Much research in face-to-face contexts outlines the importance of early adjustment on students' higher education experiences. However, few studies have replicated this research in distance learning contexts to unpack the early multifaceted adjustments associated with studying in absence of a physical campus. This is particularly needed from a…

Ever since evolution of mankind, change is the only constant phenomenon in all walks of life. Changes bring both positive and negative impact on the evolution. Changes with positive impact becomes a transformation and it is witnessed in all parts of human life, i.e. societal, political, educational, and so on. Social transformation is a process of…

The subjects of this qualitative research study are seven undergraduate international students between the ages of 18-25 at an urban, private university in the northeast of the United States. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was the methodology employed in this study. The data was analyzed by using Pettigrew's (1998) reformulated…

Since social connectedness is critical to student retention, colleges and universities have vested interest in identifying and providing assistance as early as possible. When students are struggling to fit in, a great deal of campus energy is invested in welcoming each new cohort of students and planning events to facilitate a sense of belonging.…

: International students make valuable intellectual, cultural, and economic contributions to host-country colleges and universities. Some U.S. institutions enrolling greater numbers of international students offer a variety of specialized services designed to support students' social adjustment, academic achievement, and language development in…

Drawing on frameworks from marketing research literature, this study indicates that educational service augmenters (e.g., academic advising, writing support services, immigration advising, etc.) are significantly related to international students' academic adjustment. The results indicate educational, campus, and social support services explained…

The purpose of this study was to explore potential predictive relationships between college and university students' electronic media choices and their sense of social adjustment to college life. This study reviewed previous theoretical constructs related to socialization among college students. An online questionnaire was then presented to…

This study examined the relationship between international and domestic students' demographic factors on acculturation and sociocultural adaptation. It also examined the extent to which cultural values, uncertainty avoidance (UA) and power distance (PD), might explain two types of sociocultural adaptation: social interaction and localizing. A…

The purpose of this study is to determine the cultural and psycho-social problems experienced by students of Afghanistan citizenship studying at different faculties of a university in Turkey. With this purpose, human affairs were examined under the titles of accommodation and food, clothing, psychological and social affairs. The sample of the…

Middle Eastern American (MEA) college students in the United States navigate normative developmental changes related to peer relationships, academic achievement, and college adjustment, often while facing discrimination, stereotyping, and racial profiling. We interviewed 25 MEA first-year and second-year college students about their perceived…

Millions of tertiary international students are studying abroad, and the number of exchange students continues to increase. We explored experiences of South American students studying in a non-Anglophone context. A photo elicitation methodology was applied to support data collection. Five participants were asked to visualize their challenges in…

International student enrollments in U.S. colleges and universities continue to increase. Entry into an undergraduate or graduate program requires that applicants demonstrate suitable English language proficiency by means of a standardized test score such as the Test of English (TOEFL) or the International English Language Tests (IELTS).…

The current study details changes in first-year international undergraduate students' perceived knowledge of, confidence in, and usefulness of intercultural skills in specific US university contexts after completing a semester-long academic and cultural transition course at a mid-sized private university. Results revealed significant increases in…

This article reports on a survey (n=573) of international students who were attending one of a group of five higher education institutes (HEIs) in the south of Ireland. This study sought to identify what knowledge these students had about their host country before coming to Ireland. In this study, we also attempted to identify what aspects of…

As a regional hub for education, Hong Kong has seen a growing population of international students. In contrast to existing conceptual models in acculturation literature that are typically devoted to studying long-term settlers such as migrants or refugees in English speaking countries, this study develops and tests a fine-grained model for…