The increasingly diverse nature of the higher education academic community in the United Kingdom is under-researched and under-theorised. This article presents an exploratory study of the lived experiences of newly appointed international academic staff as expressed in their written reflections on their professional practice and interpreted by the author using Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Challenges identified as resulting from individuals' enculturation in a different system of education from that in which they are currently operating may form the basis of a larger scale study.