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| Cross Section of Student Society |
Although such a step could be seen as “social engineering” it could build bridges between those coming from abroad to study and their British counterparts, said Paul White, pro-vice chancellor for learning an teaching at the University of Sheffield.
While universities are generally good at helping students form friendships they also create “close communities of students who don’t interact with each other”, Professor White said.
For example Chinese, Indian and British students all tend to stick with their national groups, he claimed.
An international faculty of Sheffield University - City College, in Thessaloniki, Greece – has already banned national student societies, he told the Westminster Higher Education Conference.
“They want their students from the Balkan region not to feel that they are Serbs of Kosovans or Macedonians,” he said.
British institutions, he argued, should take it upon themselves to get communities to interact, even if the act strayed into the realms of “social engineering”.
Simple steps could be taken such as not allowing students to pick their class groups and ensuring “mixed communities” when allocating housing, he told the conference on internationalism.
Professor White added that it was an “interesting idea” that he was “throwing out there”, the Times Higher Education magazine reported.
But he also questioned how many students actually wanted to broaden their cultural horizons and some foreign students only want the knowledge of the university and not the “true international experience”.
Alex Bols, executive director of the 1994 Group, which brings together research intensive universities, suggested that the isolation may occur because international students arrive on campus a week earlier and form their first friendships with other foreign students.
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