The literature on international student adjustment problem is replete with studies
done in universities in the West. This skews the understanding of the
international student adjustment phenomenon in favour of developed countries at
the expense of the less developed ones and thus creates an obvious gap in the
student adjustment literature.
The purpose of this study was to fill this apparent gap by exploring the nature of
adjustment problems encountered by international students at the Central
University of Technology (CUT), a typical developing world university, located in
Bloemfontein, in the Free State Province of South Africa.
The empirical study was preceded by an extensive literature survey that led to
the conclusion that while international studentsâ adjustment problems are
numerous and similar in many respects, they differ significantly across countries,
and according to a number of demographic factors. This means that in part,
adjustment problems are contextual. The implication is that any wholesale use of
existing measurement instruments that were specifically designed for Western
country conditions would be inappropriate for use in the South African context.
Consequently, a custom made measurement instrument was developed for this
study. Validity and reliability issues that naturally emerge with custom made
instruments were thoroughly dealt with.
Among others, the empirical investigation revealed that:
1. International students at CUT encounter many adjustment problems.
2. International students at CUT regard their adjustment experiences as
problematic.
3. The adjustment problems of international students at CUT differ
significantly according to country/region of origin, age, and gender of
students. The study identified the following as the ten most difficult adjustment problems
international students at CUT have to contend with in their order of difficulty
starting with the most difficult to the least difficult:
1. High cost of living in South Africa
2. Cost of food
3. Cost of health insurance
4. Getting visa extensions
5. Feel comfortable visiting immigration office
6. Work restrictions
7. Becoming a citizen of South Africa
8. Understanding immigration rules
9. Sufficiency of funds to meet expenses
The study raises issues which, if attended to, could help ameliorate adjustment
problems international students encounter at CUT. The expectation is that, by
reducing the number and severity of adjustment problems, international students
would live in harmony with their educational and social environment at CUT. This
in turn would make CUT very attractive to international students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07302007-123022 |
| Date | 30 July 2007 |
| Creators | Dzansi, Dennis Yao |
| Contributors | Dr H Alt, Prof AC Wilkinson |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07302007-123022/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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