Culture Shock on International Students

Introduction

This report, based on the three articles by Hellsten&Prescott, Rodan, and Xia, will explain certain issues regarding international students(IS) to face up to reality and to find proper solutions. For the last several decades, a numerous number of IS have come to Australia to enrol in academic courses such as universities and English language academies. However, a rapid increase of the number of IS has brought significant issues to the society; poor quality education of educational providers and high cost of school expenses, and safety of IS are main problems. Therefore, this report will explain the large concerns of students with appropriate examples and provide reasonable solutions regarding the issues. Lastly, it will elucidate how IS and universities possibly can deal with the problems effectively.

Problems

1. Poor quality and high cost of education

According to Rodan(2009,pp27-31), some education providers are offering IS inappropriate education and poor student services though high cost of education still imposes a heavy burden on IS. For this reason, IS are now considered as victims of circumstances. Educational academies may not give as good quality as IS expect. On the contrary, institutions may be just taking the money from IS and misleading IS about some realities of life and study. In addition, it is obvious that there are families which help their children with funds while staying in Australia because of expensive school fees. That may be the reason why a significant number of IS are being forced to work a part-time job after school and weekends to help out their living cost and, what is worse, they are not allowed to have over twenty working hours per week. If a student works more than twenty hours, it could be a direct cause for visa cancellation. Moreover, some IS who do both study and work are less likely to pay attention during class and to have time to spend on study compared to those who only study.

2. The effects of Culture shock on international students.

Subsequently, Xia(2009,pp97-101) states that culture shock happens when most of IS encounter a new culture and different life styles. Culture shock may cause stress. IS are affected by psychological confusion and emotional discomfort coming from numerous sources of psychological stress. Representative symptoms are depression, anxiety and feeling of helplessness. Furthermore, IS suffering from these psychological effects may not only find it hard to focus on learning in new cultures but also to solve problems, and to make decisions. As a result, when the people can not overcome the symptoms of culture shock, they may dislike locals and therefore they are more likely to have difficulties to relate to others. Consequently, to deal with psychological stress brought by culture