The challenge of academic writing for Chinese students within ...

either in parallel with or incorporated into language support courses, which requires
departmental involvement, and close collaboration between academic departments and
language support units.
Academic writing was identified by the participants of the research as the most challenging
aspect of their academic study in the UK. The participants were generally aware of the
writing support services at the university. Some participants found it useful while others
voiced their dissatisfaction. The most salient concern is writing tutors‘ lack of subject
knowledge, and therefore they are not able to provide subject-specific support, which is in
great demand among Chinese students. It might be a good practice that subject tutors have
greater involvement into the academic writing support at university level, and regular writing
workshops or tutorials can be run at departmental level and organized by subject tutors,
during which subject-specific questions related to writing can be raised and answered, and
subject-specific writing rules and individual tutor‘s expectations can be clarified. The
structured academic writing courses, covering general introduction to types of academic
writing, academic writing skills and strategies, and references requirement, might be
beneficial to students who are unfamiliar with or had minimal trainings on the UK academic
writing. The participants also voiced the worry that they have a shortage of time to seek
writing support. So the department might need to take measures to encourage the access to
the support, for instance by designing the writing courses as add-on credited courses or
integrated with students‘ degree studies.
As mentioned in the context chapter, the development of globalisation has seen the tendency
toward the internationalisation of higher education. It is imperative for the UK HEIs to
develop strategies and policies infused with international dimensions. One of the efforts
toward the internationalisation of higher education is the internationalisation of curricula.
There are many approaches to the internationalisation of curricula. Based on the findings of
this study, two approaches are considered of most relevance – developing the curriculum with
an international orientation in outcomes, assessment, content, learning activities and
resources (Leask, 2005) and developing a cultural synergy (Kingston & Forland, 2008). The
participants highlighted the cultural disorientation they encountered in case studies and
examples designed by their tutors in humanities subjects. The students complained about the
prevalence of UK culture in the course content and no reference to cultural examples from
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