hard to benchmark the qualifications they have against A-levels. "Are we just opening up our universities and we don't care what their prior attainment is, or are we actually comparing qualifications across international education systems?" she asks. "We may be accepting students who aren't as good as they should be. Or it could be language, or experiencing a different culture."

Gita Sedghi, lecturer in chemistry at the University of Liverpool, who ran a project last year for the Higher Education Academy on preparing for the arrival of a group of Chinese chemistry students, says contacting students before their arrival, assigning them mentors, encouraging peer-assisted learning and ensuring they are properly integrated with home students can help international students adapt to a different culture. But, she says, language skills can still affect how some students perform academically, with those from China tending to perform worse in exams when written explanations are needed than in exams relying on calculations. "Chinese students' culture is that they work to get credits and marks and because they don't get credit for going to English classes, their attendance can be poor," she says. "We have now asked for them to get a certificate of attendance at these classes."