Chinese Student Success in an Applied Academic Environment

Challenges of Asian international students in the U.S. Public affairs programs: A cross-discipline review

“…Chinese students get used to working through the assignment on their own, rather than engaging their peers in group exercises. Neuby (2012) found that in the MPA program, Chinese students performed better in objective assessments than did American students, while they performed relatively poor than American students for hands-on story-based problems which required problem-solving creativity. Therefore, the MPA program particularly developed applied questions for Chinese students to train their problem-solving skills.…”

“…First, we used keywords “international education,” “international students,” “foreign students,” “Asian students,” or “international engagement” to search data bases of Jstor and Google Scholar for articles published in any year in public administration, public policy, and political science fields, generating 17 articles. After reviewing each of them, only four (4) articles (Ingrams & Holzer, 2016; Melnick et al, 2011; Neuby, 2012; Ryan et al, 1987) were found to be relevant to the topic of international students’ experience in the U.S. and thus remained in the literature sources. Second, we extended the search on Jstor and Google Scholar to all other disciplines for articles published after 2000, resulting in a total of 80 articles.…”

“…With a limited number of publications in the field of public affairs (Ingrams & Holzer, 2016; Melnick et al, 2011; Neuby, 2012; Ryan et al, 1987), we still can learn some insights about challenges of international students in the U.S. public affairs graduate programs.…”

“…Neuby (2012) used her teaching experience in a NASPAA accredited MPA program to demonstrate major academic challenges of Chinese students and how her program implemented applied teaching approach to train the Chinese learners. Different from regular international students studying public affairs in the US, the students in the study were all mid-level Chinese government employees with college degrees and sent by Chinese government as a cohort to study for a master’s degree in the US.…”

Challenges faced by International students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University

“…In the Chinese cultural tradition of filial piety, parents have high expectations from their elder children, especially the male children who are regarded as the successor of their father and are expected to take care of their parents and younger siblings (Matsumoto & Juang, 2017). The Chinese students take their studies seriously and work hard to succeed (Neuby, 2012). The Chinese students are also supported by their parents, many of whom downgrade their way of living in order to offer their kids a shot at education to obtain the ''Chinese Dream'', which is the ideal lifestyle valued by the Chinese population.…”