More than 3 million students study outside their home country, primarily at a Western university. A common belief among educators is that international students are insufficiently adjusted to higher education in their host country, both academically and socially. Furthermore, several groups of international students experience considerable amounts…

Faced with a labor shortage and low profile of diversity, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada has been making an effort to attract and retain newcomers. Guided by Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory, this qualitative study investigates the challenges faced by newcomer youth, including permanent residents coming as…

The purpose of this study was to investigate English language related difficulties experienced by 30 Turkish dual diploma students studying in an ELT (English Language Teaching) program established between a Turkish and an American university, and to see the effects of those difficulties on the students' adjustment process in the U.S.A. The data…

University support to students' transition to university life can be divided into three dimensions, namely: academic adjustment, social adjustment and psychological adjustment. Previous researches show that there are relationships among those adjustments. However, less is known about gender differences in these relationships. The purpose of this…

This phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of identity development of Chinese graduate students in the United States. Through in-depth interviews with 15 participants at a Midwestern research university, the study found that the majority of Chinese graduate students came with a strong student identity that conflated with…

This article is an analysis of the unique needs of returning service members at the college or university level that impact the teaching decisions made by instructors. The article also discusses the challenges that service members are individually addressing while acclimating themselves to their new environment of learning. With the reduction in…

Undergraduates (N = 2,823) at 6 universities were surveyed longitudinally to examine the relevance of student home setting on the transition to university. Preliminary results indicated that rural students seem less likely to attend large, ethnically diverse universities. Hierarchical linear models revealed that "proximal rural" students…

Studies dedicated to examination of self-regulation posit a bi-directional association between self-regulation and other variables including social connectedness, self-efficacy and self-control. However, to date, studies of this caliber have only evidenced that self-regulation is a predictor of other variables. In the present study, the factors…

Many scholars have described the various challenges international students face in Western developed countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Some of the challenges include differences in culture, language barriers, adjustment problems, medical concerns, pedagogical challenges, housing issues, lack of support…

The present research explores the sociocultural adjustment of international students and the role played by university structures in the process. The adjustment process of international students has been modelled in psychological literature as a U-curve, a learning curve and most recently as a long, uneven and unending process of change. Yet,…

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the prospective teachers' level of adjustment in terms of perceived identity, values, and needs. The searching group includes a total of 273 prospective teachers, 178 of whom are females, and 95 of whom are males. They are either working as paid teachers in the state schools within the boundaries of…

There are three dimensions through which to measure university support for students' transition to university life: academic adjustment, social adjustment and psychological adjustment. Previous research studies show that there are relationships among those adjustments. However, less is known about gender differences in these relationships. The…

The main purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the experiences of Vietnamese international students who returned to Vietnam after graduation from a U.S. higher education institution (henceforth, the repatriates). Areas to be explored include the transitional period, perceptions of the relevance of the U.S. education to their current…

The United States is experiencing a dire need for individuals who possess training and expertise in areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). With over half of the nation's students entering university environments via community colleges coupled with a large portion of this population majoring in STEM areas, the successful…

Historically, minority and low-income populations have faced numerous challenges in achieving a higher education particularly students of Latino descent. Gandara and Contreras (2009) explain that Latinos are the fastest growing population in the United States and yet academically, they are further behind than any other ethnic group in the nation.…