Challenges Faced by International Students in Australia.

Running head: CHALLENGES FACED BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIA
CHALLENGES FACED BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIA – A
LITERATURE REVIEW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

CHALLENGES FACED BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIA1
Introduction
The concept of pursuing education at the foreign universities holds a great amount of
excitement for the students all over the world. The major factors that attract the students to this
opportunity is the fact that seeking education at the foreign locations outside the home country of
the student involves a change in the cultural surroundings of the student. The other major factor
that attracts the student is the fact that the education at the foreign locations tend to provide the
students with the ability to live an independent life away from their family. However, the
international students who have been pursuing their education from institutions that are
operational internationally face a greater number of challenges as well. The following paper
attempts a review of the existent literature of the various challenges that are faced by the
international students who have been pursuing their educational courses at the various esteemed
universities that are active within the territorial boundaries of Australia. The paper opens with a
discussion on the issues that stem from the Socio-Cultural Adjustment that are undertaken by the
students and proceeds to discuss the issues that are faced by the students in terms of the language
and the educational expectancy. The paper finally reaches a conclusion with the discussion on
the individual issues that pose to be a barrier in their education within the Australian territories.
Socio-Cultural Adjustment
Akanwa (2015) opine that one of the major issues that are highlighted by the international
students refer to the several adjustments that the students need to implement in order to get
accustomed to the socio-cultural factors that are highlighted within the territorial boundaries of
Australia. The students who have enrolled themselves at the educational institutions that are
active within the Australian territories tend to face greater issues in the matters that are related to
the cultural factors that are implemented within the Australian territories. The students generally

CHALLENGES FACED BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIA2
face issues due to the sudden changes that they face in the cultural surroundings that are
presented within the Australian territories as compared to the cultural surroundings that they
have been facing within the territorial boundaries of their home countries. According to Wang,
Andre and Greenwood (2015), the international students who have enrolled themselves at the
various educational institutions within the territorial boundaries of Australia, tend to experience a
cultural shock during their initial months of residence within the country. The experts opine that
the students tend to experience this due to the differences that they observe around themselves.
This tend to affect the psyche of the international students in a way that they tend to feel
homesick during their initial months. Gautam et al. (2016) argue that the international students
further face issues in terms of the factors that are related to the financial conditions that are
experienced by the students. The majority of the international students within the Australian
territories tend to pursue part-time jobs in order to fund their education. The lack of the proper
language skills along with the differences that exist within the sociocultural factors tend to baffle
the students and thus lead to major troubles that are generally faced by the international students.
As opined by Heng (2018), the prime areas that are served by the international students in order
to support the academic fees and other financial factors that are demanded for the completion of
the concerned course, include the service of the students at the gas stations, libraries and
restaurants that are present within the given localities of their residence. However, the lack of the
proper language proficiency on the part of the students tend to lead to the miscommunication
among the students and the clientele of the organization wherein the international students have
been serving as the part-time employees.
Language

CHALLENGES FACED BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIA3
Ahmad (2015) opine that the international students within the Australian territories also
face issues in the matters that pertain to the linguistic usage that is followed within the country.
The international students who have enrolled themselves at the universities that are present
within the territorial boundaries of Australia tend to belong to the various nationalities of the
world and might be mutually exclusive to the linguistic features that are followed within the
Australian boundaries. Banjong (2015) state that the major issues that are highlighted in this case
might get attributed to the various dialects of English that are being used within the territorial
boundaries of the other countries of the world. The students who wish to get enrolled at the
various universities of Australia are advise to take an exam, the International English Language
Testing System, in order to attain the qualification to attend the concerned courses at the
universities that have been located within the territorial boundaries of Australia. However, as
stated by Farley et al. (2015), the students who get themselves enrolled at the Australian
universities still find it difficult to follow the Australian standard English that is majorly used as
the teaching medium within the various universities in Australia. Choudaha (2017) opine that the
linguistic issues are more prominent and commonplace for the students from the Asian
backgrounds. This is due to the fact that students from the Asian backgrounds do not consider
English to be the first language for educational purposes. The curricula that is followed by the
Australian universities are observed to be entirely followed in the English language. This poses
to be a problem for the students who are weak in their English proficiencies. The students are
often asked to carry on with their academic activities only in the English language. The lack of
the vocabulary of the students tend to deteriorate the confidence levels of the student in the
composition of the scientific critiques, research papers, opinions during the course of the
completion of the courses that they been enrolled in. The lack of the proper language learning