Africa and China Higher Education Cooperation and Exchange: Effects of the Short-term Seminars

This paper presents the cooperation and exchanges between African countries and China in the field of higher education, precisely the case of the short-term seminars organised by China for African scholars. It aims at looking more closely into the effects of these short-term seminars. Based on online surveys, interviews, observations and personal experiences, the study found that these short-term seminars benefit both Africa and China by strengthening participants’ skills, broadening international views on the one hand, and strengthening China’s international relations ties on the other hand. Based from the results, some concrete suggestions to strengthen higher education cooperation and exchanges between African countries and China in general were formulated to improve the quality and efficiency of these short-term seminars in particular. These suggestions include the establishment of an exchange platform, the improvement of the quality of communication, the promotion of scholarship awarding for long-term studies to young Africans, and the promotion of mutual understanding.


Introduction
Since the 1950s, Africa and China have considered higher education as an essential part of their cooperation. Both sides attach great attention to higher education cooperation and exchange, especially since the establishment of the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000. The launch of FOCAC at the early start of the new century gave a new trend of development to the cooperation and exchanges between African countries and China. experts were sometimes sent to the recipient countries for special training. However, this phase of Chinese assistance concerned mainly the material and financial aid.
The main features of the second phase of Chinese assistance include the diversity of training forms, such as the training of technical personnel, the training of government officials and management personnel, the military trainees. Another feature is the increased number of trained staff year after year. From hundreds of professional and technical personnel in the 1983 China's foreign aid training, it has grown to thousands of trainees every year by 2002. In the beginning, the trainees were from Asian countries. However, from the second period of China's foreign aid, trainees were from more than 150 Asian, African and Latin American countries and regions. At this stage, China actively participated in the multilateral aid. For example, China has provided bilateral assistance to nine international organisations and 99 developing countries in cooperation with the United Nations development agencies and has trained 1500 technical talents (An Yang, 2013). During the second phase, the forms and fields of training were multiple, the contents were more specialised, the scope was wider and the effects were more noticeable. Since the 21 st century, the Chinese government has also developed short-term training programs to train talent in various areas. These programs cover a wide range of courses for teachers and managers from universities, secondary and primary schools, managers of the Ministry of Commerce and technical personnel. There were also training courses on environmental protection, agriculture, medical and health.
The figure displays a short description of the whole process of the short-term seminars in China hosted by the Z University.

Airport Pickup
Opening Ceremony

Conclusion
Before the arrival of participants in China, the hosting Institution arranged people to welcome them at the airport.
Usually organised at the beginning of the seminar, and presided by one representative of Z University.
During the first two weeks, there are many lectures and visits to places, which are not far from the hosting institution.
During the last week of the seminar, there are many visits, inside and outside of the province and three lectures.
The conclusion usually includes the evaluation of the seminar, inspirations and lessons learnt from the seminar, reports, arrangement of luggage, etc.

Airport drop-off
After the closing ceremony, all the participants are accompanied back to the airport according to their departure time.

Closing Ceremony
The closing ceremony is usually presided by the representative of Z University, and during which participants receive their attestation.

Research design
This study used a mixed of quantitative and qualitative methods. The data gathering techniques are the online surveys, the observations, and the personal experiences of the researchers. Additionally, an in-depth interview was conducted to validate a more accurate, reliable, and trustworthy data and information.
The use of the online survey was encouraged because of the trend in many researches that use the same. Hayslett and Wildemuth (2004) and Martz (1999) as quoted by Wiersma and Jurs (2010) noted that the online survey answer rate is usually not so high compared to the on-the-spot paper survey questionnaire. Since the respondents are from the different African countries, the field survey requires considerable financial resources, more time, and more energy. Thus, it appears necessary to use an online survey for this study. Besides the online survey, an in-depth interviews with some Africans who participated in the short-term seminars at Z University were conducted.

Participants of the Study
The study purposively selected participants to the short-term seminars in the field of higher education organised by the Z University from May 18, 2010 to April 25, 2017. During this period, more than 600 Africans participated in the higher education short-term seminars at Z University. This group included the university presidents, vice presidents, deans, lecturers, researchers, scholars, and managers. They were from 19 African French-speaking countries and 18 African English-speaking countries. Since some African countries are bilingual, participants from these countries participated in both English and French seminars.
Thus, the total respondents were taken from the 33 African countries. There were 38 different groups of short-term seminars identified from May 18, 2010 to April 25, 2017.
Based from the suggestion of Verma and Mallik (1999) to ensure a high response rate, a personalised cover letter according to the time and topic of the seminar they attended was sent to the participants. The cover letter is a short notice which explains the aim of the research, the importance of their participation in the study, and the assurance of confidentiality (Cohen et al., 2007).

Survey Instrument
Creswell (2013) notes that a "survey design provides a quantitative or numeric description of the trends, attitudes, or opinions of a population by studying a sample of that population". To assess the opinions of the former participants to the short-term seminars, the study used an online survey, preferred for objectivity, reliability, rapidity, cheapness, and ease of the data collection. The data were progressively collected through the internet after being mailed to the respondents.
Using the software wèn juàn xīng (问卷星) custom template, the new questionnaire content was created and sent to the participants for their completion. The questionnaire has six parts with a total of 32 items. The first part is a concise description of the questionnaire including the greeting, presentation of the aim of the study, and the importance of respondents' participation. The second part is about the basic information of respondents including the nationality, gender, age, and position. The third part elaborated on the afterseminar setups to know whether participants were in contact with either the Chinese or Africans after they returned home and the duration they have been in contact. It further dwelled on the specific occurrences such as who contacted whom, why and how they were contacted, and how long they have been in contact. The fourth part tackles the evidence of concrete output the participant prepared after the seminar. This includes the measures and actions like submitting a report to their hierarchies, re-echoing the seminar to their Upon the submission of the questionnaire response, the software program generates the results and sends the complete answers back to the researcher as graphed information or descriptive statistics. Within four weeks after the first mail-out as suggested by Salant and Dillman (1994), the online survey administration process was concluded. The results were generated from the software program for further analysis. The results were treated through the use of descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage.

Interview Process
The face-to-face interviews with selected participants were conducted to gather supplemental information to the survey.

Findings and Discussion
Each seminar has an opening and a closing ceremony. The authors, themselves, have participated in these ceremonies and collected the representatives' speeches. During one of the closing ceremonies, the representatives of the host institution said: "The time of the seminar was short, but our friendship remains perpetual. We strongly hope that you will keep in touch and strengthen cooperation with us when you get back home. We also warmly welcome outstanding students from your countries to study at our University".
It is perceptible that the Chinese leaders wish to keep in touch with the participants even after the short-term seminar. Accordingly, the chapter five, section ten of the revised edition of the Foreign Aid Training Project Implementation Management Handbook published in 2012 state that it is required for the institution-in-charge to keep in contact with the participants even after the seminar in China (AIBO, 2012). Additionally, the representative of Z University on September 12 th , 2017 during the closing ceremony of a seminar quote: "We sincerely hope that after returning to your country, we will continue to strengthen, bring closer exchanges and cooperation to promote the development of China-Africa higher education".
The foregoing results present the contact between the participating countries.  The foregoing results were the participants' evaluation of the effects of the short-term seminars they had attended at the Z University.

Initiatives resulting from the seminar
Based from the analysis of the survey and the interview results, the foregoing are the summarised initiatives taken by the participants after the seminar.

a. Report submission
African scholars are used to presenting a report to their leaders. In this study, 95.85% of the participants said that they have submitted a report to their hierarchy. The outline of their report is summarised as follows: the introductory part which includes the framework and the purpose of the seminar; the next part is the semianar details that include content, duration, place, and the participants; the next part is a reflection on the most important and new content learned during the seminar and the suggestions for implementation; and lastly the prospection and summary.

b. Sharing and seminar re-echo
The 78.10% of the participants shared the seminar contents with their colleagues, and 52.66% presented the seminar to their students. Among those of the latter, majority encouraged their students to continue their studies in China if they have the opportunity.

Benefits of the seminar
It was positively affirmed that the short-term seminars for African HEI managers and scholars are beneficial to both the Africans and the Chinese. During the interview, one of the university representative and lecturer said that China wishes to promote common development through fair cooperation (Gonondo, 2018). The summary of the benefits generated from the short-term seminars as narrated by the participants follows:

a. Strenghten cooperation
One of the mutual benefits African and Chinese participants get is the opportunity to write and publish books, articles, reports, and news to promote the relationship between China and the African countries. The results show that 6.51% of the participants were able to accomplish any of these.

b. Mutual understanding
The study also assessed whether participants gained knowledge and cultural understanding through the short-term seminars. The results were affirmative as answered by the 96.44% of the respondents that they have deepened their knowledge and understanding of the Chinese culture. During the seminar at Z University, it was observed that there were lectures in the field of higher education and Chinese culture. Participants also visited historical and cultural sites, museums and tourist spots. These type of activities allowed participants to directly assimilate more information and actual knowledge of the Chinese culture and society.
During the solemn closing ceremony, delegates use to give speech. information and knowledge will become our precious wealth and will also play a positive role in promoting our exchanges and cooperation in the future." It was clearly mentioned that the Chinese organisers also learned about the African culture. The cultural exchange was very evident during the seminar.
The foregoing discussions are related to the benefits generated by the African HEIs from the short-term seminars attended by their delegations.

c. Skills learned
During the three-week seminar, the participants had about thirteen conferences including the Chinese language and culture and China higher education, and the field visits to Chinese HEIs, enterprises, historical and tourist places which are related to the seminar's topic. The Chinese lecturers and experts do not limit on the theoretical knowledge but also share practical knowledge and skills.

Figure 2
Respondents' Perception on the Applicability of Seminar Content to solve concrete problems Majority of the participants affirmed that the seminar content is applicable and useful to solve some concrete problems at their workplace. As shown in Figure 2, 44.38% of the respondents agreed while 32.54% strongly agreed that the seminar contents are helpful to solve concrete problems at their workplaces.
Aside from the knowledge and skills to solve some concrete problems at work, majority of the respondents discovered the Chinese people as 'hard workers' and 'punctual', which inspired them to be the same.

d. Establish camaraderie
The seminars organised by the Z University in the field of higher education usually gathered participants not only from the different regions and countries but also from the Other participants to the seminar had been given the chance to complete an undergraduate degree program at the Z University.

f. Professional promotion
The 31.91% of the surveyed participants confirmed that they had been promoted to a The foregoing discussions are related to the benefits generated by the Chinas as the host country to the short-term seminars.

g. International relations
After the seminar, majority of the African participants organised an assembly where they presented the seminar details to their colleagues, students, family members, and friends.
They also shared the visits to megalopolis like Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Sanya, Changchun, and Yiwu among others. Respondents said that aside that their memorable days in China were documented with pictures and videos taken during their stay.
There are various forms of reports prepared by the participants be it individually or collectively. For example, the Malian Education administrators prepared a group report and organised a meeting to share what they learned, and experienced. There were hundreds of people from the Chinese Embassy in Mali, Confucius Institute, Government Officials, HEI lecturers, and students who participated in this meeting. Through this assembly, the other Malians who were not attendees to the seminar get to experience and learn the same contents.
They were also encouraged to participate in the seminar as well as to study in China. This process further strengthens the participation and international relations between the countries.

h. Identity and image
The other crucial aim of the study was to assess the perception of the participants about the host country before and after the seminar. The statistics show that 97.63% of the participants expressed a positive perception. They also affirmed that their perception of

Drawbacks and Suggestions for Improvements
The respondents also identified some drawbacks on the seminar and suggested actions and strategies for the betterment of the program. The summary of the respondents' assessments of the drawbacks and their suggested strategies are listed herein.

a. Exchange platform
Although the Chinese government has encouraged institutions in charge of organising short-term seminars to provide follow-up service after the seminars, it has not been so easy due to the absence of a special unit or structure in charge of the follow-up. This is similar to the case of the Z University where no committees are formed for that purpose. In reality, the follow-up committee can give more updates and information about the participants, seminar theme and other pertinent information to establish good camaraderie and network. This can also get feedback from the participants in order to evaluate the quality and the effects of the seminar. In this era, information and communication technologies are more developed.
Accordingly, there are platforms, which can be used for this purpose such as WeChat, WhatsApp, QQ, or any social networks group.
As the results primarily show that, the main purpose of the participants' follow-up is for greetings, respondents suggested an expansion of the follow-up to more concrete, helpful, and beneficial aspects. The contact between former participants and participants from the organising institution should emphasise sharing of knowledge, skills, expertise, and experiences (Gonondo, 2017).

b. Quality of interpretation during the seminar
The respondents mentioned about the presence of language barrier. These are common to countries using English as the Second Language. As such, respondent E3 particularly commented: Similarly, respondents E5, E7, E8, F7, F8, and F10 also suggested on the improvements of the language interpretation during the seminar.

c. Opportunity for young African participants
The results showed that young Africans who participated in the short-term seminars got the opportunity to come back to China to continue their studies. However, only few people got the opportunity as well as support from their respective institutions. There should be more young Africans to be sent to China to continue with their education. They can develop programs to allow them to continue their work and studies at the same time.

d. Promotion of mutual understanding
The short-term seminars should be considered as a platform for the promotion of mutual understanding. In this perspective, participant E4 suggested: "It is necessary to allow participants to present the higher education system of their respective countries to their Chinese friends. During the seminar, the African participants learn from the Chinese and other African colleagues. We would like also to share our history, our culture, and our best practices with our Chinese friends; mutual and real exchanges will make the seminar more meaningful."

Conclusion
This study assessed the short-term seminars in the area of higher education organised by the Z University in China for the African countries. These programs are held for three weeks which focus on the continuing professional development of the participants as well as cultural exchange. Through the survey and interview methods, the data gathered were treated and analysed using frequency and percentage for the quantitative data and thematic analysis for the qualitative data.

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https://iiari.org/journals/ijemds Based from the results of the study, there is no doubt that both Africa and China benefit from the short-term seminars. The African participants benefit from the Chinese bestpractices while the host country, China, is strengthening and improving its international relations and image. The relations between African countries and China which started a long time ago could be strengthened if they continue to support and create a credible environment of cooperation. In the education sector, the African higher education and the Chinese scholars can increase their collaboration and mutual support. This is possible through research projects, short-term seminars, long-term studies, and creation of African and Chinese research centres.
This study is limited to the self-assessment of the participants on their personal experience and benefits gained from the short-term seminars. Although the study can be replicated in similar programs held in different countries, the nature of the programs and the involvement of the participants differ. An in-depth further studies on the benefits of the program to the workplace are highly encourage. In its simplest form, this study provides feedback on the organising university as well as the participants on the drawbacks and benefits of the short-term seminars.