1. Perceived Barriers to International Student Transitions in Higher Education
Donald Wetzel, Maria Hartwig, Elizabeth Woods, Carolina Perticari
Clemson University
Perceived Barriers to International Student Transitions in Higher Education
Population and Research Question

2. This phenomenological study explores the perceived barriers to international student
adjustment, when transitioning to a higher education institution within the United States. The
study focuses on non-degree seeking, undergraduate international students, at a medium sized,
four-year, Southeastern research-based university. The researchers will take a closer look at how
perceived barriers have an impact on academics, language, discrimination, and finances for these
students. International students are an increasingly important student demographic to understand
and research because of their growing numbers on the modern college campus. “According to
the Institute for International Education, in academic year 2011–2012 764,495 international
students studied in higher education institutions in the United States. This represents a growth of
5.7% from the previous academic year and an average growth of 3.4% over the past 10 years.
International students represent a significant minority population that pose unique and
challenging transition issues to student affairs professionals”. The substantial outcomes
associated with international students’ contributions to higher education institutions should not
be underestimated and how these students adjust to their new environment should be observed to
garner an understanding of how student affairs professionals may ameliorate the potential
transitional strains of international students.
Based upon the information gathered in preparation for this study, a gap in the empirical
research was evident, in regard to the existing perceived barriers that affect international student
transitions at institutions of higher learning within the U.S. Additionally, after a thorough review
of the literature, it was determined that more research was needed on how financial, linguistic,
academic, and discriminatory barriers affect the transitions of international students in the
Southeastern region of the United States. To best understand students’ experiences from an in-
depth perspective, a focus was placed on examining students from a phenomenological

3. standpoint.
Since much of the previous research focuses on the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive
issues students face, during their transitions to other countries, the researchers expected that
many
of the same issues regarding “culture shock” would arise in this study. Further, the literature
review identified four main themes among the perceived barriers that impact transitions for
international students. For the purpose of this study, the four themes have been identified as
financial, linguistic, academic, and discrimination. Financial challenges were generally defined
as the high cost of tuition and fees, inability to find gainful employment, the high cost of health
insurance, and the lack of scholarships and grants for international students. Linguistic barriers
were defined as a detriment to communication, which could include written, verbal, or non-
verbal forms. The current study focused on academic barriers to international students’
adjustment related to students’ English language proficiency, interpersonal academic
relationships, and academic induced stress. The current study also focused on the areas of verbal,
institutional, and faculty related forms of discrimination that pose barriers to students’
adjustment. Based on the common themes and the gaps that were identified in the literature
review, the researchers established their primary research question to focus on the barriers that
international students face as they study at higher education institutions in the United States.
Research Design and Methodology
Participants
Participants in this study were three international students at a four-year, public, Southeastern
research university of 19,111 students. The study was conducted after receiving approval from
the Institutional Review Board where the interviews took place (Appendix A). International

4. students are defined as non-degree seeking undergraduate students from outside of the US
studying at their host institution for one semester to no more than one year.
A staff member in the institution’s Study Abroad Office assisted with the recruitment of
international student participants by emailing them to assess their interest in participating
(Appendix B). The three participants were from ________, ranged in age from _________, two
were female and one was male, and one of the three was a native English speaker.
Materials
Prior to the interview, students completed a brief questionnaire to gather demographic
information (Appendix C). Two recording devices will utilized during each interview: a
computer and an iPad. Participants completed an informed consent document to indicate their
understanding of the study and that they would be audio recorded (Appendix E).
Design
The current study employed an interview approach centered on a phenomenological framework.
Phenomenological studies presume that there is some level of a core, mutual experience that
individuals share, and that in order to understand those experiences correctly and the way in
which individuals experience them, researchers must examine them in detail (Patton, 2002).
Thus, questions were developed to focus on international students’ common experiences and
their perception of events related to their transition.
Procedure
Participants met with a 2-person team where one member interviewed the student and the other
recorded and took notes. The researchers utilized the interview guide approach (Patton, 2002).
This form of interviewing creates a systematic list of open-ended questions the interview should
cover to ensure specific topics are discussed, which is included on the interview protocol form

5. (Appendix D). Participants also gave informed consent and completed a demographic
questionnaire prior to being interviewed.
Data Analysis
After the in-person interviews, researchers transcribed the conversations. The form of coding
used on these transcripts was open-coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The team of researchers
independently coded conversations, and then compared their coding to determine if the
categories they developed matched. The researchers coded line-by-line, and then developed
overarching themes that resulted from the individual line codes. The five resulting themes that
were developed centered on: initial communication and contact issues, academics, social
situations, financial issues, and language issues. Once these themes were established, the
researchers went on to group those comments into positive, negative, or mixed positive and
negative categories.
Because this study is qualitative in nature, the researchers function as “instruments” for the
collection and analysis of data throughout every stage of the study (Patton, 2002). Thus, efforts
were made to ensure that researcher biases could be accounted for to enhance credibility. For
example, the researcher responsible for verbally interviewing a student did not transcribe the
interview of that student, as the interviewer may have developed certain biases, opinions, or
reactions to what was discussed during the interview.
Validity
Lincoln and Guba’s proposed technique of performing “member checks” was utilized to enhance
the credibility of the proposed qualitative study (1985). To ensure that the participants’ messages
were accurately captured, the transcript was sent back to the interviewee. Interviewees were
asked if they felt the transcription accurately represent what they were trying to convey. This is

6. especially important, in ensuring the interviewee felt their messages were accurately conveyed,
as the researchers were conducting interviews in English, even though English was not the native
language of two interviewees.
Results
Based on our results, it is evident that barriers to international student transitions in
Higher Education, do exist for non-degree seeking, undergraduate international students, at a
medium sized, four-year, Southeastern research-based university. The researchers anticipated the
four most common perceived barriers to be: academic, social, financial, and linguistic. Upon
completion of the study, it became evident that initial communication and/or contact with the
host university was also a barrier for many students, so much so that 11.9% of the comments
made by students surveyed, mentioned initial communication and/or contact with the host
university as either a hindrance to transition, or a help. Since the aforementioned number was the
same as financial (11.9% of comments), the researchers decided to consider the information
relevant to the study.
Overall, the results of this study are interesting. Out of all the comments generated from
our three participants, most students commented on their academic (28.81%) and social (32.3%)
experiences. This seems reasonable as these are the experiences they are having on a daily basis,
and have the most concrete examples to draw from and discuss. Unfortunately, the results
indicate that overall students discussed more negative (49.1%) than positive (37.2%)
experiences. The overarching negative issues students discussed surrounded their language and
communication use with those in their environments who seemed to misunderstand them
frequently. 89% of the comments surrounding language issues were negative. In contrast, the
least negative and most positive comments surrounded students’ social experiences. In

7. comparing these categories, the data show that negative comments were most frequent for the
language category (89%); the negative themes of initial communication (57%), financial issues
(57%), academic (41%) were less negative; and social issues were mentioned least in their
negativity (31.5%). In contrast, the data show that positive comments were most frequent in the
social category (53%); the categories of initial contact (43%), academics (35%), financial (29%)
were mentioned less frequently; and issues surrounding language (11%) were mentioned in a
positive light the least frequently.
Further, of the 57% of negative comments made regarding finances, specific examples of
the barriers which negatively impacted the students’ transition were: classes being more
expensive in the United States, as opposed to the home country; lack of financial aid options; and
family members having to pay the initial tuition payments, until the student was able to procure a
scholarship from the host institution, or elsewhere.
Common responses relating to perceived academic barriers, were similar to what the
researchers had expected; many students had difficulties in selecting classes in their home
countries due to lack of knowledge surrounding classes for their area(s) of study in the U.S.
Students also expressed that the class work was difficult, as a result of linguistic barriers; for
example, one student stated they felt a professor thought less of them because basic math terms
had been lost in translation, while another stated writing papers in a foreign language was
difficult. To extrapolate upon this further, within their interview, Participant 3 stated
“international students know the information, but feel isolated when they cannot express (it)
clearly”. Barriers aside, participants also noted that although a language barrier may be present,
professors and Teaching Assistants (TAs) are for the most part, friendly, helpful, and available.
Social experiences seemed to be similar; the data demonstrates that most international

8. students have a difficult time making friends initially and slang terms may be difficult to pick up
on. However, international students who elected to live within the university’s cultural exchange
community had smoother transitions and developed close friendships with other members of the
community, much faster than those who were not in the cultural exchange community.
The purpose of our study aimed to discover more about the academic, social, financial
and linguistic barriers that international students face. Though our study did further support that
these barriers exist, one potential barrier that we as researchers inferred was initial contact or
lack thereof. It is important to note that while not every research participant experienced positive
or negative initial contact, the implications that negative initial contact had on Participant 2
seemed to catalyze the difficulties this international student had through the other barriers of
academic, social, financial and linguistic. For Participant 1, it may be inferred that the positive
initial contact that they received catalyzed the students ability to adapt if and when this
participant was faced with barriers.
Conclusions
The data here is interesting, but some limitations exist in this research. First, the study
only looked at 3 participants. Because of time constraints, the researchers were unable to recruit
and interview additional participants. Because the study is limited in sample size, the results
discussed in this paper are not highly generalizable to the larger population of international
students that may be dealing with some of these issues. Additionally, the students were
interviewed in the Spring semester after having attended the university in the fall semester as
well. This may have impacted their recollection of their initial transition since they had over a
semester to acclimate to this university setting. Also, some researcher bias may unintentionally
have come into play in the interpretation and coding of the student statements.

9. The results of this study may offer some insight into a select group of international
students’ experiences. Because researchers have looked into international students’ experiences
and barriers to their transition to a university, some procedure or programs may be able to be
developed to help future international students’ transition experience, particularly in the area of
pre-departure communication from their home institution.