Abstract

In recent years the development of new marine colleges across the world has seen the growth of overseas collaborative partnerships in marine education. In the UK these partnerships have been mainly between UK and Indian marine colleges. These partnerships have brought a new and different type of overseas learner to the UK FE/HE market. The learners are often much younger than those who previously came to the UK for marine training, have their fees paid by their parents or a sponsoring employer and have little or no experience of working at sea. They therefore bring a different set of requirements, expectations and skills to the UK than have been traditionally encountered in marine education. The academic success of these students is often achieved only after re-sits and remedial work which presents the students and the college with additional stress and expense.

The overall aim of this research was to find ways to improve the learning experience of the Indian collaborative students and to produce a strategy which would benefit both the students and the participating colleges. To increase the breadth and depth of this research a multi-method research strategy was adopted.

Firstly, an investigation into the preferred ways of learning, (“learning styles”) of the overseas students was undertaken. A questionnaire about learning styles was undertaken with 270 students from 16 groups of marine engineering students from both the UK and India. Learning style theories look at how students prefer to learn and how this knowledge should be used to influence the teaching methods used in the classroom. The use of learning styles questionnaires presented an insight into some significant differences in the preferred methods of learning between overseas and UK students.

Secondly, to triangulate the findings from the above survey an investigation into “best practice” in UK-India collaborative programmes was conducted. This was based on a review of personal audit visits undertaken with collaborative partners and a review of published reports by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). The summary of best practices derived from this review, in addition to educational matters, included administrative matters such as risk assessment, marketing, visit planning, and visit reports. From the review of educational matters, a model of the key factors in the educational experience of the student in UK- India collaborative education was developed. The model highlighted where the strengths and weaknesses of the current educational experience of the student lay.

The knowledge gained from this work on learning styles and “best practice” was combined to produce a strategy for enhancing the learning experience of Indian Marine Engineering Students. This strategy was disseminated at an International Maritime Research Conference in Chennai, India in January 2010. In addition to being published in the Conference papers, it was also published in New Delhi, (Business Archives, Vol.-1, No II) India in November 2010.