Socio-cultural adaptation of international students in the Siberian region

The problem relevance of socio-cultural adaptation of international students in the Siberian region is determined by several factors: rising interest of international students to regional universities (demand for certain educational programs); special characteristics of the Siberian region (climate, peculiarities of university, urban, regional environment); little experience of regional universities in teaching international students required constant monitoring for adaptation difficulties; need to optimize support to international studentsconsidering socio-cultural difficulties. The study aims to establish, analyze and classify the problems of socio-cultural adaptation; to define spheres particularly demanding support for international students in a Siberian region. The research methods were theoretical (analysis, synthesis, concretization, generalization); diagnostic (questionnaire); statistical ones. The questionnaire was carried onwith participation of 83 students from far-abroad countries studying the bilingual program (General Medicine Department, Siberian State Medical University) based on the international scale of socio-cultural adaptation. The calculations were madeusing IBM SPSS Statistics software. It resulted in revealing the factors contributing to psychological, socio-cultural, didactic barriers impeded learning process; identifying various types of difficulties affecting the process of socio-cultural adaptation were pointed out: basic, ethno-cultural (humor perception), regional (climate, searching familiar food), individual (participation in social events). The study establishes directions to support international students, ensure their successful integration into new cultural and educational community. The results should be useful for specialists of social and psychological services for timely assistance to international students of the Siberian regional universities; in preparing international students for learning and living in new socio-cultural conditions.