Pocket Report on Japan: Trends & Market Research.

Transcription

1 August Pocket Report on Japan: Trends & Market Research. Contact: E mail: research@eap.ucop.edu Telephone: UCEAP Research Website Gordon Schaeffer, Director of Research Emily Graham, Research Analyst Contents Participation Trends... 2 Campus Advisor Survey... 5 Student Interest Survey Academic Outcomes: UCSB Pilot of AI Data Application Data Reciprocal Exchange Students Enrollment Reciprocal Exchange Student Survey Partners of UCEAP: Year Students First Enrolled in Partner Institution The mission of the University of California Education Abroad Program is to equip UC students with the knowledge, understanding, and skills for work and life in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world. Page 1

2 Participation Trends UCEAP Outbound Students Since AY , UCEAP s Japan program participant headcount has improved from 98 students, peaking in AY in both headcount and market share of UCEAP total headcount (Cf., Chart #1, below: n=242; ms=5.6%). More recently, participation in Japan has been recovering from the unfortunate AY Spring Term program suspension, which reduced AY enrollment by roughly 30%. 1 Chart #1: Japan Headcount Enrollment. As the table makes evident below, UCEAP participants in Japan are reflecting the larger trend of demand for programs in the Summer term. Still, the Headcount to FTE ratio in Japan is lower than that of the overall UCEAP program suggesting that there is potential for more Summer participation in Japan (Cf., Table #1, pg., #2 & Chart #1, pg., #3). 2 1 Additional 15 year participant demographic data for Japan is available online at this link. 2 Systemwide UCEAP data for Headcount and FTE is available with this online resource. Results for Japan can be filtered using the dropdown tab Country or by clicking the plus sign (+) that appears when you hover over the word Region in the data table. Page 2

3 Table #1. Summer & Regular Year Participation. Chart #2: Headcount to FTE Ratios. Past Participant: Program Satisfaction Research and common sense both suggest the same conclusion: participation in Study Abroad is largely driven by past participant opinion or word of mouth i.e., what students, parents, study Page 3

4 abroad advisors, and others tell students, parents, study abroad advisors, and others about a study abroad programs. What is more, confidence of the opinion is highly correlated with one s peer group i.e., students value the opinion of other students far more than they do a professor. It is for this reason that we publish on our website and make available to staff a number of other resources that help us understand the experience and perspective of past students, and help students know the opinion of past students more completely. This resource is tremendously popular with students (evidenced by Google Analytics rating in the top 20 of several thousand resources on our website) and it could help inform executives when assessing student demand, trends, and program interests or expectations of students. Figure #1: Image of Student Reviews Online Reporting. Past Participant: Academic s. A majority of students have some concern about the consequence of study abroad. To assist advisors with these questions we have made available data regarding the typical course load and Grade Point average of participants. Most students see improvements in the GPA as Juniors and Seniors and so it is not unexpected to see a higher GPA for any term abroad when compared to a cumulative GPA (which reflects a period of time when these same students were less experienced college students). Additionally this report summarizes the number of courses and units attempted abroad and with details for course Subject Area and program attributes, and below is a simple summary of the top 5 Subject Areas within our Top 5 (Headcount) partners. Page 4

5 Top 5 Coursework Subject Areas Abroad for UCEAP Participants in Japan by Partner Institution (Top 5): AY through Partner Institution Subject Area Count % Japanese 1, % Asian Studies % Doshisha University Anthropology % Religious Studies % Communication % Total 1, % Japanese % History % Sociology % International Christian University Linguistics % Political Science % Total 1, % Asian Studies % Economics % Meiji Gakuin University Political Science % Japanese % Sociology % Total 1, % Japanese % History % Tsuru University Asian Studies % Political Science % Economics % Total % Japanese % Biology % Osaka University Mechanical Engineering % Sociology % Electrical Engineering % Total % Source: UCEAP, Research. February From From Res.v_Grades Database. Much of the above is made available to suggest that where students have been relatively well satisfied and successful we should anticipate some continued success. Before addressing Student Demand as expressed by applicants or their interests in a survey, it is worth presenting a brief summary of student interest in Japan from the perspective of our campus advisors. Campus Advisor Survey Unlike most countries of East Asia, according to our campus advisors who are in frequent and deep contact with UC students Japan enjoys Strong student interest. In fact, it is among the most impressive points of interest measured across more than 50 countries (Cf., Table #2, pg., #5, below) Of the 11 advisors who have recruitment responsibility for Japan, and who responded to the survey, most did not express that there was a need for more capacity in our programs (Cf., Table #3, pg., #5). In other words, we apparently have sufficient capacity for student interests. The questions then are, do we have the right types of opportunities at the right time of year, etc. These we thought best to allow the Page 5

6 Campus Advisors to write about or to address and qualify in their own words (Cf., Table 4, below, page 6f). Table #2: Perceived Student Interest in East Asia. Table #3: Perception of Program Capacity in Japan. Page 6

7 Table #4: Campus Advisor Text Statements Regarding East Asia. Which UCEAP programs or partners in East Asia do not have sufficient student interest to merit offering through UCEAP? Please be specific about the Program Name, Partner, and Term. Can't speak to any country but Korea, and it has plenty of student interest. from my campus: Tsinghua Univ spring, Indonesia summer, Vietnam fall I think all are merited. Language and Culture in Tsuru, Japan. I feel the one-year prerequisite bars a lot of language learners. I have had no students express interest in the indonesia summer program though it is cool that it exists as an option I suppose... I don't know if having Osaka AND Tohoku as research institutions during the academic year is necessary. NTNU doesn't pull a ton for us, but I think it could be worth keeping. UCB UCI UCLA UCD Please identify any recurring challenges to enroll students in UCEAP's East Asia programs. (E.g. "Program X has a calendar that does not work well with our students." or "Requirement Z deters participants..." Please be as specific as possible). I have hardly had any specific interest in Tsinghua. Most engineers will choose Hong Kong. Taiwan UCR Vietnam-not much interest from students UCSB Japan (Tsuru Fall) - very little interest on my campus Can speak only to Korea. It's challenging to get students to consider going to Yonsei for a semester or year, even when I tell them that no regular Yonsei students will be on campus in summer. It seems that most students who want to UCB study in Korea are primarily motivated by the desire to see what Seoul is like, rather than to get to know real Korean university student life. I wonder if extra scholarships for a semester at Yonsei would help? Japan only: 1. GPA requirement of 3.0 restricts many students. I end up referring them to non-uc programs. UCSD 2. More summer options are needed. 3. Japanese summer program: program is limited to students with 0-2 quarters of Japanese. This dramatically reduces who can attend. NTU Fall options makes it difficult for students who need to come back in time UCSD for Winter QTR as exams occur in January. NTU fall's calendar is hard to advise for, Tsinghua might be more successful if a fall program, Students need a full year of Chinese for NTU, the Japan during the year programs are all 3.0 or higher, the 3.0 requirement for Yonsei, Vietnam and UCI Indonesia are already a hard sell but when you make the courses so specialized it's REALLY hard to get people interested NTU program calendar for the year Japanese universities inflexibility for GPA (for some reason many students that want to go have 2.9s). Please standardize the naming for Fudan fall and Fudan spring. there is a lot of confusion there. GPA is the main challenge. Some students are hesitant to apply for some of the research programs (Osaka fall, spring, summer; Tohoku spring, year) that require a research proposal. I don't think the requirement should be removed, but further assistance or resources for creating the proposal may be helpful. STEM students are interested in Japan. However, many need to take STEM subject courses in English. Finding these courses are difficult in Japan. The options are usually one of the lab programs or Tohoku which usually does not offer enough courses for them to stay on track with their major. Most students cannot participate on a lab program during the year and graduate on time. It UCSB would be great if there could be a UC construct STEM program in Japan. The program would need to be specific enough so students of certain majors will know ahead of time exactly what they will take in Japan and if the courses could count for their majors. Alternative programs in HK and Singapore are recommended to these students but they are not always interested. Students seem to be interested in studying at Peking University but are very concerned that there isn't much course information in advance. Going to PKU is a gamble for students if they want to take coursework in English but have no idea what will be offered. UCLA Participation in the NTNU summer Language & Culture and the Osaka Beginning Japanese programs could be improved if they offered qtr units and were likely to fulfill the entire foreign laguage requirement for UC degree requirements. UCD UCB Page 7

8 A designated internship program in China or Japan would be interesting to students. Consolidation of the China and Japan offerings would help as there UCSC are currently a high amount in comparison to the interest level. In general - Clearer information about courses. Academic planning is crucial to students. Active links to course catalogs, descriptions, and syllabi are essential. Links are often broken or materials are updated quite late. ICU is an easy one to navigate course information. PKU is a hard one. UCLA Students in Japan are interested in internships and are often seeking guidance on where to find specific internship opportunities. I would love if there was more detailed information about internships as students are seeking this information from me. It would be helpful to have examples of what a student's course load could look like abroad. For example, on some language programs, the language courses Are there changes you would like to see are worth a lot while for others, they are not. So, it would be great if we could made to programs in East Asia that would UCSB see what a student typically takes - 1 language course + 3 subject courses; 2 make it easier for you to recruit and language courses +2 subject or some other combination. And for other advise? programs, students just take language courses. Lower GPA options. UCSD Nothing really comes to mind for Korea - it seems to sell itself to those who have UCB an interest in it. Please standardize the naming of the programs. "Language and Culture", "L&C Summer Sessions" are not consistant between Japan, China and Taiwan. Fudan fall vs. spring makes no sense also. Sometimes it's just a university name, sometimes it's a subject focus, but it's not consistant. Program naming should be UCD consistant across all regions. Please have more clear and thorough info for HKU vs. CUHK vs. HKUST like the pages for Region III's UK programs do. There are almost no options during the school year for someone below a 3.0 UCI GPA yet there is a LOT of interest who from people who have below a 3.0 a partnership in Tokyo (or anywhere else in Japan) that is ok with a 2.5 or 2.85 during the year; a partner in Korea that is ok with a 2.5 or 2.85 during the year. UCI UCEAP has a bunch of UC Centers in Europe for students with a lower GPA, why not in the most popular places in Asia? An internship focused program specifically in China would be interesting in UCSC Japan. Can't think of any. UCB I would recommend a wider range of coursework in Japan in the summer. Several students are interested in studying in Japan during summer but don't want to take beginning langauge or conduct research. International Summer Schools in China have a pretty limited range of classes. HKUST International Summer School may be a decent alternative. UCLA To improve our portfolio for students at your campus, in your opinion should UCEAP adopt a new program by term, discipline/focus, institutional partnership, length or any other attribute in countries related to East Asia? Please be specific. A summer internship program in Japan or China might be well received. There are a lot of business students who are choosing between summer internships in the US or summer study abroad. They seem to side toward internships. Let's not make them choose. Students are very interested in interning and studying in East Asia, specifically in Hong Kong. It would be great if this could be possible. For Thailand, there is an interest from students who want to study there but cannot because of the limited subjects available. Uni of Tokyo partnership. Short term options at Keio and Waseda. More summer options in Japan. Winter quarter if possible Great job coming up with Hong Kong summer options, there is a ton of interest UCSB UCSD Fall semester possible at PKU? UCD More summer options in Japan besides lab research. More language study flexibility or culture studies/humanities Page 8

9 Additionally, the survey asked advisors to identify factors that are commonly absent from student awareness and that they feel are important. It is probably not surprising to report that most advisors selected Scholarships/funding.., Availability of courses related to major(s) or minor(s), Program cost, and Availability of courses to fulfill UC General Education or Breadth requirements. (Cf., Table #5, pg. #8). Too help students understand program costs, or advisors working with students in Japan, we have developed a resource for advisors that allows them to review program costs with all Campus Fees included (these fees are typically absent from our published student budgets as we don t know which campus a student is from). This tool also compares the program cost to the cost of remaining at that campus (and residing off campus which is usually less expensive than living on campus), and it also the user to filter for programs/opportunities that cost less than it would to remain on campus. Note: One will find relatively few less expensive options in Japan. Table #5: Factors of Innately Low Awareness in Students. Knowing that UCEAP in Japan is often more expensive than the estimated student budgets for remaining on Campus, we also make available a report relating to the Benjamin A. Gilman scholarship Page 9

10 program. This is a powerful resource that the US State Department makes available to students studying in locations where language opportunities are considered critical to national interests. 3 The awards can be for as much as $8,000 (for a year abroad). UCEAP students have been successful in securing Gilman awards, but if there is anything our Japanese partners can suggest for improving the utility of our programs and Gilman awards we should take that seriously. This last year, 19 UCEAP participants benefitted from $83,500 in Gilman awards. Student Interest Survey In the Spring of 2014 we conducted a rather lengthy Student Interest Survey in which 5 campuses participated, resulting in responses from roughly 1,500 students who had not previously studied abroad and who expressed that they were open to study abroad during their academic career with the UC. Consistent with other data points, East Asia and Japan are relatively strong locations of Student interest. You might recall, as reported above our Campus Advisors found that Japan was the location in East Asia with the strongest student interest. It usually engenders confidence when we are able to confirm or validate a result from another source. Nevertheless, East Asia and necessarily Japan are in a different tier of innate student interest, as Western Europe is by far the world region that most students selected (Cf., Table #7, pg. #10). Additionally, it is always of value to consider whether these student perceptions are well informed or not the perceptions students bring carry with them as obstacles to study abroad (Cf., Table #8, pg. #10). For what it is worth, you might also benefit from considering how parents have experienced the common obstacles to study abroad over the last few years (Cf., Chart #3, pg., #11 below data from Parent s Surveys). Table #6: Innate Student Interest in Select East Asia Countries. 3 Cf., Critical Need Languages, listed on the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship website: Scholarship Program/About the Program. Page 10

11 Table #7: Innate Student Interest in World Regions. Table #8: Perceived Obstacles to Study Abroad. Page 11

12 Chart #3: Obstacles for Parents & Study Abroad. Students who expressed a Strong interest in Japan were either interested in a Capital or any of the settings described in the survey (Cf., Table #9, below). As was referenced above on page #3, students with an interest in Japan expect past participants and friends to inform them of a program (Cf., Table #10, pg. #12). Their motives for study abroad are not necessarily unusual (Cf., Table #11, pg., #13), and an interpretation for their motive relating to Improve Foreign Language Skills might be improved by taking note of Table #12 (pg., #13) ; for the majority of students highly interested in Japan learning Japanese will mean learning a new language. Only 40 students listed Japanese or any combination of languages with Japanese as a language of proficiency. And again, by and large, they want to go abroad in the Summer (Cf., Table #13, pg. #14). What possibly stands out among student motives (Table #11) is how few students are strongly motivated by coursework unavailable in the UC. There s an opportunity to suggest or market Study Abroad & the power of alternative pedagogy & curriculum to inform a mind. Table #9: Program Setting Preference in Japan Page 12

13 Table #10: Student Resources for Assessing Programs. Page 13

14 Table #11: Japan Interested Respondents & Their Motives for Study Abroad. Table #12: Language Interests of Japan Interested Students Page 14

15 Table #13: Time of Study Abroad Preference. In marketing or reaching a market of UC students, it is important to know what curriculum and pedagogy they value. Clearly, they perceive pedagogy in English of high value (rated Strongly) as they don t know Japanese well enough to pursue curriculum entirely in that language. Just as importantly, they perceive a need for alternative pedagogy (Internships), and for coursework that is focused on their academic major. In our Study Advisors survey, one advisor aptly noted how today s student has an interest in what can be (though not necessarily are) two sides of the same coin: Academic Integration and Career Integration. Cf., Table #14 & #15, pg. 15f., below). Table #14: Interest in Program Models, Pedagogy & Curriculum Page 15

16 Table #15: Preference in Alternative Pedagogies. Academic Outcomes: UCSB Pilot of AI Data Students, parents, and administrators of study abroad share in the concern that participation in study abroad not delay a student s progress or time needed to achieve an intended academic degree. In addition to surveying students about the application of their coursework to their degree, we have also initiated a project working with the UC campus registrar s to combine program participation data with degree articulation data (Cf., Pilot data with UCSB, which is online: The results of this will allow one to uncover if and how courses taken abroad applied to student degree requirements with other details (Cf., images below on page #17 of the report & results page environment). Not only will advisors of students be in a better informed position in helping students to make critical choices among the many options for study abroad in Japan, but our Academic Integration staff will be able to focus on areas of success or challenge in the application of coursework to student degree requirements. Additionally, UCEAP will be able to monitor and quantitatively determine the partner institutions that are able to provide pedagogy and curriculum that are of most value to UC students (credit in the Major) or other levels of degree credit (i.e., General Education Credits and Elective Credits). This should help us in thinking about contractual relationships. After all, Rankings of institutional partners are widely available and useful, but students have options other than UCEAP when considering how best to progress to a degree and study abroad (e.g., there are UC Faculty Led and campus specific options to UCEAP) and we should be making certain that we focus on delivering high quality or value opportunities to students who are pressured to graduate quickly, etc. Page 16

17 Image #2: Report & Results Panes of Registrar Pilot Data. Application Data As elsewhere, recent data trends have demonstrated an increasing interest (applications) and demand (participation/enrollent) for particpation during the summer term. We make available online detailed application or interest data which allows the user to drill down into the country, partner, program, and option details with the status of applications as they were year to date and y/y. In short, one can tell how many students had not only initiated an application, but how they had advanced their applications at a certain point in time. Among the most exciting developments in applications this year has been not only the tremendous growth in interest in Japan (+71%, n =+267, Cf., Table # below), but that the majority of this expression of interest has been t the Fall programs or programs of a greater length and FTE value than the Summer short term opportunities. Page 17

18 Table #16: Applications To Japan. UCEAP Applications To Japan Programs by Program Term/Start: Academic Year of Application Through Program Cycle Reciprocal Exchange Students n % n % n % Summer Program % % % Fall Term (Semester & Year Length) % % % TOTAL % % % Source: UCEAP, Research. March 9, Academic Year of Application Enrollment The Reciprocal Exchanges Report provides similar details on headcount and FTE but with inbound reciprocity students. In the past 5 years, fewer reciprocity students from Japan have chosen to study at the UC ( = 42 or 28.2%). Reciprocal Exchange Student Survey We survey UCEAP Reciprocal Exchange students each year. In the course of the last six years we have over 230 student responses from Japan participants. Aside from many logistical questions (student services, housing, marketing ) we do ask these students about the value they find in coming to the UC. E.g., you can see below in Table #17, (pg. #19) that these students find they are able to contribute unique academic knowledge or perspectives to academic settings, events, etc. Additionally, the vast majority of these respondents think that their UC coursework will contribute to their degree and that they were able to enroll in opportunities unavailable at their home institution (Cf., Table #18, pg., #19). Page 18

19 Table #17: Japan Reciprocity Survey Academic Value Propositions. Table #18: Japan Reciprocity Students & Coursework Value. Page 19

20 Of course, internationalization is a bi lateral event. Of critical interest is whether or not the opportunity to study for a limited period of time as a non matriculating student has influenced exchange students to increase or expand their interest in the UC as a site for future graduate studies. Setting aside the 23% who identified as having no interest in graduate school after UCEAP, nearly 80% of respondents recognized an Increased interest in future studies at the UC. In short, UCEAP is an engine for deepening institutuional relationships. Table #19: Japan Students & UC Graduate School Interest. Page 20

21 Partners of UCEAP: Year Students First Enrolled in Partner Institution. Below is a simple table that displays the first year UCEAP students from UC campuses enrolled in a Partner Institution. It is important to note that we might not currently have academic exchanges with all of the institutions in this table (Cf., below, Table #20). Table #20: First Year UC Students Enrolled in Partner Institution. UCEAP Enrollment in Japan by Partner Institutions by First Year Participant Enrolled First Year Participant Partner Institution Name Enrolled**** International Christian University Sophia University Meiji Gakuin University Tokyo Institute of Technology Yokohama/ IUC Doshisha University Kyushu, Economics Osaka University (Economics, OUSSEP, & Engineering) Tohoku University (Immersion & Engineering) Nagoya Tokyo University (Engineering, Komaba) University of Tsukuba Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo Kyoto University Tsuru University Keio University Waseda University University of Tokyo Japan Women's University Source: UCEAP Research, June **** Source: UCEAP Alumni Data. Does not reflect contract. Page 21