Chinese student values a study of factors related to the reference group orientation of Chinese students at the University of Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

This is a study of Chinese students at the University of Melbourne. It is concerned with the differences between their values, attitudes, and beliefs and those of Australian students; with the extent to which they are influenced by these Australian values during their stay; and with factors relating to the extent of this influence. Since the war, there has been a large increase in the number of Asian students attending Australian universities. This is due partly to increased awareness of educational possibilities in this country and improved communications, and partly to major social changes in the countries of South East Asia. When these students return home, they will constitute a leadership elite; the impressions and attitudes they form during their stay could be of major importance to the future relations between Australia and the nations of Asia, to which she is geographically so close. But such evidence as is available indicates that these students encounter many difficulties in this country, academic and otherwise, and as the following passage by a departing Malayan student shows, their final attitude is not neccessarily one of enthusiasm