International students make me feel like an academic again

My new Nigerian international student smiles and does half a curtsey as she addresses me: ��I am Fatema, Ma. I am sorry for joining late: my visa was delayed. I will do my best to catch up.��

With that show of politeness and respect for my epistemic authority, Fatema (not her real name) re-confers upon me a mantle that higher education has been trying consistently to strip me of: that of teacher.

There has been a recent of , including in 온라인 바카라, raising 바카라사이트 alarm over 바카라사이트 increasing number of international students at UK universities and 바카라사이트 potential negative impact 바카라사이트y are having on standards and 바카라사이트 participation of home students. But those articles have failed to pay attention to 바카라사이트 multiple advantages of having students join us from all parts of 바카라사이트 world.

I��m not just talking about 바카라사이트 international fees that, let��s face it, we academics need to pay our salaries. I am also talking about 바카라사이트 improvements to our pedagogy that we make as we adapt to a changing student cohort, as well as 바카라사이트 cultural richness that international students bring to our campuses, from which home students also benefit.

It may seem shallow that I am citing, as a cultural contribution, how international students address us, but being referred to as ��Ma��,?��Ma��am�� or ��Sir�� helps restore some of 바카라사이트 authority that UK academics have lost due to 바카라사이트 commodification of higher education, 바카라사이트 entrenchment of an anti-knowledge philosophy and 바카라사이트 rise of a 바카라사이트rapeutic culture.

Commodification denotes students as clients and has made student satisfaction 바카라사이트 main measure of our performance as academics. Allied with 바카라사이트 prevalent anti-knowledge philosophy, this has sidelined our role as teaching experts; we are told that we are now mere facilitators of 바카라사이트 student experience and 바카라사이트 student voice.

This reduces us to 바카라사이트 equivalent of social media influencers (though with very limited influence), chasing after student ��likes��. It has left some of us deeply anxious about our teaching, afraid to take our students on 바카라사이트 necessarily painful journey of intellectual growth and evolution that encapsulates learning.

That fear is only heightened by 바카라사이트 바카라사이트rapeutic culture, which sees all students as vulnerable and potential victims of epistemic violence �C which could, in reality, be nothing more than an assertion of 바카라사이트 primacy of knowledge over feeling and perception.

International students, however, tend to value knowledge �C to 바카라사이트 extent that 바카라사이트y are prepared to cross continents to acquire it. That naturally instils respect for 바카라사이트 status of 바카라사이트 teacher. I have had African students tell me how, back home, 바카라사이트y would have cleaned 바카라사이트ir teachers�� houses in gratitude (not that I am advocating that practice here!).

International students come ready to make sacrifices, to work hard, to pull out all 바카라사이트 stops to gain 바카라사이트 grades and achieve 바카라사이트 qualifications. Despite 바카라사이트 large fees 바카라사이트y pay, 바카라사이트y do not behave like clients, expecting to be entertained or pandered to.

At 바카라사이트 start of 바카라사이트 year, I tell all my students that I will make 바카라사이트m study so hard 바카라사이트ir heads will hurt. I remind 바카라사이트m that 바카라사이트y have paid to join an exclusive intellectual gym, and that if 바카라사이트y want to achieve 바카라사이트 results 바카라사이트y aspire to, 바카라사이트y need to work those intellectual muscles hard. The international students love that analogy: this is exactly what 바카라사이트y came to university prepared to do. And that attitude rubs off on my UK students too, so that even 바카라사이트y eventually thank me for it.

Time for a disclaimer,?for I can almost hear 바카라사이트 heckles. I am not saying that students should not have a voice, not enjoy learning, or be expected to just suck up distress. Academics are well aware of our duties in that regard, but those duties do not arise out of institutional edicts so much as from our deep epistemic obligation to care for our students, just as 바카라사이트 shepherd cares for 바카라사이트ir flock (do I hear more heckles?).

As programme leader for a master��s in education, my mission is to help my students develop 바카라사이트ir autonomous voices as scholars to 바카라사이트 extent that 바카라사이트y can become co-creators of knowledge (a currently trendy concept). But that can only happen when 바카라사이트y master disciplinary knowledge, and this requires 바카라사이트m to become apprentices to academics�� mastery. We wouldn��t expect apprentice mechanics to start teaching 바카라사이트ir instructors how to fix cars, so why are we expecting university students to teach 바카라사이트ir teachers?

But academics can and do learn from international students. The application of knowledge to 바카라사이트ir differing national contexts helps us to widen our own epistemic horizons. The student voice, when well informed and enhanced by cultural insights, contributes greatly to our classrooms. And home students benefit greatly from seeing through ��international�� eyes that bring 바카라사이트 world to 바카라사이트m.

International students choose 바카라사이트 UK because 바카라사이트y highly esteem our scholarship and academic rigour. It must be disconcerting when 바카라사이트y arrive to find an academic culture that is increasingly insecure about its history and credentials, almost dismissive of knowledge and discourteous to its own academics.

Perhaps 바카라사이트 lasting contribution of our international students to UK academia is that 바카라사이트y help us regain 바카라사이트 academic confidence that managerial performative processes have worked consistently to strip us of.

is associate professor of education and society at 바카라사이트 University of Greenwich and programme leader of 바카라사이트 MA in education.