Free Paper on Shifting Paradigms: Examining Asian Students' Trend Towards Higher Education in Germany

Introduction

The once national-oriented entities have witnessed a shift in a paradigm based on technological advancements, which have consequently resulted in the internationalization of higher education institutions. The quest for academic excellence forms the basis of students' rapidly growing exodus from Asian countries to foreign countries. This is based on the supportive higher education institutions' policies depicted as lucrative for the students, especially those coming from middle-class families. The discourse concerning students' outbound mobility to foreign institutions has gathered momentum for the last couple of decades. Having recognized the link between education and economic competitiveness, a majority of governments sought to invest in higher education institutions to attract students and boost enrolments within those institutions.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Consequently, countries affected by these changes also made changes to the education system whose aim was to allow mass higher education for students through access to University education. However, the education system's epic failure to accommodate domestic demand for education has consequently led to the increased mobility of students in search of higher education. By the same token, the increased demand has firepower the growing exodus of students who find it imperative to depart from their countries to other countries searching for higher education. Succinctly, jurisdictions that have been depicted as highly supportive of this mobility include Australia and East and South-East Asian countries. The financial masculinity of middle-class families is also factored in as the chief contributor to students' increasing exodus from Asian countries to foreign countries.

The mobility to overseas countries, particularly in the mid-1990s, witnessed most students choose English-speaking countries as their most preferred destinations. Some jurisdictions that witnessed many students include the United Kingdom and the United States, as they were recognized as education hubs (Chan, 2012). However, the influx of students has led to higher institutions, within foreign jurisdictions, with lucrative education policies that attract students. Such policies are to the effect that they relieve pressure on the students by catering to all of their needs and providing academic certificates such as degrees and diplomas via various platforms.

The shift in paradigm from English-speaking countries to non-English-speaking countries has been witnessed in the years preceding. A majority of South-Asian countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India have diversified their study destination to depict the paradigm shift (Chan, 2012). As a result, Germany tops the list of the most preferred destinations for studying by the students. Students' enrollment in Germany's higher education institutions, especially from India, has increased within the last four years, thereby depicting a large increase in students sent out from the country (Edwards, 2016). By the same token, the degrees attained from higher education institutions by Indian students have consequently reduced based on this shift. Therefore, Germany paints a picture of the most preferred destination by Asian students as an education provider.

This paper seeks to examine the shift from English-speaking countries to non-English-speaking countries by conceptualizing and conceptualizing student mobility in Asia. As such, Germany is at the center of this discourse due to the increased number of South-Asian students (Edwards, 2016). Strictly speaking, the historical patterns underpinning the mobility of Asian students were based on a huge preference for vertical mobility over horizontal mobility. However, as mentioned earlier, the English-speaking countries, mostly those from Europe and North America, had the upper hand in high student enrollment because they were considered more developed (Greenhill et al., 2016). Therefore, the sudden change in jurisdictions is worth analyzing because communication is an imperative factor that underpins any system of education. As such, the communication barrier is seemingly being written off as part of the considerations underscoring Germany's migration.

The analysis is premised on the reasons that make students from Wonderland choose Germany as their preferred destination for higher education studies. As such, the research advances two hypotheses to that effect: How the financial aspect depicted by fee-free education influences middle-class families, and how a flexible education system in Germany allows for the success of Asian students in higher learning institutions. A careful analysis of the aforementioned hypothesis would lead to a proper understanding of the weighty issues underpinning student mobility to higher learning institutions in Germany.

Methodology

This research employed a qualitative approach as the chief methodology. Haradhan (2018) acknowledges that qualitative research methods are employed in cases involving history, sociology, and philosophy. Therefore, this paper being one of sociology, necessitated qualitative research as an imperative method of research. By the same token, the need to understand human behavior and experiences depicted by the shift of Asian students from foreign English-speaking countries to Germany underlines this methodology's need. Succinctly, the paradigms portended by qualitative research such as interpretive and positivist are effective based on the need to interpret data collected (as cited in Haradhan, 2018). Therefore, the qualitative research method proved to be the most effective in my analysis.

Secondary data in the form of published data sources enrich this paper. The published collected stems from scholarly reports, articles, and websites, which provided a wealth of information, especially on the reasons that underscore the migration of Asian students from Asia to Germany. The essence of incorporating secondary data is based on the fact that it complements the primary source of gathering information. Therefore, the secondary data obtained from website publications are very effective in that they can be used to make a significant difference based on the research goals. It is worth noting that the various publications were collected from sites that provided credible information; therefore, they were subjected to the credibility test. This was done by assessing the time of publication and the reliability of the information within the website by going through the website's comment section. As such, the website's information is reliable in as much as the thematic underpinnings are concerned.

As an undergird of qualitative research, the paper employed the survey method in the form of an interview to collect information from ten University students. Ilieva (2016), appreciates the use of interviews as he posits that they encompass the main qualitative research technique. In the same vein, interviews are effective as they provide an in-depth understanding of the subject matter. Based on the challenge posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the paper employed an online survey technique whereby ten Asian students from a German-based university were interviewed.

The paper envisages a semi-standardized interview. Ilieva (2016), defines a semi-standardized interview as one that uses a very flexible approach to interviewing the subjects. As such, the flexibility of this Is denoted by the interviewer's ability to explore different topics and gather more information from the interviewee's answers. Additionally, this technique is guided by the same thematic issues that guide the questionnaire. As such, the answers obtained from the interviewees can be compared. In this case, the interview was restricted to thematic issues such as general experiences, financial status, and class identity (Guerrero-Castaneda et al., 2017). These topics coined the students' questions; therefore, it was difficult for the students to go off-topic by formulating open-ended questions the questionnaire allowed for the interviewee to give more insight into his or her personal perspective on the underlying issues. Coughlan (2009) asserts that the flexibility espoused by this interview collection method facilitates the collection of richer data.

The use of interviews, especially about the paper's aim, is effective as far as unusual circumstances are concerned. As mentioned earlier, the interview was conducted during the COVID-19 period therefore, there were problems as far as face-to-face interaction is concerned. As such, the online interviewing method's employment was effective based on the fact that it allowed for the collection of data without incurring problems associated with face-to-face communication. However, the main challenge espoused by the online collection method is based on the fact that it did not allow room for clarification, as would have been the case in the face-to-face interviews (Guerrero-Castaneda et al., 2017). Therefore, this poses a challenge as to the credibility of the information. To address this and remedy the situation, the paper sought to use publications from various websites.

The publications are to the effect that they enable clarification of the information obtained from the survey. As such, it becomes easier to gauge the credibility of the information given by the subjects. Additionally, the use of ten subjects and at the same time asking them the same questions via the questionnaire is imperative in the data collection process (Greenhill et al., 2016). This is because the data can be compared as well as tested for credibility. Comparing the information gathered and using the open-ended technique to ask questions proved to be imperative in the data collection process.

Therefore, this research portends a huge amount of data that subsists from information gathered through questionnaires and publications from the website concerning the outbound mobility of Asian students to Germany for higher education learning. As such, qualitative methodology is effective.

Results

Quantitative

The quantitative results depict a shift in paradigm in the past four years. This is evidenced by a rising number of students at a rate of 2% per annum. The year 2018 occasioned the highest number of students attending the high education institution in Germany, while the winter semester between 1994 and 1995 occasioned the lowest number of students.

Accordingly, the total attendance rate when compared with the passing rate indicates that there is a dismal performance with regard to Wonderland's students. As such, the results indicate that of the 19,517 students who attended the University in Germany between 1983 and 2018, only 2,051 passed their University studies. This indicates a 10% pass rate of the students while the remaining 17,466 failed their studies in Germany.

Strictly speaking, the percentage of males who passed their education in higher learning institutions is higher than that of female students. Statistically, 73% of a male passed their examination while only a few of them failed. In contrast, female attendees have a pass rate of 57%. This means that male subjects who attended a higher learning institution in Germany had a higher passing rate in relation to women. It can be argued that the number of women who attended German institutions for higher learning was few. However, based on statistical analysis their performance was dismal as compared to that of men.

Succinctly, the year 1991 occasioned the lowest number of students who passed their examinations (Trines, 2019). The two subjects who passed the examination were male students with none of the female students being categorized as having passed their examinations.