Liverpool University: ‘Chinese students are usually unfamiliar with the word “cheating” in English’
This week University of Liverpool seems determined to alienate as many students as possible: from ‘academic sanctions’ for late rent to racial stereotyping of Chinese students?
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It’s only Tuesday, and it’s already proving to be a challenging week for University of Liverpool senior management and its communications/public relations team.
First of all, they’re dealing with the fallout from the report published in The Tab (‘Exclusive: Liverpool students living in halls receive “academic sanctions” if they fail to meet rent payments’, 15 January 2019). According to The Times (‘£4,000 student “stealth tax” on parents’, 31 July 2018), University of Liverpool’s accommodation is among some of the most expensive in the United Kingdom (see graphic below) — above Edinburgh, Leeds, Exeter, Durham, Manchester, York, Sheffield! Even though Liverpool also happens to be one of the most affordable cities in the United Kingdom! The article in The Times suggests that the cheapest room available at University of Liverpool — presumably the single bedsit, no meals included, and with bathroom facilities shared between 6 and 9 students (?) per ‘corridor’ — costs £5,244 per academic year (or £134.46 per week based on a 39-week contract). But an investigation conducted by This is Money in January 2018 — using Rightmove data on the average rental price for a two-bed property based on two people living in the property splitting the cost — is £336.09 per month or £84 per week. ‘University of Liverpool’s 2018 public accounts show that [the University] earn[s] around £12.7 million in 2017–18 from “Residences, Catering and Conferences”’ (income £30.4 million — expenditure £17.7 million=£12.7 million). Student accommodation appears to be a lovely ‘money tree’ for University of Liverpool’s senior management.
But on Tuesday 15 January 2019, UUKspin received an anonymous tip-off regarding a separate issue at the University of Liverpool which, as will be clear below, we call ‘wubi-gate’. We saw three emails:
A. An email dated Monday 14 January 2019, from the ‘International Advice and Guidance’ team to Liverpool’s international students, entitled ‘Exams — how to stay out of trouble’.
B. An email dated Tuesday 15 January 2019, again from the ‘International Advice and Guidance team’ to Liverpool’s international students, entitled ‘Apology’.
C. An email dated Tuesday 15 January 2019, from the University of Liverpool Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Janet Beer to Liverpool’s international students, entitled ‘Statement from the Vice-Chancellor’.
Screenshots are produced below. Long story short, in email A, the International Advice and Guidance team gave some advice on avoiding exam misconduct or cheating. Helpfully, the International Advice and Guidance team provided the Chinese translation of the word ‘cheating’, which apparently was 舞弊 (wubi). There was an explanatory note at the bottom of the email, which read, ‘we find that our Chinese students are usually unfamiliar with the word “cheating” in English and we therefore provide this translation: 舞弊’. Never mind that, as UUKspin have been reliably informed by Chinese students, the correct translation for ‘cheating’ should be 作弊 (zuobi) and not 舞弊 (wubi, which means ‘fraud’ such as ‘electoral fraud’). Since all Chinese students studying in the UK have to pass English language requirements — University of Liverpool demands anything from IELTS 6.0–7.0 depending on the degree programme — it is rather unlikely that those Chinese students don’t know the meaning of such basic words like ‘cheating’ (unless Liverpool assumes their Chinese students cheated in the IELTS too…). It’s also worth noting that exam cheating is now a criminal offence in China (The Independent, 9 June 2016). To offer the Chinese translation of ‘cheating’— and thereby targeting specifically Chinese students and not any other group of international students — appears to stem from the stereotype that Chinese students ‘cheat’ a hell of a lot. But despite lurid media headlines about the prevalence of cheating in China and among Chinese students, there’s actually minimal, reliable quantitative research on this issue. So much for evidence-based policy-making.
By Tuesday 15 January 2019, the ‘International Advice and Guidance team’ to Liverpool’s international students sent an email entitled ‘Apology’ (email B below).
This is followed by two apologetic tweets sent on 14 January 2019 by University of Liverpool’s Student Welfare Advice and Guidance — ironically with the handle LivUniSWAG — official Twitter account, reproduced below.
Finally, by the afternoon of 15 January 2019, University of Liverpool’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Janet Beer was in full ‘damage limitation’ mode. She sent the following email to Liverpool’s international students, entitled ‘Statement from the Vice-Chancellor’, which was also tweeted on the University’s twitter account (email C).
The two incidents this week at University of Liverpool — ‘academic sanctions’ for late rent, stereotyping Chinese students — cast serious doubt on Liverpool management’s ‘we are student-centred’ and ‘we are international’ rhetoric, and questions must be asked about the Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Janet Beer’s ability (or inclination) to ensure her institution is committed to diversity, equality, and access —or just treating students with basic dignity and respect.
Other media coverage:
- Change.org petition: ‘University of Liverpool must give a public apology to all international students’
- Liverpool Echo, 15 January 2019: ‘Chinese students slam university “racism” over cheating email’
- The Tab, 15 January 2019: ‘Liverpool Uni accused of racism for only translating “cheating” into Chinese in email to all international students’
- Apple Daily (Hong Kong), 16 January 2019: ‘【驚睇唔明】英大學涉歧視華學生 警告勿cheating加註中文「舞弊」’
- Huanqiu Wang (China), 16 January 2019: ‘利物浦大学中文提醒学生不要舞弊 校长：为错误带来的伤害道歉’
- ETtoday (Taiwan), 16 January 2019: ‘利物浦大學：怕中國學生看不懂原文網址: cheating特別寫中文「舞弊」’
- Liberty Times (Taiwan), 16 January 2019: ‘一封電郵讓中生爆炸…英國名校遭批「種族歧視」被迫道歉’
- Ming Pao (Hong Kong), 16 January 2019: ‘英大學提醒考試勿作弊加中文翻譯 中國留學生質疑針對 批種族歧視’
- Daily Mail, 16 January 2019: ‘University of Liverpool accused of racism after emailing all international students on appropriate exam conduct but translating the word “cheating” into Chinese only’
- BBC News, 16 January 2019: ‘Liverpool University Chinese cheating email “racist”’
- BBC Chinese, 16 January 2019: ‘英國利物浦大學被指種族主義向中國學生道歉’
