Adaptation Challenges for International Students in Turkey

The number of international students has increased greatly in the past few years. As part of the efforts to internationalize its higher education, Turkey is one of the top destinations for international students hosting over 100 thousand international students by 2018. Research shows that with the increasing number of international students come socio-cultural and academic adaptation challenges. This study employed a qualitative approach to understand the adaptation challenges international students face in Turkey. The research discusses findings from focus group discussions with participants from more than 20 countries on adaptation challenges. Results from the focus group discussions showed that international students face challenges in their everyday life, dormitory life, campus life, social life and academic life. The range of challenges includes socio-cultural challenges, language challenges and academic challenges. Notably, findings of this study highlighted that language barrier is at the center of all other challenges affecting socio-cultural adaptation and the students’ academic life. The results were discussed under three categories: socio-cultural challenges, language barriers, and academic challenges.