An empirical investigation on the cultivation and management of international postgraduates at five universities located in Wuhan, China

Abstract International students’ mobility is increasing day by day around the world. As a result, many international postgraduate students enroll in Chinese universities for higher studies and exchange programs every year. The more international postgraduate students enrolled, the more challenges and problems encountered by local universities. This paper uses the questionnaire survey and interview method to explore the problems in cultivating and managing international postgraduates at Chinese universities in Wuhan, China. The study aims to identify the cultivation and management problems and present the corresponding countermeasures through the questionnaire analysis of 553 international postgraduates from the five universities. The study finds the four main problems in the cultivation and management of international postgraduates at local universities are (1) limited English resources and fewer faculty who deliver a lecture in English, (2) insufficient student-supervisor interaction, (3) lack of academic guidance on campus, and (4) inadequate campus facilities. In order to overcome these challenges, universities have to build a sound curriculum system and enhance the internationalization of teachers, increase the academic and social interaction among students and supervisors, arrange seminars and workshops and strengthen the development of language environment products, including four information platforms. The study has implications for the policymakers, professors, and university administrators to cultivate and manage international postgraduates. This research can also be regarded as a reference for the cultivation and education of international postgraduates in other countries.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
The inclusion of international students need in Chinese universities remains a significant challenge. As a part of China's ongoing hot research topic, this research examined the challenges and difficulties of international postgraduates' cultivation and management in public sector universities in China by using a questionnaire survey from fivehundred fifty-three international postgraduates while studying in Chinese universities. Furthermore, this study finds the four main problems in the cultivation and management of international postgraduates at Chinese universities are (1) Limited English resources and fewer faculty who deliver the lecture in English, (2) insufficient student-supervisor interaction, (3) lack of academic guidance on campus, (4) inadequate campus facilities. The study developed and suggested four practical strategies by focusing on the identified challenges. This research considers the importance for higher education stakeholders, including policymakers, academic and administrative staff, the University management team, and students.
Although the above studies have considered the international students' experiences in Chinese universities, it does not distinguish the cultivation and management modes between international undergraduate and postgraduates in Chinese universities. This paper uses the questionnaire survey and interview method to fill this gap and investigate the international postgraduate students' perceptions regarding the crucial factors and problems for cultivating and managing international postgraduates in Chinese universities. Taking five public sector universities located in Wuhan, China, as a research area, the paper attempts to identify the cultivation and management problems existing in the cultivating and managing of international postgraduates and puts forward sound suggestions to improve the management efficiency and service level of international students' education.

Methodology
This study used a mixed-method approach. The study aimed to investigate the issues of cultivation and management of international postgraduates studying in Wuhan, China. The study employed a questionnaire survey and interview method to more effectively achieve the stated research aims and objectives. Because the survey is an investigative approach in which the researcher describes human experiences regarding the phenomenon as expressed by respondents (Kwarteng & HUI, 2021). Moreover, the survey approach allows the scientific selection of a small representative sample of a vast population, allowing the sample's results to be effectively generalized to the original population (Mullinix et al., 2015). The stratified random sampling survey is used in this study for data collection. Random sampling ensures that the research received from the sample is closer to what would have been achieved if the whole population had been examined (Teddlie & Yu, 2007). Furthermore, the face-to-face interview was conducted to understand the perceptions of international postgraduates qualitatively and endorse the quantitative results.

Research area and participants
This paper selected Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, as a research area because Hubei Province is a top-eight province with 21,371 international postgraduates (Yu et al., 2014b). (See, Figure 1). Moreover, Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, is located in central China. It is also called a City University of China due to the most significant number of colleges and universities (Yu et al., 2014b) except for Beijing, including 69 regular universities and more than 1 million college students. 553 international postgraduates responded to the survey from five public sector universities in Wuhan, the centre city of China. Namely: China University of Geosciences (CUG), Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST), Wuhan University (WU), Central China Normal University (CCNU), and Zhongnan University of Economics & Law (ZUEL).

Data collection and analysis
The questionnaire survey and interview methods were used for data collection. Using the stratified random sampling method, the questionnaires were distributed among 600 international postgraduates in five public sector universities in Wuhan, and 553 questionnaires were returned, resulting in a response rate of 92.2%. Questionnaires were distributed at the international students' dormitories, and Participants were given one week to finish the questionnaire survey. Furthermore, 20 postgraduates with different academic qualifications (including the Master, PhD, and Post Doctorate), majors (Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Engineering) were interviewed from different universities because this research aimed to thoroughly examine the cultivation and management's problems encountered by international postgraduates studying in Wuhan, China. Data was collected from different countries' students like Pakistan, South Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, Africa, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, India, etc., to reduce the respondent's favouritism. In Chinese universities, ethical clearance requires only experiments involving human subjects or animals. Obviously, the study does not involve human experiments. So, the ethical standards are not applicable. But to be cautious, we have followed the ethical standard for data collection. A researcher's primary responsibility is to assure ethical standards (Committee, 2012;Wager & Kleinert, 2014) because the ethical standard is an essential component of the research process (Holmes, 2020). In this study, to fulfil the ethical consideration, the research aims and objectives were informed to all the respondents before filling the questionnaires survey. The respondents were educated about the consent form, and all the respondents were given the right to withdraw without any explanation. A covering letter was attached to the questionnaires to explain the nature and objectives of the research. In addition, the survey respondents' identities were kept confidential-a small gift distributed among respondents to motivate them to fill the questionnaires correctly.
Furthermore, the questionnaire has five parts with 28 items: basic information, teaching and learning, scientific research, academic activities, and campus facilities. Except for demographics questions, the scale items used in all questions ranged from 1 to 5. The scale is strongly agree = 5; agree = 4; neutral = 3; disagree = 2; and strongly disagree = 1.
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 and MS Excel 2013 were used for data analysis. Cronbach's alpha was used to check the reliability of the questionnaire. The Cronbach's alpha of the questionnaires is α =0.87, which indicates that the questionnaire has high reliability. The value of Cronbach's Alpha above 0.70 is good (Panayides, 2013).

Findings and discussion
The paper aims to investigate international postgraduates' cultivation and management issues in five public sector universities of Wuhan city from the international postgraduate students' perceptions, according to their experience, assessment, and understanding. The main themes are determined into four categories, which are explained below.

Teaching and learning
With this goal to determine the opinions of international postgraduates about the teaching and learning experiences in the Chinese universities, a survey was undertaken from the following four aspects, including teaching language, materials, methods, and communication. Table 2, the statistics demonstrate that 51.7% of international postgraduates indicated that the public sector universities in Wuhan have insufficient faculties to teach the major course in English. The major courses taught in English at these universities account for 2%-7.5% of all Master's majors (See , Table 3). Most interviewers mentioned that the lectures were delivered in Chinese (except for English and medical majors). Therefore, international postgraduates have problems understanding lectures. Although many local faculties obtained their doctorate from prestigious western universities, fewer faculties still deliver lectures in English. At the same time, 46.6% of international postgraduates specified difficulties in communication with teachers due to Language and Cultural barriers.

As shown in
In contrast, 62.1% of international postgraduates indicated their teachers provide informative academic materials to help them understand lectures. Meanwhile, 24.2 % of postgraduates focused on the statement unable to get the required books. Furthermore, 57.3% of international postgraduates were satisfied with local teachers' teaching methods because many Chinese teachers deal with international postgraduates softly (63.9%). The inclusive problems with teaching and learning in these five universities are language barriers with teachers, few courses offered in English taught, and lectures delivered in the Chinese Language.

Scientific research
In addition to teaching and learning systems, scientific research is considered an essential aspect of postgraduate training and management (Potter, 2006). Considering this importance, this paper examined the international postgraduates' views about scientific research experiences, including paper publication, research project participation, and supervisor guidance in research and thesis writing. Table 4 shows the international postgraduates' challenges in research publication and interaction with supervisors. The survey and interviews found that 65.9 % of international postgraduates are motivated to publish research articles. However, 60% of international postgraduates thought research is challenging because data collection is complex (49.5%). Data collection is a complex task for beginners in research (Phillips & Pugh, 2015). Many international postgraduates do not have any previous research experiences. During interviews, most students stressed that they could not publish research papers because they did not have a sound research background and lack of data support. Many supervisors' project cooperates with local governments or enterprises, but as an international postgraduate student, it is difficult to participate in or integrate into the project due to a lack of relevant background. Although over half of the international students (60%) complained about publishing papers and participating in projects, 58% of international graduates are satisfied with their supervisors. Chinese professors would offer support and help their students

Academic activities
Various academic activities carried out by universities are also an indispensable part of the cultivation and management of international postgraduates. In order to investigate the opinions of international postgraduates about the academic activities in the Chinese universities, a questionnaire survey was undertaken from the following three aspects, including seminars, career counselling, and academic workshop. Table 5 shows the result of survey theme 3. It is found that 70.6% of international postgraduates felt that seminars are essential for students' motivation. 57.9% of respondents responded that there is a lack of seminars in Chinese universities. Similarly, 48.5% of international postgraduates indicated that universities are not arranged an educational workshop for international postgraduates. Therefore, nearly half of the participants (41%) felt academic problems in universities.
Regarding the arrangement of career counselling, 69.9% of respondents mentioned that career counselling is necessary for international postgraduates in universities. However, 34 % of respondents declared that their universities do not arrange career counselling for international postgraduates. Due to the lack of academic workshops and career counselling in universities, they could not learn professional skills. Consequently, they cannot find a good job quickly after graduation. For example, several interviewees mention that many students want to do jobs in China after graduation. However, they do not know how and where to find a job. After discussing with the interviewers, it is found that a few postgraduates consult with their supervisor or Chinese friends about employment, but the answer is unprofessional and nonsystematic. In simple words, the survey found that international postgraduates lack academic activities, such as lack of seminars, career counselling, and academic workshops that affect their career.

Campus facilities
Campus facilities are an essential condition for assessing whether a university can recruit international students or not (Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007;Tas, 2013). This portion focus on various aspects of campus facilities such as the student management platforms, the library facilities, internship opportunities at the campus, and internet availability. Table 6 presents the perceived problems of campus facilities encountered by international postgraduates in Chinese universities. Regarding the problem faced by international postgraduates, 49.1% of respondents mentioned a lack of internship and entrepreneurship opportunities in Chinese Universities. At the same time, 71.6% of international postgraduates indicated that they are suffering from campus internet due to the restriction on google. Although the universities' library is rich in electronic resources, most international postgraduates still use the Google website to search academic materials and research data. Nearly half of the respondents (45.5%) revealed that international postgraduates have problems finding English version books. Most books are available in the Chinese Language.
Furthermore, 29.9 % of respondents are dissatisfied with the service of the administrative offices (except for the international student office) because most administrative staff had weak English communication skills. All the official notices are written in Chinese, which is difficult to read for international students. Therefore, maximum international postgraduates are not satisfied with campus facilities in universities. The main problems highlighted in this part are lack of internship and entrepreneurship opportunities, lack of English version books and restrictions on google websites.

Countermeasures and suggestions
In assessing the above investigation and interview, this section proposes corresponding countermeasures and suggestions from four aspects.

Build a reasonable curriculum system and enhance the internationalization of teachers
Regarding curriculum design for international postgraduates, it should not be the same as for local students. However, it should enhance the internationality of major subjects and courses and the proportion of international knowledge. Simultaneously, it must enhance the elective courses and boost course selection freedom as much as possible. If considering the cost, the university should issue relevant policies to allow international postgraduates to carry out cross-department, interdisciplinary, and even cross-school elective courses within the scope of the training plan to give international postgraduates more chances.
On the one hand, the university should focus on the international construction of the teaching staff, especially young and middle-aged teachers. While giving more opportunities to participate in international academic exchanges and scientific research corporations, it should encourage teachers to study further and participate in training institutions abroad to improve their English level and enhance their teaching and scientific research ability. On the other hand, in a shortage of English teachers, the Chinese Universities should establish a joint training mode with overseas universities. The overseas teachers' team can carry out the education of international postgraduates in China at the graduate stage. The university can even hire foreign educational experts to recruit international graduates in China, solving teaching problems. For international postgraduates, it is impossible to study major courses in Chinese quickly. Because the Chinese Language is the most challenging Language to learn (Weinmann et al., 2021), the universities can strengthen the assessment of Chinese, especially in daily communication, to facilitate with international graduates communicate with teachers and Chinese students. In addition, it should actively mobilize the enthusiasm of international postgraduates, let them actively integrate into local learning and life, and communicate more with teachers. In the first year, the assistance policy can be adopted. Each supervisor allocated one of his/her Chinese students to help the international postgraduates adapt to their studies and life as soon as possible.

Increase student-supervisor interaction
Student-supervisor interaction plays a vital role in achieving academic success. Effective supervisory is necessary to overcome research problems (Ismail & Abiddin, 2009). There are two types of interaction with supervisors, i.e., academic interaction and social interaction. Chinese universities need to improve academic and social interactions among students and supervisors. Academic interaction includes communication related to the research topic, research method, reading materials, study area, etc., whereas social interaction indicates discussing career plans, social adjustment, campus activities, etc. A close student-supervisor interaction develops students' research skills, necessary to achieve academic achievement. The academic-centred relationship and interaction with peers and professors overcome some students' academic problems, such as data collection issues, research design, etc. The supervisor should encourage international postgraduates to participate in the projects and try to hold a group meeting in the English Language, improving the English level of Chinese students and improving the research skill of international postgraduates.

Arrange workshops and seminars
The academic Seminars and workshops are essential tools for professional development (Dike & Umunnakwe, 2010). Seminar plays a vital role in students' motivation. The primary purpose of the seminar is to introduce students to advanced theoretical or practical topics in their subjects (Benaya et al., 2010), and the workshop improves the students about the topics by providing them current knowledge and experience (Benaya et al., 2010). Universities should be arranged workshops and seminars for international postgraduates on different topics to enhance students' research and professional skills. It includes learning writing skills (especially publishing papers in journals and writing a graduate thesis). Similarly, the universities should invite famous experts and scholars from their home country and out of the country to deliver academic lectures to international postgraduates. Furthermore, the supervisors would regularly hold meetings to exchange and learn about the progress of the project or study. Evaluation plays an essential role in the growth of students' performance (Rind et al., 2019). International postgraduates develop their research skills by attending workshops and seminars (Nachatar Singh, 2018). In addition, the university management team should arrange more seminars and workshops for international postgraduates to overcome their social, academic, cultural, and psychological problems in Chinese universities.

Offer satisfactory campus facilities
International students use campus facilities to overcome their problems (Wu et al., 2015). Chinese universities should strengthen the development of language environment products, including the following platforms: (1) improving international student enrolment information platform (Zhang &Gong, 2019). A study abroad platform with high credibility can be established at the national level. It will help to strengthen the student's cognition and trust in China's relevant study abroad policies. English version website of the postgraduate students' enrolment can be established at departmental and university levels and put all the information relevant to supervisor on websites. It will make it easy to a suitable supervisor quickly.
(2) Construct the educational administration platform to facilitate the international students, who independently log into the system to select the courses, apply for thesis proposal and defense.
(3) Colleges and universities in the same city can jointly establish an elective course sharing platform to provide more sound courses for international students. (4) Supporting the creation of an online campus platform in the English version. In the internet era, the universities should provide more transparent and cost-effective access to information for international students in China and reduce their time and economic cost. The construction of an online campus system such as campus card, library, canteen, and other supporting environmental platforms is conducive to overseas graduates adapting to school life faster. The online campus will become their spiritual home and avoid cultural shock.

Conclusion
The number of international students has enormously increased in China in the past few years and is expected to increase more. However, there are critical issues about the international students' cultivation and management in China. This article discusses China's ongoing research project, examining the challenges and difficulties of international postgraduates' cultivation and management in Wuhan, China. Moreover, this paper aims to articulate strategies by identifying and comprehending the requirements of international postgraduates in Chinese universities. The study finds four critical problems international postgraduates encounter in academic and nonacademic aspects, including teaching and learning, scientific research, academic activities, and campus facilities. In order to overcome the identified challenges, four practical strategies have been developed and suggested as: universities have to build a sound curriculum system and enhance the internationalization of teachers, increase the academic and social interaction among students and supervisors, arrange seminars and workshops and strengthen the development of language environment products, including four information platforms.
This study's findings contribute to the immense knowledge about the current literature on international students' cultivation and management problems in the Chinese context. The study results can offer practical implications for universities in China and other countries. The study also assists policymakers, professors, and university administrators to manage international postgraduates. Moreover, it should be indicated that this study was limited to five public sector universities from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. By expanding the sample of case studies, higher-level strategies, such as (regional, provincial, and national) can be developed in the future.