Why International Students have stopped trusting Goldsmiths

Before starting a degree program at Goldsmiths, most international students who haven’t had an English language education, have to pass English proficiency tests, like the International English Language Test System (IELTS). They test whether the prospective students can comprehend passages and speech, as well as speak and explain in the language, well enough to attend the College. Once they arrive, students can improve their language skills by doing a foundation year before the actual degree. They can also take pre-sessional courses based on their language proficiency level and/or during the degree they can attend weekly in-sessional English classes outside of their degree modules.

Wellbeing Support Services are there to help all students (Home, EU and International) with issues such as anxiety, loss and bereavement, depression, low self-esteem, sexual violence, suicidal thoughts, trauma and more. These are offered, during weekdays, a 15-20 minute session on a first-come first-served basis. After this session the student is guided to a College counsellor who will be booked, after filling out a questionnaire, after usually over two to three weeks. Thereafter the student would be guided, if necessary, to professional clinics, which may cost money. There are nightlines (6-8 pm everyday), campus support officers (6 pm-6 am everyday), mediators, anonymous reporting services about sexual violence, and disability services.

The College has these amenities for all students regardless of their cultural, linguistic, ethnic backgrounds. Then why do so many from East Asian countries like Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea ultimately don’t trust the institution’s help?

Fundamental Differences

Minho Kim, the International Students’ part-time officer for the Student Union, who is in his third year, has been highly engaged with international students his whole time at Goldsmiths. He explained why international students from East Asian countries feel the way they do, and how big the problem actually is.

These students pay disproportionately high fees compared to home and EU students. The fees, which can be as high as over £20 000 per annum for undergraduate studies, according to Minho, strains not only the students but also their families; putting extra pressure on them to do their best atUniversity. They then travel far away from home to a different continent that is wholly different in every way to theirs.As soon as they enter they are overwhelmed by the distance, people and most of all the language. Their abilities are tested from the moment they enter the country. According toMinho, every sign, every interaction, from “buying a bottle of water” to reading posters “reminds them that they don’t belong”.

Lectures, Minho said, are bad. The students, though IELTSqualified, find it very difficult to keep up with the pace ofthe lecturer, the questions raised and answered, the sense ofhumor, the size of the class. They are terrified of raising theirhands to get doubts cleared. They find it hard to engage withthe complicated academic language that is used throughout.

Seminars can be worse. Students are expected to engage indiscussions taking place and are put front-and-center. Minhoexplained that the idea of raising their hands or voices ispetrifying due to the prospect of being not only humiliatedby articulating an idea, which can be very hard for eventhose whose first language has always been English, in the“wrong” linguistic syntax, but also “being misunderstood”and misconstrued. Minho said that all this builds up toimpact their self-esteem in a critically. These students thenalso need to assimilate to make the most of their extremelyhigh fees.

Minho asked: “Who is responsible to close the cultural gap?” “Them!” he replied with excitedly, referring to the eastAsian students like himself. He questioned how the students, dispirited in so many ways by the “walls” the English language and the way it is used has built, supposed to articulate their ideas, feelings, emotions, issues, complains, clear misunderstandings, explain their cultural concerns, introduce their cultural outlook in seminars and lectures to narrow the cultural gap? This is “too much!” Minho exclaimed. “So they give up.” He continued, “they have no choice” but to give up and hang out with those of a similar background as theirs.

The Paradox

The students under these circumstances understandably face many of the issues with which the College promises to help, including: anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, trauma, alcohol and/or drug use to name a few. The English Language (and those that use it without any consideration for them in classrooms and outside) is the cause of their concerns and is paradoxically the language through which they could be met by the College, as pointed out by Minho.

Dr. Casper Addyman, a lecturer in psychology at Goldsmiths, said initially that the issues concerning these students might be very similar to those faced by someone, for example, “from South London”, who may be underprivileged and the “first in his family to attend University.” He also said that students from the EU face similar problems.

But as Minho explained, the differences are spectacular between an EU and, a Chinese student, for example. Europe has evolved with an extremely different historical context - with Christianity, the Renaissance, Greek philosophy - from East Asia, which itself is markedly different from its neighbouring Indian Subcontinent, both of which are within Asia. There are structural differences, as admitted by a Campus support officer, in not only language and geography but thinking, understanding, sense of humour; basically the mind-set.

When asked about this, Dr. Addyman conceded that this context “intensifies” and makes “urgent” the situation of East Asian students. He said that if they are coming for a Masters, which is usually only a year long, it would be a disaster, since all the pressures are concentrated into a short period of time, while those of them that are coming here for an undergraduate degree might fare well eventually after a year or two of adjusting. “It takes time, it should get better,” he concluded.

But does it get better?

A third year student from Korea (who like almost every other student interviewed wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of how they might be treated by the College) agreed that the English language is a core issue and went on to explain his experience with the wellbeing services. He said that he couldn’t get help with his issues within the 15-20 minute bracket of the wellbeing sessions. (Minho explained that most of the time would be spent trying to fetch right English terms to articulate emotions, which perhaps evade the student even in their native language.) He also felt very uncomfortable being huddled up in the corner of the office with all the other students who came seeking help. The student continued that, after trying the wellbeing drop-in sessions, counselling and outside clinical help, he decided that “ultimately there was no help”. He felt that the College didn’t care about him or his cohort and just cared about their money. He had given up hope on the College soon after his experience.

Although these students, like the one above, tend to have friends that speak their language, they can’t necessarily engage in deeply personal, emotional, psychological issues with them. This is where wellbeing services ought to come in to help. Heeone Park, another third year student who helped interview some students for this article, said: “In my second year (2015), I realised that I needed serious help, but it was something that I couldn’t discuss with my friends; I was so desperate that I went to a counsellor at Goldsmiths. I did appreciate that I had someone professional to talk to about my mental health issues.

“I wanted to see her more often but I couldn’t. She gave me the names of the charities that I could get help from, but I didn’t feel safe as they weren’t private.” Heeone explained that she needed to see the counsellor more because she simply couldn’t discuss enough in the limited time that was given.

An East Asian student who graduated last year, who prefers to be anonymous due to how personal the experience is to her, said that in first year she was struggling a lot with English when writing an essay. She had made a plan and showed it to her tutor. “During the tutorial I wanted to cry because I couldn’t understand what the tutor was suggesting (criticising about). I ended up crying in front of him, which was embarrassing.”

Not much that can be done

The Campus Support officers admitted to a student that they can only sit and listen to them wishing they could do more. They in fact encouraged the student to demand that the College do something about this situation by getting a counselor that can speak their language.

The Nightline which is to be called between 6 and 8 pm failed to pick up the phone 4 times when called we called them for questions. A Samaritan over the phone over the phone explained that they also can only listen to a student but not provide any professional help; asked if they can be there for the students only in English they replied “yes” and apologised that they couldn’t do more. What is a student supposed to do if, say, they were raped, an experience that can be traumatising and humiliating for anyone? They would need professional guidance and support. But how could they turn to people they find so hard to trust? These students’ mental wellbeing issues are, as said by Dr. Addyman, “urgent.”

The recent death of a Korean student, who is believed to have killed themselves, has made the issue of student mental health much more urgent generally. Dr. Addyman said that there “was a missed opportunity” to prevent this person’s death and a failure to reach them earlier.

In light of these issues faced by these students, when asked, the Warden’s Office and the Student Centre sent us links to some of the helplines and wellbeing drop-ins checked-out above, along with some other contacts, such as GPs and student services like Dedicated Listeners.

There are a lot of listeners but essentially no one professional to understand and provide adequate help to these students.These students pay the highest fees and the language that bogs down is the means of the help, a paradox unaknowledged by the College as proven by the statement.

A Korean student in her final year told us that she cameacross a girl that she thought could’ve been Korean, cryingin the corner in the refractory one night. She said that itbroke her heart and that she so wished she could help her.She said that it reminded her of the time when in secondyear she was having a tutorial with her personal tutor. Whenhe asked her how she was doing, she “burst into tears” becauseit immediately occurred to her she could not rememberthe last time someone had asked her that question.

The Student Centre conduct a 'wellbeing drop-in' 2.30 to 3.30pm Monday to Thursday and 9.30 to 10.30am on Fridays

Photo: Goldsmiths

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