A Study Of International Students’ Academic Adjustment Under Chinese Environment

Since the beginning of the reform and opening-up in1978, the number of internationalstudents enrolled in Chinese universities has continued to grow. According to Church(1982), it is estimated that about15%to25%of international students might bepsychologically, physiologically or academically impaired, among which, academicadjustment problems draw a lot of attention from researchers. It is important to helpinternational students make better academic adjustment under Chinese environment. Thepresent study has three research objectives. It aims to investigate the status quo ofinternational students‘academic adjustment, explore the academic adjustmentdeterminants and find out the determinants predicting international students‘academicadjustment.The subjects were96international students in Huazhong University of Science andTechnology. Based on the Academic Adjustment Scale designed by Baker&Siryk in1989, the researcher investigated the status quo of the subjects. Academic AdjustmentDeterminants Scale used to test subjects‘related academic adjustment determinants wasdeveloped by the researcher based on the literature review and pre-interviews.Furthermore, five international students among the subjects were randomly chosen to beinterviewed about their opinions on academic adjustment determinants.The collected data were put into SPSS17.0. Factor analysis and reliability analysiswere processed to test the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Descriptiveanalysis was used to demonstrate international students‘academic adjustment and relateddeterminants. Determinants predicting international students‘academic adjustment werefound out by regression analysis.Major research findings include:1) although most of the international students feelwell-adjusted to the academic environment in the Chinese university, their academic adjustment situation is still far from being satisfactory;2) academic adjustmentdeterminants for international students mainly include teaching facilities, languageproficiency of host country, learning attitude, learning competence, lecturer/supervisorstaffing, curriculum program, freshman orientation and motivation to study abroad,among which, teaching facilities and learning competence are well received byinternational students;3) regression analysis suggests that learning competence serves asthe predictor of international students‘academic adjustment.The results of the research indicate that international students should continue toimprove themselves to make themselves fully prepared for academic adjustment, evenfurther challenges. Furthermore, to help international students make better academicadjustments to Chinese environment as soon as possible, universities and institutionsshould continue to improve their teaching contents and teaching facilities, and thelecturers and the supervisors should give them more practical advice.