Cultural Adjustment of Foreign Students in the Era of Globalization (A Case Study at Iiui-pakistan)

Abstract

Studying at a higher education institution can be stressful, particularly for international students, who leave their homes to study in another country. Native students just have to do efforts for educational attainment but foreign students need to develop bicultural competence, as they maintain their values while adjusting to the practical, interpersonal, and emotional challenges encountered in the host country as well. This study explored the foreign students’ cultural adaptation for academic achievements at higher education level in Pakistan. The present study revealed the role of activities, interests, attitudes, knowledge, preferences and .diverse cultural personalities, which drive the foreigner to become a successful student in the non-native institute. The key objective of the study was to explore the pace of cultural adaptation of foreign students at the university level. It was a Purposeful qualitative study with descriptive narration style. The target population was all the foreign students studying in IIUI BS program in faculty of social sciences. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 55 foreign students for the study. The self-developed questionnaire used to collect the data from the foreign students. Collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software. Pearson's correlation coefficient method was used to find out the relationship. Analysis of data revealed that the University environment has been marked supportive for cultural adaption by foreign students but university administration staff meaninglessly wastes their study time and make them worried about the least important things. It was found that foreign students were very much satisfied with the behavior of fellow students and most of the teaching staff. It was concluded that all institutions at higher education level generally and IIUI specifically have to do the work on the main objective of globalization. The teaching and administrative staff here has to be trained that how to help the foreign students to feel at home in their institution, how to reduce the fear and risk factors and increase the pace of cultural adaptation. It is recommended that the teachers, administration and, students of the institution must be made aware of the importance of cross-cultural adaptation and globalization as it is a gateway to attract more foreign students along with economic benefits for the institution.