Helping Indigenous Students to Finish Higher Education in Non-Indigenous Higher Educational Institutions Under Chinese Control

The Mongolians are a group of indigenous people in China with a population of over 5.8 milion, or 0.45% of the national total (2000), more than 4 million Mongolian, or around 16% of the regional total now living in Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region in China. There are three types of university or college in China in which Mongolian students can pursue higher education. These are: first, 13 national universities or colleges that recruit some Mongolian students; second, colleges or universities in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, at which most Mongolians study; and third, non-Indigenous higher educational institutions in regular hinterland universities, at which a small number of Mongolians study and achieve a higher level of academic excellence.

Compared with the students at the first two types of university, those Mongolian students in the third category are facing new challenges. They meet many more problems than their non-Mongolian counterparts during the four-year course. This author proposes a programme on indigenous higher education assistance. A case study of 19 Mongolian students in a hinterland university, Nankai University,  was undertaken, and the preliminary findings are reported here. This case study involves three stages.

1. Identifying the problems of first- to fourth-year Mongolian students in Nankai University, mainly concerning the cross-cultural adaptation problems. These can be divided into two types: psychological adaptation and socio-cultural adaptation.

2. Exploring the factors that influence the effective cross-cultural adaptation of minority students in Nankai university. These can be catagorised into two main types, external and internal. External factors include life change, time, social support, cultural distance, prejudices and discrimination. Internal factors are those such as appraisal, coping style, personality, coping resources, knowledge and skills and demographic factors.

3.    Putting forward countermeasures including psychological assistance, consulting services and the corresponding social support required. The suggested countermeasures will depend on the findings of the research.