Communications Language
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COMMUNICATIONS LANGUAGE: Investigating Strategy and Consequences in Student Interaction & Integration COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CBS VS RUC Roskilde University Project in Strategic Communication, Spring Semester 2018 Andreia Teixeira, Student number 61685 Carla Silveira, Student number 61915 1 Introduction 4 Pre-study assumptions and research biases 6 Literature Review 8 The Higher Education spectrum 8 CBS 8 RUC 9 The Danish & Global cases 10 English as a lingua franca: internationally and in Denmark 14 Cross-cultural communication and interactions in the student community 17 External factors: regulators & other influencing forces in Danish Higher Education 20 Final literature remarks 23 Philosophy of science 24 Methods 26 Document analysis 26 Semi-structured qualitative interview 27 Ethnography and participant observation 28 Web survey 29 Analysis & Discussion 31 Document Analysis 31 Semi-structured Interviews 34 RUC 34 Strategic Communication & Language Profile 34 Influences of External Factors 36 Perceptions about the Student Body 36 RUC vs Other Danish Universities 37 CBS 39 Strategic Communication & Language Profile 39 Influences of External Factors 40 Perceptions about the Student Body 41 CBS vs Other Danish Universities 42 Ethnography and Participant Observation: interaction among students & Integration 42 RUC 42 CBS 48 Surveys 51 RUC 51 CBS 58 2 Main Results: Comparative Analysis 64 Conclusion 66 Bibliography 69 Appendix 73 3 Introduction This dissertation is concerned with the language choice of Higher Education institutions in Denmark. As international students ourselves, coming from countries where the Higher Education spectrum is far less multicultural than in Denmark and where the majority of the programmes are offered in the local language only - Brazil and Portugal -, we are aware and take advantage of the possibilities that Denmark offers for international students, which includes a large offer of English-taught programmes and academic information available in English. Adding to this, Denmark and Copenhagen are currently enjoying a reputation among the world’s most liveable countries and cities1, respectively, making them increasingly attractive for expats and international students. Nonetheless, our experience and time spent in Denmark have helped us understand that there are discrepancies among Danish universities: some seem to be more ‘international’ than others - not only in terms of the size of the international student population, but also in its presence and communication in English. As students, currently enrolled in Danish Higher Education programme, we are interested in exploring these dimensional differences and raise the question: To what extent does the language used by a university in its communications influence the diversity and interactions among students? To address our problem definition, we chose to compare two Danish universities characterized, at a first glance, by a distinct language choice (English and Danish): Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and Roskilde University (RUC). With this comparative analysis, our goal is to investigate the strategy - or lack of it - behind the main language used by these two Higher Education institutions in their communication with students. 1 See reports: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2016_human_development_report.pdf and https://www.smh.com.au/cqstatic/gxx1l4/LiveabilityReport2017.pdf 4 The purpose of this analysis is to determine if and how the language used in university communications exerts impact over the diversity and interactions among (international and Danish) students, while understanding how RUC and CBS decide in which language to deliver their communications materials. With this in mind, we have outlined the following research questions: 1. Is the universities’ language choice part of its communications strategy? 2. Is the universities’ language choice a cause or a consequence of its student diversity? 3. Do language barriers influence the level of interaction among Danish and International students? Throughout this dissertation, we will seek to answer these questions by resorting to the information obtained from the Communications departments of CBS and RUC, to the materials found at the students’ disposal online and on campus, and last but not least, to the opinions, experience and behaviour of the students themselves. In this spirit, we will explore the different dimensions and cultural aspects that can help to explain the universities’ choice of language when communicating with students. For instance, we will discuss the positioning of each of the universities, internationally and locally, the use of English in Denmark, as well as the role of English both as a teaching language in Higher Education and as the language of globalization and internationalization. We will also point out to external forces, such as legislation, Governments and market competition, which can plausibly play a role in chosen language of communication and the programme offer of CBS and RUC. Similar studies have been done - also in Denmark - to discuss the use of English in Higher Education and its role in internationalization processes. Differently from those approaches, our research compares two distinct strategies - English vs Danish - and assess their impact, considering that they co-exist in the same globalized, developed area. Thus, we hope to contribute to the discussion about the use of English as a teaching language in non-native countries, adding an example of resistance to that trend, here represented by the primary use of Danish, the local language. 5 Pre-study assumptions and research biases Why CBS and RUC? From its starting point - the problem formulation - and throughout the body of this study, we depart from an assumption that, our experience as international students at RUC, as residents in Denmark, and one of us as a former CBS course attendee, led us to believe: the two schools, CBS and RUC, seem to differ when it comes to their language choice; at a first glance, CBS presents most of its communications in English, while RUC more often chooses Danish in the same materials. This dichotomy is also reflected in the composition of the student community, with CBS having more international students and being considered an ‘international university’ and RUC less so. In fact, while collecting data for our analysis, we realised that there is an existing comparison between CBS and RUC among students in Denmark: we found a Facebook ‘community’ page named “RUC eller CBS?” (In English, RUC or CBS?), with over 7,500 likes; while explaining the object of our comparative research to a Danish student, the reaction heard was “such a cliché!”. This said, if and whenever this dichotomy is not verified or is contradicted in any section of our analysis, we will be careful to recognize it. We will also take into consideration other aspects that separate these two Higher Education institutions and that may influence their level of internationalization and visibility. These include: the geographical aspect - CBS’ main buildings are located “close to the heart” (CBS Communications, 2015) of the country’s capital, while RUC’s campus is located in Trekroner, about 30 km away from the center of Copenhagen; the areas of study offered and educational approach - CBS, as the name indicates, is a Business school on Business, Management and Industry programmes, while RUC has a more extensive offer, with a reputation for its project-oriented approach and liberal educational model; the size of the universities - as of October 1, 2017, CBS counted with 14,758 total students, while RUC registered 8,142, (Danmarks Statistik, n.d.). Why students? Our choice to focus on communication towards students, which can take place on campus or online, in the multiple online channels through which a university can communicate with its students, can be justified by the fact that we, as Communications and Master’s students at 6 RUC, have a particular interest and first-hand experience in what is communicated towards us. Moreover, we have been (and still are) challenged by the Danish language learning, as many of the international students in universities across the country, and have also sensed that it is an essential element of integration in the Danish society. We must recognize, however, that this also constitutes a limitation, since our own proximity to the object of study can lead to biases in both our problem definition and analysis. On the other hand, our status as international students, Non-Danish language natives in Denmark, has led us to reflect upon the language challenges and opportunities found at Danish universities. As RUC students, we could also observe, to a certain extent, a separation between Danish and international students in situations such as group formation, group work and informal conversations on campus. Therefore, our experience was not only decisive when choosing the universities, but also when picking the target audience of the universities’ communications. Furthermore, the fact that neither of us is an English language native - meaning that none of us comes from an English speaking country - has, inevitably, brought up comparisons between Denmark’s Higher Education spectrum and the equivalent back home, at the universities where, not so long ago, we were Bachelor’s students, learning in our native language. Thus, from a starting point, we do not wish to advocate for the use of one language over the other. Our comparative approach aims at finding the pros