By Ru Ge

As a Chinese exchange student who has been studying at Copenhagen University (UCPH) for nearly five months, I have experienced major differences between Danish college lifestyles and what is common among Chinese students. In the process, I have gone through the full gamut of feelings about what I learned, ranging from unfamiliarity and surprise to acceptance and adaptation.

UCPH/BISU photo

Recently, Denmark and China have entered into a range of collaborative agreements in areas including research, innovation and higher education in order to enhance knowledge transfer between the two countries (My Danish Education: Stories From Five Successful Chinese Graduates, p14). Against this backdrop, more Chinese higher institutions are cooperating with their Danish counterparts and increasing numbers of exchange programs are being set up.

As a result of this, about 40 junior students majoring in English, interpretation and translation, journalism, and Chinese Literature from my school - Beijing International Studies University (BISU) - will study cross-cultural studies at Copenhagen University next year. Similarly, about 40 Danish students majoring in Chinese studies will come to my university to learn Chinese history, literature, and language.

The numbers of exchange students will double, year-on-year, going forward. Because of the upcoming collaboration between my university and Copenhagen University, I think it will be enlightening and helpful to look into the differences in terms of lifestyles between Chinese and Danish university students, especially for those Chinese students who are going to study in Denmark for one or two semesters next year. I believe that after reading this article, they will become familiar with Danish culture to some degree and will at least have some emotional preparation for the exchange program.

Since basic college life is composed of four parts (studying, working, entertainment and living), my particular focus will be on a comparative study between Danish students and Chinese students on these four areas of students' lives. The main research method of my project will be a combination of conducting field trips (like classroom participation, interviewing Danish students and international students who have lived in Denmark for a while, and going to the places where Danish students usually prefer to socialize, such as bars on Friday) and extensive research drawing on both printed materials and authoritative information available online.

Study:

When talking about their university studies, what Danish students are most proud of is that they don't have to pay any tuition to for college education. In addition to that, their education is heavily subsidized by the government through grants paid to every student of 5,900 kroner (some 890 US dollars) per month regardless of financial need (Rydahl, 2017, p33). These huge subsidies ensure that students can maintain a relatively decent life without worrying too much about their subsistence and can devote themselves to studies.

UCPH/BISU photo

Concerning the issue of freedom offered at the university, I really envy Danish students. In Denmark, it seems that each student has ample freedom to choose his or her own direction in the educational process, and within certain limits, they can personally influence the contents and methods used along his or her chosen route of study. A few of my Danish friends studying in Copenhagen University told me that changing their own major is really easy. If one studies in a certain academic field for some time and find out it doesn't interest them any more, or they don't think it will be helpful for their future career, they can change their major at any time. Thanks to the freedom of choosing or adjusting the field of studies, many students are really passionate about the academic area they are pursing.

One of my friends, who originally majored in political science, changed to Japanese after two years of study. Although he cannot not receive a degree in political science any more, he says he really enjoys his work. As of now, he has only enrolled in the Japanese studies program for half a year, but he can already speak fairly fluent Japanese.

In addition, perfect attendance is not compulsory. Sometimes, nonattendance is even encouraged especially if some students have more important work to do. So some students often skip a few classes and participate in voluntary work or undertake an internship which might further their careers in the future. Some others just prefer studying by themselves and they think they can study more efficiently compared to listening to a lecture offered by their tutors. All of these reasons are acceptable and in the opinions of some teachers it shows that students are thinking independently and making decisions wisely, allowing them to be more goal-oriented upon their return.

In the Danish educational system, group evaluation of an assignment is very common. It's a uniquely Danish phenomenon. The concept was introduced in 1993 by the socialist government at the time, with the aim of cultivating group cohesion and team spirit (Berlingske, January 8, 2007). It usually takes the form of a combination of a written project and an oral presentation. Everyone in the group contributes to the written project and on the day of oral examination, each person presents their part individually. Each person is graded separately but one's grade is strongly influenced by the group' s performance.

I've observed my Danish friends majoring in Chinese studies preparing for a group examination. Approximately seven or eight students usually sit together on a couch or in a classroom specially designed for a group work and discuss the topic they are going to present in the class. When they stop discussing, they usually take out their laptop and search for some relevant materials and information on the Internet and try to note down the details that are relevant to the discussion. Some of them will try to review the chapters of textbooks they've studies and sort out their train of thought and ideas presented on the textbook, until they can use their own words to present the general ideas. As far as I can see, this kind of "group work study and evaluation mode" is a very helpful and advanced way of doing things.

There are many benefits behind it. For example, students not only gain theoretical knowledge through the research and evaluation process but also know how to collaborate with their peers and learn from each other. In addition, students must also know how to think critically and analytically, because the success of the assignment is not mainly dependent on whether one can remember the theoretical knowledge by heart, but more on whether one can apply their knowledge practically and offer evidence that they have understood concepts on a critical and logical basis. Evidence shows that these benefits have a positive long term effect on students' career adaptability.

Mr. Mingdong Dong, a successful Chinese graduate who gained a Ph.D. degree in nanotechnology from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, is currently working as a Research Associate at the prestigious Rowland Institute at Harvard University in USA. He still collaborates with his former colleagues from Denmark on several research projects, and he still meets with his supervisor and colleagues through Skype for discussions about incomplete and upcoming projects (My Danish Education: Stories From Five Successful Chinese Graduates, p4). The skills and experiences he gained from the unique environment provided by the group work really helped him in the course of carrying out his current research.

Concerning the matter of classroom attendance, Chinese universities are stricter with students. Although it varies depending on the course, generally, when a student's number of missed classes reaches a certain number, they are not allowed to sit the examination. This means the students fail the course and there will be a very bad mark left on their performance report. Usually ambitious students cannot accept the bad score, especially if they want to further their studies in the future. Students need high GPA so that they can apply for a good graduate school, so the heat is always on and students are pressured to make high marks.

UCPH/BISU photo

In China, the most common way of evaluating a students' academic performance is to offer a written examination. Students have to finish it within a certain period of time in the classroom where there are one or two supervisors making sure no one is cheating. When time is out, everyone has to hand in their examination paper (which usually takes the form of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, filling in the blank, and reading comprehension). Sometimes, there are oral examinations and presentation tests as well, but usually they don't account for a huge percentage of the total grade given, so they are not the most important parts.

I would argue that the Chinese way of evaluating students' academic performance is much stricter compared to the Danish way, because there is usually only one right answer to each question. So students have to work very hard in terms of rote memorization of theoretical knowledge in order to give a perfectly correct answer on their examination paper. Some might argue that it's very harsh to ask students to remember so much theoretical knowledge by heart, and that it puts too much pressure on students. But this way of examination has its own advantages. Chinese students are famous for having a really solid academic foundation in international competition because Chinese schools put a lot of emphasis on the ability of students to acquire basic knowledge. To take an example, in the OECD PISA 2010 survey, students in Hong Kong and Shanghai had the highest results of all the OECD countries assessed, which really proves that the Chinese way of inculcation and evaluation of students has its strengths. But I would suggest that each system can learn from the strengths of the other: there are ways the Chinese system could be more flexible, just as there are ways that the Danish system could do more to ensure that students are acquiring basic, general education-type knowledge on an easily-evaluated and measurable basis.

Work:

In Denmark, more than 80% of students who are over 17 years old have a job outside of school (Rydahl, 2017, p41). Usually, female students make extra money doing things like babysitting, cleaning and working as sales assistants in bakeries and newsstands. But male students prefer doing newspaper rounds and sorting bottles for supermarkets. But there are other options that are much less mainstream.

One of my Danish friends, a student majoring in Chinese studies chose a different path. He is passionate about collecting bikes from a recycling center near his home and rebuilding and repainting them. After some mechanical and artistic restoration, the old bikes are given a new, refreshed look. Then he sells them as a way of earning some extra money. Currently he is rebuilding the sixth bike that he saved from the dump. It is really remarkable that he can turn this hobby into a way of making some extra cash during his university studies.

Another friend of mine is a straight A student who is majoring in art history. He has two part time jobs. One is teaching English and history to a third grader, which is (to a certain degree) related to his field of studies. The other is being a judo player and judge during International competitions, which is his life' s passion. He has practiced judo since childhood, and has won international judo competitions many times. So doing this part job is a most enjoyable experience for him.

It appears that many Danish students are able to enrich their lives considerably during university: turning outside hobbies into ways of earning extra spending money while also gaining valuable work experience.

The primary reason that Danish college students like to spend a few weekdays or part of their weekends doing part-time jobs, to put it more simply, is that they long for independence and autonomy. They want to pay for their activities themselves and they don't want to keep asking for money from their parents.

In China, according to a survey conducted by Sohu.com, only 52.5% of college students in China have done part time jobs during their studies. And on average, their working time is only 0-4 hours per week. This is really different from the case in Denmark, where most college students have part time jobs and their working hours outside the classroom are relatively longer.

In my opinion, there are two main factors that contribute to this phenomenon in China.

First of all, the academic pressure is really heavy in Chinese universities. Students have to work very hard if they want to have solid academic performance, which is considered to be the most important thing in a Chinese school.

UCPH/BISU photo

Those with better academic performance will accordingly have more opportunities and benefits. Those opportunities and benefits include the chance to be an exchange student abroad (For example, there are only eight students in my major that have the chance to be an exchange student in Denmark for a semester, but there are almost 220 students competing for the opportunity, so the competition is really fierce), internship programs in an embassy, scholarships, and so on. Because of these potential opportunities and benefits, and also because of the pressure imposed by schools and parents, students really put a lot of effort into their academics and don't have much time left for part time jobs.

In China, the connection between children and parents is much closer in comparison to western countries. In the mindset of many Chinese parents, it's their obligation to take care of their children until they finish their studies. Because most Chinese college students are financially supported by their parents and are offered monthly living costs, they don't have much in the way of a financial incentive to take up part-time work.

Within the 52.5% of Chinese college students who have experience doing part time jobs, 32.53% say that they do so in order to enrich their qualifications so that in the future when they graduate, they are more likely to be employed due to their prior work experience. 17.66% said that they just followed the crowd. When their friends are interested in a certain occupations and want to give it a try, they often to do the same thing so that they can keep the same pace with their friends. Only 12.08% of college students did part time jobs due to the reason that their family was very poor and they could not support themselves. So it is clear that for most Chinese students who do take up part time work, their reasons for doing so are not financial in nature.