Progression from Chinese high school onto a transnational Chinese-UK university joint BSc degree in chemistry; an international study focussing on laboratory practical skills

An investigation was carried out into laboratory practical skills development and students’ specific challenges in transition from laboratory chemistry at Chinese High School (HS) to a fully English style university laboratory course. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study of its type investigating practical laboratory skills for a TransNational Education (TNE) Chemistry BSc (3 + 1) degree programme between the United Kingdom (UK) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Internationalization of such courses have become popular in recent years. The two universities in this study are Nanjing Tech University (NJTech) and the University of Sheffield (UoS). Our study is exploratory with the aim to determine the level of practical laboratory skills the NJTech students gained from High School and the challenges they encountered as they joined a UK degree laboratory programme delivered in English. For this international study, a mixed-methods approach was followed using qualitative inductive and deductive methodologies. Using open-ended questions it was found that particular challenges in the transition were around the lack of prior laboratory experience and the development of many new skills, laboratory notebook documentation, laboratory safety, and studying laboratory chemistry in a second language. Students welcomed these challenges and felt they were developing into professional chemists. Specific recommendations are made for international TNE degrees with laboratory programmes, particularly for those students who progress from Chinese High School through the Chinese GaoKao system into a western university chemistry laboratory programme. The scaffolded/structured curriculum design allowed for total and successful integration of the NJTech with the Sheffield home students during the final year of their BSc in Chemistry. After graduation, having gained high class degrees and becoming fluent in English many of the students progressed into Industry, and onto Masters or PhD programmes in the UK and throughout the world, suggesting internationalisation of students on our TNE programme was successful.