ACADEMIC ACCULTURATION OF CHINESE DOCTORAL STUDENTS IN FINLAND.

• Author: Wang, Li

1. Introduction

   Higher education institutions in Finland have been progressively focusing on global cooperation and educational internationalization (Aho et al. 2006). In the academic year 2017-2018, there were 20, 362 international degree students enrolled at Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences (CIMO 2018). These students were from European Union (24%), non-European Union (14%), Asia (45%), Africa (10%), North America (3%), and Latin America and the Caribbean (3%). Around 20% of international students were admitted in doctoral degree programs (CIMO 2018).

   Several reasons make Finland an attractive destination for international students. Firstly, Finnish higher education has always enjoyed a high reputation for its quality, efficiency, and internationalization. Secondly, higher education in Finland is less commercialized than in many Anglophone countries. Thirdly, although new nonEU/EEA students need to pay for their studies in Finland after August 2017, tuition fees are significantly less than those paid in other countries. Fourthly, the proportion of English-taught programs in Finnish higher education system is relatively high. Lastly, the Finnish government allows international students to stay in Finland looking for work for up to one year after they graduate (Li and Pitkanen 2018).

   As for Chinese doctoral students, they come to Finnish universities to acquire knowledge and advanced information. However, due to the different learning culture between Finland and China, they might be shocked by the unpredicted challenges and their inability to deal with academic difficulties effectively (Bai 2016; Mesidor and Sly 2016). although the increasing amount of research referred to learning experiences of Chinese doctoral international students has been done based in universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, our knowledge of Chinese doctoral students in Finnish universities is scarce (Aittola 2017; Pappa et al. 2020). Therefore, given the significant proportion of Chinese students at Finnish campuses, and the limited research on Chinese doctoral students in Finland, this study aims to investigate learning experiences of Chinese doctoral students at Finnish universities. The four research questions will be addressed: (1) how do the participants perceive their intercultural learning difficulties in Finland? (2) what strategies do the participants adopt to overcome challenges in their academic acculturation? (3) what do the participants obtain from their academic acculturation? (4) is the preference for contacting the academic culture of the host country the primary factor resulting in an acculturation's orientation? The findings of this study may help Chinese doctoral students obtain a good understanding of many difficulties they experience in Finland, thus enabling a smooth academic transition to the new environment.

2. Chinese international students in Western higher education

   Since the encounter of Confucius and Socrates, the discussions on the drastic differences of features between Chinese learners and Western learners have seemingly never ceased (Hodkinson and Poropat 2014). According to the previous research, views on the learning features of Chinese learners are contradictory (Li and Pitkanen 2018). Some scholars view Chinese learners as quiet, passive, obedient, or lacking critical thinking, while others consider them to be open-minded, active, and independent. For example, there is a commonly held belief that Chinese learners rely heavily on rote learning. Rote learning is often thought to relate to surface learning approach rather than deep learning approach (McMahon 2011). Samuelowicz (1987) revealed that Chinese students' learning process is seen as reproductive as opposed to analytical or skeptical. In his survey, over 30% of Australian lectures felt that Asian students were more comfortable with memorization and unwilling to think deeply. Some studies have found that Chinese learners are usually obedient and reluctant to publicly challenge their teachers. The behaviors of challenging teachers and expressing independent judgment in the Confucian tradition are perceived as disrespectful and brash (Yan 2008; Wang 2019; Zhao 2007). In addition, Chinese learners are more likely than Western learners to expect the instructor to provide fixed answers directly rather than exploring knowledge led by the instructor. Zhao (2007) found that most Chinese learners are passive in answering questions and engaging in group discussions. When asked to express their own opinions in class, they tend to hide behind others. For many Chinese students and teachers, the twoway communication is normally perceived as an ineffective teaching approach because it wastes time.

   However, new studies have brought new understanding of Chinese learners' characteristics (Tavakol and Dennick 2010; Wang 2010). Rao and Chan (2009) suggested that the Chinese learning style is more complex and dynamic than it appears and that the previous research is over simplistic and culturally biased. Gan (2009) indicated that the unique learning features of Chinese learners should be reexamined and more empirical research is needed. Cheng et al. (2011) investigated the relationship between learning approaches and academic outcomes from 129 local American students, 121 Chinese students in the United States, and 134 Chinese students in China, and found that although both Chinese students in China and Chinese students in the United States were less active than local American students in class, the learning achievement of the three samples did not appear obviously differ.

   Due to specific cultural antecedents and social structures, the investigation of the characteristics of Chinese learners is complicated (Gao and Watkins 2002). It seems inappropriate to take Western-centric concepts as universally valid and impose those concepts on non-Western subjects (Shi 2006). Doing so might run the risk of judging Chinese students with the standards of Western education and putting Chinese students and Western students on opposite sides of a dichotomy. Therefore, more empirical research should be done on the details of learning experiences of Chinese students in Western higher education.

3. The context: doctoral education in Finland

   The system of Finnish doctoral education is established on a strong welfare society and equal opportunities for all citizens (Corner et al. 2018). For the past three decades, doctoral education reform has been one of the important development areas in Finnish education policies. Following the recommendations of the European University Association and its Council for Doctoral Education, the development of Finnish doctoral education has undergone three stages: (1) traditional doctoral education (before 1994); (2) the doctoral program model (1994-2011); (3) the doctoral school model (2011- present). The modern doctoral education in Finland launched in 1994. Since then, the responsibility of policy formulation of doctoral education has changed partly from the national level to the international level (Kivisto et al. 2017).

   In line with the Bologna Process and European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the main goals of the latest Finnish doctoral education reform are to restructure national doctoral education to meet the needs of international economic competition, to enhance universities' responsibilities in doctoral education, and to increase educational flexibility through more effective cooperation between institutions (Aittola 2017). In order to achieve these goals, the national higher education system in Finland has provided a high level of trust and autonomy for doctoral training in Finnish universities. At the national level, the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture does not have strict regulations on doctoral education. It just provides a loose framework for the structure of doctoral training. Finnish universities are responsible for the admission procedures, learning outcomes, supervision practices, and the assessment of doctoral programs and dissertations (Kivisto et al. 2017). This high degree of autonomy in doctoral policies has greatly contributed to the increase in Finnish international doctoral recruitment (Pappa et al. 2020). Correspondingly, the presence of international doctoral students has had a significant impact on many research fields in Finland, especially in the fields of science such as medicine, technology, mathematics, and engineering (Pyhalto et al. 2012).

4. Theoretical framework

   Berry (2005) develops a classic strategies model for acculturation. According to him, acculturation is "the dual process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual members" (Berry 2005: 698). Different to previous unidimensional acculturation models which posit that if a person becomes more attached to the host culture, his/her retention of the heritage culture will be correspondingly weakened (Cheung-Blunden and Juang 2008), Berry believes that the process of acculturation does not automatically imply that individuals will...