Adjusting to higher education in Hong Kong: the influence of school medium of instruction

This article compares the experiences of Cantonese-speaking students from Hong Kong’s Chinese- and English-medium schools when adjusting to the demands of English-medium degree studies. The participants in this mixed-methods study were members of the first cohort to undertake the new four-year undergraduate programme. The findings of a large-scale survey revealed statistically significant differences between the responses of the two categories of students, indicating that school teaching medium was a crucial determinant of their speed and ease of adjustment to university study. Chinese-stream students evidently entered university with lower competence and confidence in English than their classmates from the English-medium stream and thus encountered greater difficulties performing key study and language skills. Qualitative evidence from the study’s longitudinal strand suggests that Chinese-stream students endured extremely taxing transitions in the first semester. However, by the end of the year, they had begun to overcome the challenges of university study through a combination of strong achievement motivation, unremitting practice, effective learning strategies and supportive peer networks. The article concludes by discussing the study’s implications for higher education policy in Hong Kong and worldwide.