Planes flying in different directions
Race, ethnicity and culture

Foreign students - Education and culture shock

Adrian Furnham discusses how psychology can improve the experience for our overseas visitors.

18 January 2004

Students have travelled from one country to another for centuries, particularly in Europe. They have often faced problems: an early study in America, published in 1925, listed difficulties for foreign students over academic issues, language, housing, economic issues, their inability to become socially accepted, health and recreation, and racial prejudice (Hammer, 1992). But it was not until comparatively recently that the foreign student experience became the focus of psychological study (e.g. Ward et al., 2001). Can psychological theory and research make this experience a more positive one?

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