Revisiting the ‘U-curve’ hypothesis: international students’ academic, sociocultural, and psychological adjustment trajectories at a British university

ABSTRACT

This mixed-methods longitudinal study investigated the academic, sociocultural, and psychological adjustment trajectories of international students undertaking one-year postgraduate degrees in the humanities and social sciences at a single British university. It also sought to re-examine the applicability of ‘U-curve’ hypothesis. Three waves of self-report questionnaires (N = 120, 108, 102) measured international students’ adjustment satisfaction and their adjustment patterns throughout nine months period. Additionally, three rounds of semi-structured interviews (N = 16) were conducted to explore students’ lived experiences and adjustment trajectories over time. The findings revealed complex adjustment patterns that differed across academic, sociocultural, and psychological domains. Enablers and barriers to adjustment, as perceived by the students, included cultural distance, English language ability, academic workload, previous personal experiences, and university support. The study contributes to the theoretical understanding of international students’ adjustment, provides insights into the experiences of student sojourners in the UK higher education context and increases knowledge regarding student support services.

KEYWORDS:

• International students
• adjustment
• adaptation
• U-curve

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Fundings

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

1 An internationally mobile student is an individual who has physically crossed an international border between two countries with the objective to participate in educational activities in a destination country, where the destination country is different from his or her country of origin.

2 Social contact including contact with host nationals (people in the host country), co-nationals (people from their home country), and other international students (Pho and Schartner 2021).

3 Social support refers to a variety of support that people receive from others so as to satisfy their needs for concern, approval, security and belongings (Cohen 2004).

4 International English Language Testing System.

5 T1, T2, T3 refer to three different data collection stages in October, February, and June.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xuan Zhao

Xuan Zhao is a freelance researcher who awarded her PhD in Education, Communication, and Language Sciences at Newcastle University. Her interests are internationalisation in higher education, international students’ adjustment, and adaptation. She also interested in language education, critical perspectives of intercultural, cross-cultural, and intergroup communication.

Alina Schartner

Alina Schartner is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Newcastle University, having previously worked as a Research Associate at the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching (CfLaT). Her research interests include the internationalisation of higher education, especially international student adjustment and adaptation, as well as the social psychology of communication. She is also interested in the role of ‘culture’ in professional communication and the concept of intercultural competence.