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

modules at the University of Wales (Bennel, 2005); and cross-culture learning is
ignored in undergraduate programmes at Bournemouth University (Shiel, 2006).
Marketisation of higher education
British HEIs are facing huge competition to recruit students with the impact of
globalisation, and internationalisation. The competition is not exclusive to British
HEIs—rather it is a global phenomenon. Additionally massification of higher
education, and tightened public funding on higher education is pushing HEIs further
towards the market. The last couple of decades have seen an increasing association of
higher education with the concept of the market. This has prompted much discussion
and debate about the relation of higher education and markets, the role of government
in higher education, and the future direction of higher education. A concept –
marketisation prevails in today‘s discourse of higher education. Marketisation policies
are defined as those that are ‗aimed at strengthening student choice and liberalising
markets in order to increase quality and variety of services offered by the providers of
higher education‘ (Jongbloed, 2003, p.113).
In the viewpoint of proponents, increased marketisation facilitates greater institutional
responsiveness and adaptability to the demands of parents andstudents (Friedman,
1962), promotes greater innovation in teaching and research (Jongbloed, 2003), and
better internal efficiency (Jongbloed, 2003; Massy, 2004). Jongbloed cites Dill and
Teixeira (2000) that an economic perspective to higher education provides public
benefit through stimulating academic innovation and diversity in higher education.
However, a fully market steering of higher education is detrimental on the grounds of
three major factors. Brown (2009, 2008) pointed out that higher education requires
public subsidy; the degree of competition between suppliers must be regulated; and
the provision of the information on quality of institutions, programmes and awards is
limited.
Under the circumstances of limited access to sufficient and adequate information,
Brown (2009, 2008) cites McPherson and Winston‘s remark that indirect or symbolic
indicators of quality will be provided by suppliers and sought after by buyers; in the
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