ADAPTATION AMONG FOREIGN STUDENTS IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The processes of globalization and internationalization are the main factors, which have made a great impact on the evolution of higher education in the last decades of the 21st century. The number of foreign higher degree students in Ukraine has grown at a significant rate in recent years, with the country offering a high quality higher education and, as a result, becoming one of the main European hubs attracting students from all over the world. In the article, the term “foreign student” is referred to any student who goes to another country in pursuit of learning. Since the emergence and popularization of the recent trend of studying abroad, the topic of adaptation of foreign students has become of the key interest among modern European scholars who have become concerned with studying the peculiarities, issues and challenges of living and learning in an unfamiliar social, cultural, and academic environment. With no doubt, studying abroad delivers new knowledge, experiences, and opportunities. However, the adaptation to a host country and a new environment that is far away from home countries, families, and friends, sometimes takes a long time. Moreover, usually, it is challenged with several difficulties including lack of motivation, discouragement, depression, stress, anxiety, psychological conditions, culture shock, loneliness, misunderstands, conflicts, communicating with peers, language incapability, understanding lectures, learning new social norms, and interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. As a result, these stressors have a great impact on foreign students’ physical and psychological well-being and challenge their wish, motivation, opportunity and capability to participate fully in the process of the cultural and academic adaptation. Even if the universities and host society provide helpful sources and advantageous conditions to enhance the process of their adaptation, sharp differences in socio-communicative environments of the countries, as well as cultural and language differences pose several problems foreign students usually face influencing their present academic performance and future professional medical practices. In the article, the authors discuss the issues of the geographic, psychological, socio-cultural, and linguistic methods of adaptation that have an impact on foreign students’ academic performance, social integration, and career. The authors represent the findings of several studies on the topic exploring characteristic features of the adaptation of students in the higher education institutions of Ukraine. The general purpose of the article is to examine the adaptation using a theory-based explanatory approach. In this study, the adaptation is discussed as part of the social responsibilities of the universities and foreign students. On the one hand, higher education institutions must provide the necessary services and activities to help foreign students to combat the stressors they face in the process of adapting to the Ukrainian socio-cultural and educational environment. Moreover, universities need to ensure equal rights and opportunities for students’ participation in academic life, as well as apply the most effective methods of foreign language learning. On the other hand, foreign students must be motivated enough to take the advantage of the opportunities and resources provided by universities and be responsible for the success of their adaptation to the social and academic life of the host country.