International Students’ Experience in U.S. Higher Education

Abstract

This paper explores the challenges international students face while they pursue their higher education in U.S. universities. The qualitative, semi-structured interviews provided three themes: 1) academic challenges, 2) non-academic challenges, and 3) strategies for success. A sample of 15 international students at a selected U.S. public university were interviewed about their experience of university study, the barriers they faced, and how they had coped with these challenges. This research was motivated by two major research questions: 1) What challenges do international students face at U.S. universities? 2) What do international students do to be successful academically? The findings of this study indicated that the majority of international students face academic and non-academic challenges, including the language barrier, social, and financial barriers. There is also evidence that the main obstacles that these students encounter is speaking fluently followed by academic writing, and findings of this study suggest that there needs to be an additional focus on methods to improve the experience of this population in their academic life.