International Students: What’s Missing and What Matters

Pallavi Singh,Ratnaditya Jonnalagadda,Roopesh Reddy Sadashiva Reddy,Avinash Gogineni,Kimberley Williams

doi:10.4236/jss.2022.102027

Abstract

With a growing number of international graduate students pursuing degrees in the United States, it is essential that universities understand the unique challenges this population faces. In this study, we researched the role that university’s international graduate student housing plays in building a sense of community among international students. This qualitative study explored 17 international graduate students lived experience in the United States regarding sense of community within the graduate housing complex. Findings suggest that international student residents faced several issues; these included satisfaction with their accommodation, the way their fellow neighbors conducted themselves in university housing and preferring to reach out to other international students from their home country. However, they were able to find support within other departments and smaller communities within university. Recommendations are presented to practitioners and future researchers so that they can effectively develop support for international graduate students.

Highlights

The 2020 report on International Educational Exchange (IIE) discloses that over a million international students enrolled at USA universities during the 2019/2020 academic year (IIE, 2020)
The in-depth focus groups with the international graduate students who resided in a graduate housing facility provided by the university, provided rich and diverse accounts of how international students perceive and form a sense of community
Several common themes emerged such as residential satisfaction plays a role in building a sense of community, and the way neighbors interact and conduct themselves affects the sense of community among its residences, the residences find a sense of community by engaging with other international graduate student from their home country and international student find their community using other avenues

Summary

Introduction

The 2020 report on International Educational Exchange (IIE) discloses that over a million international students enrolled at USA universities during the 2019/2020 academic year (IIE, 2020). The financial gain that international students can bring to a campus is one of the main reasons for their recruitment (Altbach & Engberg, 2014; Beine et al, 2014; NAFSA, 2019), some studies attest to the variety of ways in which international students can enrich the academic community. Examples of this include differing points of views that can often enrich classroom discussions and students learning to appreciate other cultures and relate to others from different backgrounds (Bevis, 2002; Lee & Rice, 2007; Urban & Palmer, 2014). Merely treating international students as an instrument of financial capital diminishes the status of international students and can be considered unidimensional as this approach would remove any sense of humanity from the experiences of international students (Slantcheva-Durst & Knaggs, 2019)

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Conclusion