International Students’ Unique Challenges – Why Understanding International Transitions to Higher Education Matters

Sidonie Ecochard,Julia Fotheringham

doi:10.14297/jpaap.v5i2.261

Abstract

International students represent a large and increasing share of the diversity encountered on British campuses, with 19% of the student body coming from another country to study in the United Kingdom. While the concept of transition in the context of Higher Education (HE) is better understood as a process of change and adaptation to the HE culture, international transitions –undertaken by international students – present additional and specific challenges. These involve multiple additional cultural adjustments, to the host nation culture, the international student culture and the subject disciplinary culture. The scale and number of these challenges may lead to mental health issues and to students dropping out. The growing number of international students and their importance as a significant economic driver to the HE sector have been reflected in the literature, with an increasing number of publications on the topic. Various models have been elaborated to describe the process of academic and socio-cultural adjustment experienced by international students, along with concepts of acculturative stress and culture shock used to refer to the sometimes extreme emotional turmoil created by such cultural dissonances. University staff and students have different but key roles and responsibilities in supporting and facilitating international students’ adjustment, improving retention and enabling international students to reach their academic and personal goals in spite of the challenges that confront them. This literature review presents the different stage-models of international students’ acculturation and defines key concepts for international transitions such as acculturative stress and culture shock, thereby allowing for a better understanding of the international students’ academic and social journey. It describes the challenges international students meet in their transition to UK HE institutions and introduces literature identifying ways of better supporting the specific needs of those students. It concludes with a discussion on the limitations of the current international transitions discourse.

Highlights

The concept of transition within the higher education (HE) context relates closely to questions of equality and inclusivity and how the HE sector goes about giving the best chances of success to all students
Cultural difference theory explains that when the school or HE Institution (HEI) represents a single culture, students raised in different environments will be unfamiliar with the behaviours and attitudes expected of them, leading to underperformance, unless special efforts are made to teach those ‘culturally different’ students (Ecochard, 2015; Eisenhart, 2001)
Standing at 22% of the student body in Scotland and 19% in the United Kingdom (UK), international students represent a large share of the diversity encountered on British campuses (UK Council for International Student Affairs [UKCISA], 2016)

Summary

Introduction

The concept of transition within the higher education (HE) context relates closely to questions of equality and inclusivity and how the HE sector goes about giving the best chances of success to all students. Whilst the literature on transitions makes it clear that many students find the first weeks at a new institution challenging (Kift et al, 2010), research suggests that international students have a hard time (Wu & Hammond, 2011) These students have become a significant economic driver of HEIs (Hegarty, 2014) so that giving them the best possible experience has become more important than ever in the competition for international students tuition fees. International students often experience higher level of acculturative stress than other sojourner groups upon arrival in the host country and models looking at international students may start with a phase of ‘culture shock’ or ‘culture bump’ (Figure 2, Wu & Hammond, 2011). The literature recognises three key challenges or difficulties in the adjustment experienced by international students: language proficiency, academic expectations and socio-cultural integration. Internationalisation starts with the buy-in and cultural awareness of each HE staff (Akanwa, 2015; Bell, 2016; Major, 2005; Ramachandran, 2011)

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion