ABSTRACT Introduction The study aims to look at postgraduate students' perceptions of intercultural communication. It also looks at the difficulties that both local and international students face in terms of communication interaction in the classroom and on campus. Methods The researcher interview four participants who were chosen at random among postgraduate students in International Islamic University Malaysia. The researcher used semi-structured interview questions as the instrument and a thematic analysis is used to answer the research questions then generated the themes and subthemes for the analysis of the study. Findings The results yielded that the complexity of culture, language barrier, attitude towards foreigners; social interaction, individual differences, perceived laziness and stereotyping constitute students’ perceptions on intercultural communication interaction among the local and international ELS postgraduate students. Furthermore, Results show that in these groups, the majority opposed intercultural interaction amongst non-native speakers. The results of this work have implications for future research on intercultural communication awareness among both local and international students.