The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for Universities in the UK when it comes to supporting international students, as well as for recruiting new students going forward. Chinese students comprise the UK’s largest proportion of international students and are important to HEI’s financial sustainability.

This webinar will report on the findings of a British Academy Funded Project* to study the experiences of Chinese students in UK universities during the pandemic. The project adopted a participatory research model in which students themselves took on the role of participant researchers and worked together to formulate recommendations for HEIs on how to better support Chinese students and how to maintain the UK’s place as a desirable study destination for students from China.

The webinar will focus on:

• The daily life and study challenges facing Chinese students (and international students more generally) during the pandemic;

• The importance of successful institutional communication and lessons learned from the pandemic;

• Strategies for retaining/recruiting Chinese students in the future.

The webinar will consist of short presentations from project researchers and students, followed by a discussion with participants. The target audience are representatives from HEIs, who are tasked with or interested in supporting and recruiting international students.

* Funding for this project was made possible by a grant from the British Academy: Quarantined between cultures: Overcoming communication challenges and building resilience among Chinese students residing in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic (COV19/201479)