592107

research-article2015

JRI0010.1177/1475240915592107Journal of Research in International EducationAkhtar et al.

JRIE

Article

Factors in the cross-cultural

adaptation of African students in
Chinese universities

Journal of Research in
International Education
2015, Vol. 14(2) 98113
The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1475240915592107
jri.sagepub.com

Nadeem Akhtar

Kohat University of Science & Technology, Pakistan

Cornelius B Pratt
Temple University, USA

Shan Bo

Wuhan University, China

Abstract
Since 2006, the enrollment of African students in Chinese universities has been increasing steadily. A majority
of the students have been recruited through the China Scholarship Council. Cast against that background
of growth in the number of African students in Chinese universities, it is important that their educational
experience in a country whose cultural landscape and political orientation are significantly different from
those of their homelands be examined for evidence on their overall well-being. A total of 110 students
from 32 African countries enrolled in six public Chinese universities responded to a questionnaire on their
satisfaction with and adjustment and adaptation to their new cultural and academic environments. Results
indicated that the students over-expectation of China and natural factors, particularly Chinas weather as
a barrier to adjustment, had negative associations with their overall satisfaction and with their adaptation
to their environment. A broad network of friends, prior cross-cultural experience, and prior knowledge
of cultural differences had positive associations with satisfaction and adaptation. The implications of these
results for developing campus programs for acculturating the students, as well as other international students
in Chinese universities, are presented.

Keywords
African students, China Scholarship Council, cross-cultural adaptation, cultural differences

Corresponding author:
Nadeem Akhtar, Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, Kohat University of Science & Technology, Bannu
Road, Kohat 26000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Email: drnadeem.media@gmail.com

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Akhtar et al.
The Forum on ChinaAfrica Cooperation plans to roll out a wide range of projects over the next three
years 100 African postdoctoral students given funding to do research in China 2,000 Africans
trained in agricultural technology, including animal breeding, irrigation and fisheries management.

(Cyranoski, 2010: 477)

In the decades since 1950, political, social, and technological barriers have been diminished by
globalizing forces that are fueling the economies of high-growth nations such as Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa (commonly referred to as BRICS), leading to a worldwide convergence in economies and narrowing the asymmetries between advanced and developing countries
(Spence, 2011). Education is a formidable pivot in that convergence, which has been further
accentuated by the global flows of students and by the pervasive dissemination of core knowledge, which Badaracco (1991) delineates as migratory and embedded. Such flows have major
implications for the well-being and competency of participants on the global landscape, particularly those in higher education.
The purpose of this study is to examine issues in the cross-cultural adaptation of African students
in Chinese universities and to identify factors that could explain the students satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their experience there, particularly in light of their growing numbers in the Peoples
Republic of China (PRC). In a period when the nations Communist Party is calling for more attention to be given to Africa by the United Nations (China Calls, 2011) and when China is capitalizing
on its designation of 2006 as the Year of Africa, it is important that its support for the continent be
manifested in a continuing government interest in the well-being of international students, particularly those from Africa, where Chinas influence and investment are growing significantly (Andrews,
2011; Cheru and Obi, 2010; Christensen, 2015; Foster et al., 2009; Michel and Beuret, 2009; Taylor,
2009; Zhao, 2015). As Michel and Beuret (2009) note, Chinas success in Africa reinforces its
superpower status and offers proof that it is capable of economic miracles both at home and in some
of the least developed corners of the planet (p. 4). And the nations expanding strategic interest in
the Chinese dream translates into its efforts to rejuvenate its global stature.
The Forum on ChinaAfrica Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2006 organized one of the largest gatherings in China, attracting 48 delegates of African governments and more than 1500 business people
(Naidu, 2007). That forum was encouraged in part by the burgeoning, diverse relationships between
the PRC and Africa, which continues to send a large number of its students to the PRC. And the
growing number of African students in the PRC provides a beachhead for including Africas youth
in the development of the continent and the building of stronger ties between it and the PRC.
Furthermore, it is plausible that the PRCs interest in sharing its culture and language on the African
continent through its youth, enrolled through the China Scholarship Council (CSC), is that Chinatrained Africans may in the long run serve as volunteer ambassadors of Chinese culture. Anshan
(2005) categorized the contact between the PRC and Africa into four periods: sensing Africa
(19001949), supporting Africa (19491965), understanding Africa (19661976), and studying
Africa (19772000). To those periods, we add attracting Africa (2001 to the present), which indicates the PRCs interest in recruiting, under the aegis of CSC, international students (Figure 1),
who have been intensely recruited to China since 1997. Beyond political pronouncements and
global business investments, the enrollment of African students on the Chinese Government
Scholarship Program (CGSP) in Chinese universities has been increasing steadily since 2006: the
number of African students was the third largest in 2006, second largest among students from all
world regions in 2007, largest in 2008, and second largest again in 2009 (CSC, 2006, 2007, 2008,
2009). In 1950, the PRC welcomed its first group of international students all 33 of whom came
from then-Eastern Europe (Yu, 2010).

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