Culture and Student-Faculty Communication in Higher Education: Implications for the Design of Educational Communication Tools

Abstract

This paper examines the significance of culture and its impact on communication in higher education. The objectives were to compare Chinese and German university students’ different patterns of communication with their faculty, and to provide implications for designing educational computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools. The study involved two phases: first, an explorative interview with students and professors from both countries revealing that communication formality is the most significant difference between the two cultures. Second, an online questionnaire evaluating Chinese and German university students’ communication formality and uncertainty avoidance in education (N=125) confirmed that German students communicate more formally with faculty than Chinese students, and this difference can be positively predicted by their degree of uncertainty avoidance. Based on these findings, we discussed the implications for designing the CMC tools which can help university faculty to better communicate with their foreign students.