Challenges That International Students in Australia Face - Research Paper Example

? Social Health Research al Affiliation: The main purpose for this research is to find out how international students in Australia undertake their studies. It is meant to find out how life is for the international students in Australia, to show how international students cope in this region. Generally, there are various issues that will be carried out in the research process, so as to attain the information required to know more about international students in the region. This research will discuss in details, the methods used during the research together with the findings. The implications of the research will be put into consideration. The implications in this case generally include the research implications and the practical implications. The value of the research will also be explained in details to show the main purpose and how the research undertaken relates to real life situation. All these themes will be clearly defined and elaborated to make it clear on how international students carry on in Australia generally. INTRODUCTION This research is generally meant to give detailed information on international students in Australia. In this case international students mean that they are large in numbers and are in Australia undertaking different courses. In various parts of the world, there are international students and how they relate to the environment and the things that happen around them differs from one region to the next. In this case, Australia will be the region of study where. The research will give detailed information on how the administration of Australia is and how it affects the international students in the region. There are various challenges faced by international students in Australia. Included in the research will be some issues that create challenges and how they create those challenges. For every challenge there is a methodology to deal with this and this will also be included in the research. This is to find out how responsible the administration of Australia is. The methodologies used to gather the information required will also be discussed, explaining how the results and findings were reached. This research is meant to gather information so that possible recommendations can be stated in order to help improve the situation of international students in Australia and all over the globe as well. The research undertaking is generally meant to provide information on the selected field, indicating all the procedures undertaken and the results together with the implications and the value in real life situations. LITERATURE REVIEW Depression is an intricate social problem that is known to bring about mental problems if not well managed. Stress affects many people including students, adolescent and elders. There are various challenges that international students encounter in Australia. The cases are worse where their home nation’s culture is totally different from the country of study. In the process of them trying to adapt to host nation’s culture and lifestyle, they are affected physically and psychologically that affects their academic results. Australia has become a major destination for the students who come to get tertiary education. The main aim of this paper is to find out the stress international students experience while in Australia. This reviews work done by various authors on the same topic. Australia has approximately 25% of international students who come to study, of which 80% are from Asian countries (Rosenthal et al, 2006)i The university studies are stressful to these students as they must adjust to new social and academic environment. This paper deals with a literature review that will lay down the foundation of this study. It helps to assess the work down by other authors on the same and thus, helps shine light on the topic of study. This paper indentifies three main stresses encountered by international students in Australian universities, namely culture, loneliness and language. Language Language is the easiest way one communicates with people close to him or her. It is one of the elements that ensure that one’s closeness to others is not affected. The use of language can affect one’s understanding as a difficulty to understand one, leads to failure or struggle to understand what is being communicated (Yusoff, 2010)ii Language helps one to make friends that will help them break away from the loneliness one experiences. International students in Australian tertiary institutions, 80% of them are from Asian nations (Arthur, 2004).iii The stress that faces these international students includes little mastery of English, which is the native language in Australian Universities. The only requirement one is required to meet is meeting the set standards of English tests that one can easily pass from attending a few weeks’ English class (Cameron, 2010)iv. This basic admission requirement does not ensure that one probably understands, speaks and writes in English. International students find it hard to understand what is being thought in class, take time to communicate effectively with other students and one’s academic grades are affected in the process (Yusoff, 2010). The stress related to language barriers or misunderstanding affects the international student mentally and physically. One is left struggling to study on his own in order to fully understand English and be able to write in fluency. The stress affects one’s grade, social life and even mental stability (Nigar & Dempsey, 2012)v. Many students are faced with language difficulties, and they are forced to adjust quickly in order for them to function well with the society (Noom & Vergara, 2011)vi. The society needs one to associate with the daily activities. This way, an international student who is not clearly communicating to the fellow students may opt to keep most things to themselves as opposed to speaking them out. The stress arises when one feels oppressed or has trouble to communicate (Arthur, 2004). The language problem leads to homesickness, loneliness, and language challenges associated to reading, speaking and listening (Cameron, 2010). One copes by practicing regularly to talk, ignoring critiques and being slow to react, as language requires one to understand. Culture One of the greatest challenges international students face is cultural shock; which is a situation a person finds himself after coming into contact with unfamiliar culture, which makes one feel out of place. Culture is a strong tool that enables one to feel part and parcel of a society. Cultural isolation makes one feel homesick, depressed and lonely (Noom & Vergara, 2011). International students have grown to only recognize their home country’s culture as influenced by the environment and societies; they experience culture shock when they arrive in Australia. The culture shock includes foods, fashions, life related practices and religious issues (Rosenthal et al, 2006). The depression associated with cultural loneliness pushes one from getting adequate social support that a student requires to get maximum concentration in their studies. The cultural shock is as a result of one experiencing new practices, beliefs, foods and perceptions (Cameron, 2010). This takes one time before he starts to see things from a different point of view. It is worse if one is from a developing world, and his or her beliefs and practices may make other students take them as people whose practices are backward. One copes by adjusting to new cultural practices and familiarizing with existing beliefs; thus avoids culture related stress. Cultural shock is managed by one having an open mind by avoiding judgments and maintains tolerance to other cultures. The other management tool is that of keeping one’s humor; for example laughing, cracking jokes and watching comic movies that will help ease the fear, despair and embarrassment. The final management tool is that of developing a hobby; meeting new friends will help one management the culture shock. Loneliness This is a state one finds himself immediately one is away from his or her country for long. This state is due to the fact that one finds himself surrounded by a new environment, culture, friends and climatic conditions. One starts to experience this condition at the airport as they bid relatives bye. One starts to miss relatives, friends, cultures, certain practices and foods (Cameron, 2010). The new environment can also lead to loneliness. Some international students take a long time to adjust to the new way of life in Australia and some may feel restricted. Distances and long time away from family and friends, making one feel depressed and homesick (Yusoff, 2010). As time passes, one tends to cope by making new friends and adapting to the new environment. Name: My question: What are the experiences of international students with stress while in Australia? Author Date Methodology Key findings Implications Relevance/significance ARTHUR, N. 2004 Simple random -Language -Loneliness -Affects academic grades -Homesick -Helps understand why one needs to be familiar with host nation’s native language. -One must be prepared to be away from home country for long. Noom, S. H. & Vergara, B. M 2011 Purposive sampling -Language -Culture -Affects one’s communication and listening ability -Culture shock affects one’s academic concentration and psychologically -One must be ready to learn new languages to avoid language related stress. -Aids one to quickly adjust to new practices and cultural beliefs. Nigar, G. & Dempsey, J 2012 Simple random sampling -Language -Culture -Stress affects one’s academic grade and social life -Culture shock takes one to adjust and adapt -Helps one to know effects of language to daily operations and studies -Culture should be accepted and not critiqued by other students Cameron H. 2010 Simple random sampling -Language -Loneliness -One is required to meet English test -New environment leads to loneliness -Helps one to be admitted and kick starts one’s language learning journey -Loneliness is affected by one not adjusting quickly and gaining new friends. Yusoff M.Y 2010 Purposive sampling -Language -Culture -One must adjust quickly -Culture shock influences loneliness -Helps one to be part of a large society -Culture is a vital part in any students, but one need to adjust quickly to concentrate in education. The literature review will be organized in three main paragraphs touching on the following themes; paragraph one; language, paragraph two; Culture and paragraph three loneliness. The other paragraph will be that of introduction. Therefore what remains unresolved is what stresses international university students in Australia? At this stage is will be using emotional theory, because it will relate to my topic of study. It deals with behaviour, stigma, positive and negative. This theory will examine the primary culture, language and loneliness of the students, things that can be observed in their daily activities. The question requires one to observe one’s moods, adjustment and daily activities that are primary data. This is one of the major theories that will help me closely examine the results to my question. METHODOLOGY I’m an International University student from Saudi Arabia studying Bachelor of Health Science (Paramedic) in Australia. The research question is: what are the experiences of international students with stress in Australian Universities. There is possible bias link because I am an international student here and may undermine impartial interpretation of the study findings. This research would use ethnography research method. Basically, ethnography is an approach that can be used to study people with regard to a particular issue such as culture – how such group of people makes meaning of life. According to Reeves, Kuper and Hodges (Reeves, 2008)vii, ethnography is the study of people’s behaviours, interactions, and perceptions and factors influencing them. Ethnography is largely a philosophy of research than a particular research method. In some instances, some authors use the terms qualitative research and ethnography interchangeably. However, ethnography is one kind of qualitative research – a study design that focuses on describing qualities rather than quantifying them. Ethnography is strongly grounded on anthropological theories and hence entails describing and interpreting certain cultural behaviours among a group of people (Britten et al. 2002)viii. And since culture is quite abstract, ethnography research approach enables investigators to infer from people’s talk, behaviours and tools. Hence, the main aim for this study approach is to gain holistic insights about social interactions and behaviours of the people and the area they live in through systematic observations and conversational interviews. Reasonably, this research approach is the most suitable for my research question as it seeks to study experiences of international students with stress in Australian Universities. Such requires careful direct observation and collection of information through interviews on their behaviours, perceptions and their social interactions at the Australian universities. Participants and situations would be sampled by use of a purposeful sampling method or simply on opportunistic basis. This is a non-probability sampling approach in which decision as to who to include in the study is taken by the investigator, based on a certain criteria or capacity to provide information most relevant for the study (Hollowa, 2005; Bassett, 2006)ix. Being an ethnographic study, this sampling technique is justified and logical as the data collected would not be for the purpose of establishing quantities and frequencies but rather solve qualitative problems – international students experience with stress. Hence, the aim is to discover how such stress develops, its implication, and the relationship linking occurrences. The power and logic here lies in the fact that only international students of interest – Saudi Arabian and a Chinese – would be chosen for studying in depth and hence the only group of central importance to the purpose of this inquiry. After the sample frame has been identified through purposive method where Saudi Arabia and Chinese students are identified, study participants would be picked systematic method the sampling interval would be established depending on the size of the sampling frame so that only 4 participants are picked – 3 from the Saudi Arabian sampling frame and 1 student from the Chinese sample. This sampling method is less time consuming and also reduces bias margin. Concerning data collection, each study participant would be allocated one hour in which they will answer face-to-face interview questions as well as completing a demographic questionnaire. The questions would be divided into various themes: sources of stress (e.g. demanding studying schedules, complex academic tasks, communication challenges, lack of control over class schedules among others), emotions (positive such as empathy, joy, optimism and negatives one such as anger, worry, aggravation, frustration among others with regard to relationships with other students), and coping strategies. Ethical issues arising from this study is that private information would be collected. Hence, all participants must sign a consent form to grant permission to be interviewed and for the purpose of privacy, only codes shall be used to represent a participant and which cannot directly link to any particular participant. Information collected shall be treated with utmost confidentiality and shall only be used for the purpose of study. (DAWSON, 2006)x EFFECT LEARNING/ EDUCATION SOCIAL ADAPTION STRESS DEPRESSION FATIGUE HOMESICK INSOMNIA ENGLISH LANGUAGE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE ACADEMIC WORKLOAD IMPOROVEMENT of GPA FRIENDSHIP FAMILY CLASS-MATES ROOM-MATE STUDENT ADVISOR CULTURE WEATHER/ CLIMATE ENVIRONMENT FOOD DRESS/ CLOTHES Summary: The four interviews presented similar issues and views regarding experiences of international students with stress in Australian Universities. The common themes in all the interviews included; challenges faced when adapting to the new Australian culture, difficulty in adapting to the food and the harsh cold climatic conditions, difficulty in getting used to the dress code, English language barrier, stress and depression and their association to academic performance. The four interviewees had almost similar ways of dealing with their challenges. These included; making new friends to help in understanding the new culture, sharing experiences with friends, classmates and family, gradually accommodating the new habits and socializing. The experiences nearly affected the students both physically and mentally in the same way. In the first interview the student was initially less confident, homesick and depressed due to cultural difference and climate. The students have problems communicating in English and are worried about the negative effects the challenges to adapting would have on their studies. However, all interviews assert that the universities have fulfilled their academic expectations. The issue of stress has almost affected the students in a similar manner in all the interviews. The students strive to ensure that stress-related problems do not affect their grades. RESULTS From the responses of the interviewees, it is clear that students in Australia who are studying internationals have various reasons for their stresses (Medew, 2009, 35)xi. Looking at the responses these are some of the reasons for stress that were gathered and their results, dropping in grades which results to depression and culture shock which results to homesickness. These are some of the reasons and results gathered from one student. Looking at response from another student, it is clear that there are stresses that are caused by different reasons. This is clear from a response given by a student that he experiences homesick as a result of weather issues (Joyce et al, 2009, 428)xii. This is different from the first one since the first one experienced homesick due to culture shock. This second student also points out that he experiences loneliness because he is not conversant with the English language which is widely used in the educational institution. He also experiences some problems with the dressing code because of religion and this makes it hard for him to cope up with the current situation. Low self esteem because of lack of confidence is another issues with the second interviewee (James et al, 1998, 242)xiii. With the third interviewee, problems included are adjustment of weather and culture. These are the main problems experienced by the third interviewee. In this case, the number of problems stated since with the response of this third interviewee, most of them were positive. This gives a clear impression that there are those who are facing less challenge compared to others. The fourth and the last interviewee pointed out various challenges including language barrier which eventually leads to drop in grades (Akerstedt, 1990, 69)xiv. Another challenge here is socialization where it is hard to communicate worth those who are not conversant with the language being used which is the English language. Food variation, culture difference, harsh weather conditions and insomnia are other challenges stated by the fourth interviewee (Berger and Hobbs, 2006, 378)xv. At this point it is clear that not all the students face the same challenges. There are those who are experiencing more than others. These challenges also base on the origin of the students. DISCUSSION Depression as one of the problems faced by internationals in Australia, is known to be a social problem. It is known to cause mental problems if it is not well managed. This is one of the main issues that affect the international students in Australia. Apart from this there are other challenges faced by international students in Australia (Redecker, Ruggiero and Hedges, 2004, 140)xvi. Language, culture and loneliness are the three main themes that are known to cause stress for international student in Australia. Looking at the issue of language, it is one easiest way to communicate with other individuals (DeVellis, 1991, 62)xvii. Students who are in this case not conversant with the common language are not able to live comfortably. This is because they are not able to have effective communication with their colleagues. This makes them find it hard to move on hence making them develop stress in school making it hard for them to perform well when it comes to exams (Harrington, 1978, 78)xviii. Culture is the other issue that contributes to the development of stress in students of internationals in Australia. In Australia there are various cultures in which individuals belonging to each culture have to adhere to the rules and regulations for the culture (Hack et al, 2003, 312)xix. In this case, it is quite hard for the new students especially those from other nations to adjust and follow rules and regulations they were not following before. This makes them find it difficult because they are not ready and willing to take part in the cultural activities. Since they are not willing, there are those who are forced (Cohen, 1998, 55)xx. These ones end up developing stress because they are living under pressure and do not have freedom to engage in what they want. Loneliness is yet another issue that leads to development of stress and depression. At times there are students who tend to spend most of their free time sleeping so as to avoid boredom and loneliness (Hobson, 1994, 95)xxi. Staying idle without anything to do makes it hard for the body to have regular exercises. This leads to malfunctioning of the organs in the body which may lead to serious issues like clotting of blood. The victim in this case may end up requiring an ambulance to be taken to hospital due to some illnesses caused by idleness (Council of Ambulance Authorities, 2008, 76)xxii. RECOMMENDATIONS For students to do well in school, it has to be ensured that some strategies are implemented so that they can have a conducive environment. This does not only apply to Australia but also other nations of the globe. Administration boards of each nation should make sure that all the students are comfortable. First all complains from students who are trying to adjust and cope with new environments should be responded to appropriately. This is to make sure that they are able to adjust fast enough so that they can concentrate on their studies. Second, al the facilities required for the international students to have effective learning should be made available. This can be made possible if the administration bodies of each learning institution is ready to take up responsibility and make sure that they are all available and at the right time. It should also be ensured that new students are helped out with old students so that they can catch up fast enough. This is to avoid time wastage which could be used for other reasonable class activities. It should also be ensured that all the students are treated equally and fair to avoid inequality and development of stress for those who feel looked down upon. CONCLUSION It is clear that international students in Australia face challenges when undertaking their studies. The international students are not from Australia only. This gives a clear impression that there are those who are from other nations. In this case, it is hard for them to adapt because they have to adjust and cope with the new environment. Among the challenges faced include: Adapting to cultural change, adapting to changes in food, accommodation of new habits gradually, language barrier, academic workload. Generally the challenges that are faced are mostly adaptation challenges especially for students from other nations. There are many challenges experienced by students who have stress in Australia. These challenges lead to various negative results to the students. Some of these pose threats to the health of the students. For instance a student may fall sick due to poor adaptation of food in the region. There are some challenges which are serious and end up causing mental disorders for students because of excessive stress that is built up when in school. These challenges generally have diverse consequences to the students and some can really be fatal. Read More