This case study explores the challenges that Master's students encounter when learning to write in academic English as part of a UK postgraduate course, after having achieved the required IELTS entry score. Interviews with six Chinese and Japanese learners at different stages of the Master's study revealed more sophisticated writing difficulties than they had previously experienced. Although students were largely managing their written work overall, there were recurring challenges with critical thinking, the transition to full academic compositions, using reading to inform academic writing, presenting evidence and conveying a clear written message over demonstrating lexical or grammatical range as required in IELTS writing. Furthermore, candidates on non-standard courses (e.g. film or finance) found their assignments to be quite unfamiliar; the use of one academic test for all disciplines may be disadvantageous to some. In summary, although IELTS had provided an important first step to help students develop basic writing skills, meeting university assessment expectations necessitated considerable further progress. The required support to achieve this may be somewhat underdeveloped in the existing model of international postgraduate study, for the participants in this paper. This research follows as part of a larger project, which focussed on IELTS test preparation in China and Japan (Clark 2018).
The paper starts with a description of higher education in the United Kingdom and of reforms over the last 50 years. By reference to specified output measures, the performance of UK universities is judged to be good. The factors affecting this performance are postulated by comparing policies and approaches in the United Kingdom with those elsewhere (in particular in continental Europe). Three factors – the level of autonomy, the amount of competition, and the level of funding, combined with the universities’ direct control over funding – are identified as important factors. The level of autonomy for UK universities is long-standing. So too is the level of competition for recruiting the best students – although the reform in 1991 to bring universities and polytechnics into a single sector has increased that competition. Competition for research has increased through the reform initiated by the University Grants Committee in the mid 1980s to introduce the Research Assessment Exercise for non-specific funds. Recent reforms have provided both additional funding and, through tuition fees for UK students, greater influence for universities over the level of funding. Le système de l'enseignement supérieur au Royaume-Uni a fait l’objet de nombreuses réformes depuis cinquante ans. Evaluées à la lumière d’indicateurs spécifiques, les universités britanniques présentent de bons résultats. Les facteurs de cette performance sont postulés par comparaison des politiques et des approches adoptées au Royaume-Uni et à l’étranger (en particulier dans le reste de l'Europe). Associés au contrôle direct des universités sur le financement, le degré d'autonomie, le niveau de concurrence et le niveau de financement apparaissent ainsi comme trois facteurs de performances importants. Bien qu’elle ait été renforcée par la réforme de 1991 regroupant les universités et les instituts de technologie en un secteur unique, la concurrence pour le recrutement des meilleurs étudiants existe depuis longtemps, tout comme le degré d'autonomie important dont jouissent les universités britanniques. La concurrence a également gagné le milieu de la recherche où, suite à une réforme initiée par le University Grants Committee au milieu des années 1980, l’attribution de fonds non spécifiques est déterminée par le Research Assessment Exercise (exercice d’évaluation de la recherche). De récentes réformes ont permis d’accorder des financements supplémentaires et, par le biais des frais d’inscription imposés aux étudiants britanniques, de développer l’influence des universités par rapport au niveau de financement.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.