Latent profile categories of fear of falling in older patients with osteoporotic spinal fractures: impact on physical activity at 1 month postsurgery.

In recent years, the cultivation of global competence has become a key focus in higher education policy worldwide, especially in the context of internationalized programmes (; ; ), particularly within the context of Sino-Foreign Cooperation Programmes (SFCPs) at China Universities (; ). As a distinctive model of international education, Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education (SFCE) plays a crucial role in advancing the internationalization of Chinese higher education and has become an integral part of China's education system (). However, despite the increasing emphasis on global competence in education, many undergraduates in SFCPs demonstrate relatively limited levels of global competence (), which impedes their ability to thrive in diverse cultural settings and hinders their overall academic and professional development (). This issue is particularly pronounced in regions or institutions where students have limited opportunities for immersive intercultural experiences, making it more essential to understand how internal factors such as motivation and sensitivity compensate for these contextual limitations (). While Chinese SFCPs have provided strategic platforms for integrating global learning objectives into local curricula, research suggests that they tend to prioritize structural compliance and curriculum transplantation, which may sometimes limit opportunities for deeper intercultural engagement (; ). By contrast, international models such as Erasmus+ in Europe (), the AAC&U global learning framework in the U.S. (), Australia's New Colombo Plan (), and Japan's G30 initiative highlight transformative practices (), such as student mobility, multicultural teamwork, and immersive exchange, that have proven effective in cultivating global competence. Taken together, these international experiences indicate that the cultivation of global competence requires not only supportive institutional design but also sustained attention to individual-level attributes such as language proficiency (), intercultural sensitivity (), and motivation (). Thus, to contextualize the Chinese case globally, this study investigates how these personal factors contribute to competence development among SFCP undergraduates. A growing body of research highlights English proficiency as a crucial determinant of undergraduates' global competence, particularly in the context of Sino-Foreign Cooperation Programmes (SFCPs), where English serves both as a medium of instruction and as a symbolic marker of international readiness (; ). Numerous studies confirm that English proficiency is positively associated with global competence (; ; ). Similar mechanisms linking linguistic proficiency and global competence have been observed in other English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) contexts. For instance, studies across Japan (), South Korea (), and ASEAN countries () indicate that English proficiency enhances global competence and global citizenship. Beyond these comparable EFL settings, research in European context () and American context () further demonstrates that language proficiency can nurture global citizenship. For instance, surveyed 555 Chinese students and found that English achievement was positively correlated with global competence, with motivation acting as a moderator, while demonstrated in a large-scale cross-national study that both foreign language acquisition and use predicted global competence. These findings suggest that English proficiency not only facilitates communication but also provides access to international knowledge and participation in global discourse (; ). Yet, scholars also caution that linguistic ability alone does not guarantee intercultural understanding or a global mindset ().