Adjustment and campus friendliness for international students studying in the United States

Abstract

International students are an increasingly important population in the United States, growing in both size and contributions. While research has outlined challenges encountered by international students and the importance of campus climate, little research has defined and empirically assessed the friendliness of college and university campuses toward international students from the students’ perspectives, which was the aim of the current study. Universities with large international student populations were invited to distribute a survey that included the International Friendly Campus Scale (IFCS; Wang, et al., 2014) and two open-ended questions about students’ positive and negative experiences. The sample included 938 international students from eight universities in the United States, of which 622 and 566 students answered the first and second open-ended questions, respectively. Through thematic analyses of the open-ended questions, this study identified factors that international students find most helpful for their cross-cultural adjustment in addition to aspects of their campuses that could be improved. Results suggest that helpful factors for international student adjustment include social support, events, campus resources, access to shared and diverse cultures, an inclusive environment, language fluency and opportunities for learning, and individual characteristics. Areas of improvement include increased events and socialization, better communication, a more welcoming attitude toward diversity, improved administrative support, more financial support, and decreased discrimination. Additionally, correlation and group comparisons were used to assess international students’ perception of campus climate and compare patterns between different demographic groups. Practical suggestions based on these results are also discussed.