1. Introduction

Nowadays, the internationalization of higher education, as an important trend of higher education development in the world, is placed at the core of education policies by various countries, and the international flow of students is one of the remarkable characteristics of the internationalization of higher education. Some scholars believe that the most significant sign of the internationalization of higher education is reflected in the level of education output, which is mainly about attracting international students, including the scale, quality and influence of international students' input [1].

The 2023 Statistical Bulletin on the Status of Education in China released by the Ministry of Education shows that there are currently 516,000 international students in Chinese colleges and universities from 214 countries and regions [2]. Based on the steady increase in quantity, International students' education in China has entered the stage of "improving quality and efficiency" along with the development of Chinese higher education. It was found that in 2023, the research and discussions on the improvement of quality and management of education for international students in China became an important part of academic research [3]. As creators of art and culture and carriers of cultural communication, the effectiveness of education and management of international students in China majoring in arts plays an important role in understanding the world civilization and building a community of human destiny.

Therefore, through research and analysis, this paper points out the characteristics of international students in China majoring in arts as well as the problems existing in the education and management of such international students in Chinese universities, and gives relevant suggestions.

2. Characteristics of International Students in China Majoring in Arts

2.1. Small Quantities of Students

In the competitive enrollment market for international students in China, the number of students who choose to study art majors is small. The reasons are as follows, first of all, the tuition fee for art is higher than the other majors, most students are from economically undeveloped areas, they couldn't support themselves without family's help or any chance of scholarship. However, for families, they think the job market for arts is relatively narrow, that's also the second reason for the poor competitive power of arts. Thirdly, the requirement for art majors is the student's learning background in the relative areas, thus the proportion of enrollment candidates that universities can choose is smaller than the other majors either. There is a research in which the statistics show that in 2008, graduate art students accounted for 2.9% of the total number of international students in China, and only 1.5% in 2018 [4].

2.2. Weak Chinese Language Ability

From the existing research results and literature data, the common enrollment and cultivation mode for international students in China is "wide in and wide out" [5]. As argued in the above paragraph, the number of candidates for art majors is small, and those who have a learning background in arts need to spend a lot of time in professional training, which may reduce their time in culture and language learning. Colleges and universities often choose to lower language requirements in the applicants' admission audit to obtain more student resources. When weighing which is more important, compare academic ability and language ability. And in order to ensure students' graduation rate, in the process of teaching and training, universities have not set standardized Chinese language ability level requirements. In the case, the social output students are often weak in Chinese language ability.

2.3. Strong Professional Practical Ability and Distinct Personality

International students majoring in arts in colleges and universities generally have an art learning background and foundation, so as to meet the requirements of admission. They often entered their professional study early. Many of them began to study arts from middle school or even primary school, and spent a lot of time and energy on the techniques. Art professional courses have the characteristics of demonstration and strong practicality, which require students to have a strong innovation ability, keen perception ability and rich imagination. In order to shape a distinct personality style, students will participate in various professional training and various competitive competitions to constantly exercise and strengthen their artistic accomplishments. In this case, students in arts often show a strong ability in professional practice.

2.4. Strong Ability in Culture Communication

The General Secretary of China Mr. Xi Jinping once said, it is easier to communicate with the world through the word of arts [6]. There are no borders of art languages, and the cultural recognition of artworks is distinct. International students majoring in arts in China have strong art plots and prominent professional characteristics. They have distinct personalities and are active in thinking, strong perception and expressive force. Through various forms of artistic expression, they can connect the culture of their home country with the Chinese culture, and are active in various cultural stages in the world, that show a very strong international cultural communication power.

The above characteristics of international students majoring in arts bring great challenges to the management of the universities, it is necessary to explore what the current teaching and management situation is to find the gaps.

3. Main Problems of International Students Education in Arts in China

3.1. Imperfect Management System

With the continuous development of the education of international students, the national government and departments have issued various regulations on the management of international students, especially order No.42 jointly issued by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security in 2017 and No.50 issued by the Ministry of Education in 2018, which have become the main basis for the education management of international students in China at the present stage.

However, due to the different development levels of colleges and universities, the internal management supporting scheme of the school to implement international student education is not comprehensive and mature enough, and the internal cooperation operation mechanism is not refined either. At present, the work of international students in many universities is independently managed by the international office or the international school. The management departments in the university, such as the Student Affairs Office, Academic Affairs Office, logistics Office and other departments, lack the personnel conditions and management methods to manage and serve international students, the rights and responsibilities of various departments around the functions of international students' education are not clear [7]. Based on this, the teaching and management implementation of international students are often hard, due to the unclear relationship of power and responsibility, poor communication and information exchange, sometimes there even appears the phenomenon of evasion. Thus, the education management of international students is not implemented from the school level, the imperfect management system makes the education management efficiency low.

3.2. Uneven Quality of the Students

In recent years, the academic level of international students is generally not high. Colleges and universities cannot comprehensively examine the development of students' moral, intellectual, and artistic aspects through appropriate and unified methods [8]. Influenced by the economic development degree, cultural background, education quality, religious belief and other factors in their home country, the art major international students have distinct personality characteristics. It is difficult for colleges and universities to standardize and unify the methods of selecting such groups of international students, and there are no relevant regulations on the requirements of students' major and Chinese language ability in the training process to achieve the standardized assessment so that the quality of students exported from colleges and universities to the society shows an uneven level.

3.3. Lack of Understanding of the International Students Group

International students come from different countries and regions, they are different from Chinese students in terms of personal beliefs, eating, and living habits. Although colleges and universities have incorporated international students' education into their overall development plan, they do not have a high understanding of it in the actual development. As a special group, international students have been different since the beginning of freshmen registration, accommodation arrangement, daily and teaching management and so on. Students majoring in arts, as a minority group of international students in China, because of the specificity of the major, need to be treated differently. This differentiation does not mean that the conditions are better than other majors of students, but the universities can make appropriate arrangements according to their actual learning and life needs. Yet, the fact is not. When the university requires international students to share the same dormitory and canteen with Chinese students, it does not consider their religious beliefs and dietary taboos, when students are sharing the same class, they do not objectively realize that teachers do not take care of the language and cross-cultural gap between Chinese and international students in teaching, when teachers measure students' academic performance by uniform assignments or exams, they ignore their free and eclectic learning characteristics.

3.4. Insufficient Education and Management Team Construction

The management of international students includes three sections: enrollment, daily, and teaching management, which is a complex comprehensive system [8]. At present, the work of international students in China in universities is mainly managed by the international department or international school alone, and the professional training is carried out by the relative schools. International students sit in the same classroom as Chinese students and receive the same classroom education. This is the normal situation that happens to students in arts. Chinese education is exam-oriented, and pays attention to procedures and methods in solving problems. Not enough attention to the cultivation of students' imagination and creativity. While Western education encourages students to form their personality and realize their self-worth [8]. When carrying out international students' teaching work, teachers are often used to the common methods, ignoring the overseas learning background of art students and their more creative and practical learning characteristics, the professionalism of cross-cultural teaching is not high. In terms of international student management, although most universities follow the mode of "convergence management", they do not reflect the assimilation in the actual process. Art colleges and universities have not incorporated the art examination of international students when implementing the selection of art school examination, In the teaching and training of art colleges and universities, they have not independently set up the scheme for international students as one branch of the overall students scheme, and in the student management, they have not set up professional foreign affairs personnel in the relative student affairs office.

4. Suggestions

4.1. Policy Support and Institutional Guarantee

Internationalization is the result of the high development of every university. As the highland of talent training, colleges and universities should bear the common goal of international talent training but can undertake different types of talent training. The Ministry of Education and other departments which are responsible for international students in China could consider the development level of different colleges and universities, and help to construct the echelon development plan according to the actual situation. It is suggested that the evaluation of international development can be distinguished by disciplines. Colleges and universities of arts could be evaluated not only by the normal international development index but also by taking into account increasing the ratio of international conferences, art exhibitions, and types of awards that students get in different competitions. About the number of students in the international index system, the weight could be evaluated according to the interval value set. Meanwhile, it is also suggested that in order to support the key art professional construction, the Ministry of Education and the local government can provide more scholarships to help outstanding students get the opportunity to study in China.

4.2. Confirm the Orientation of School Running, Improve the Quality of Students

The place of art education in society and how it should be valued is a contested and debated issue [9]. Colleges and universities of arts should combine the needs of cities and social development, and find a correct foothold in the positioning of running schools. There should be a standard set of examinations, including the evaluation of professional ability and language ability, starting from the selection to graduation. The evaluation can be adopted according to universities' development levels. Different colleges and universities should look and dig deep into the artistic value that they can bring to the local cities and social development. It is suggested that colleges and universities take the enrollment methods of customized order-type talent training by cooperating with local enterprises, in terms of the specific requirements of enterprises, to implement the target training.

4.3. Build an Internal Standardized and Mature Management System for International Students

International cooperation and education an important features of world-class universities, colleges and universities as the first responsibility of the student's education management unit, should fully recognize the particularity and the importance of international students' education in the internationalization strategy, the root of it for university is ultimately to implement the talent training. Art Colleges and universities should update the educational concept in combination with the overall international development plan of the university. The work of international students should be jointly built by each functional department, rather than a single department. Only by forming a systematic, standardized, efficient, and mature management system for international students can the management channels be unblocked.

4.4. Build a Professional Education and Management Team for International Students

Art colleges and universities should build a homogeneous and equivalent education management system for international students, with a focus on building a professional education management team. On one hand, under the guidance of the concept of "convergence", a comprehensive and three-dimensional management mode is established, the relevant departments of universities need to provide international students with the same educational management service units as Chinese students. It is suggested that there should be someone who specializes in international students working in the positions of the admissions office, academic affairs office, Student Affairs office, psychological consultation room, etc [10]. On the other hand, colleges and universities need to provide professional training and career guidance for international students' education management team members at all levels. Strengthen the career planning them, speed up the knowledge updating, and promote their internal motivation by adopting career promotion, to help the management team members of the international students actively carry out their jobs.

5. Conclusion

The education of international students majoring in arts has great meaning in the brand construction of "study in China". By understanding the characteristics of the students, it is obvious that universities must establish strict interior management systems that can help to cultivate a good learning atmosphere for those who have distinct personalities but are also free and lack discipline. On the other hand, by confirming the orientation of school running and searching for support from the governments, there also should be some flexible changes that can be thought of in the future evaluation of the management work of international students in arts. Education professionals should re-examine and think more about the work of this field with differentiated and diversified development ideas.