Welcoming international students: transitions into Scottish Higher Education

Abstract

The topic of international students' transitions has been high on the Higher Education (HE) agenda in recent years. Indeed, international students are a main economic driver for HE Institutions (HEI) (Quan et al. 2016; Wu and Hammond 2011), especially in the United Kingdom. However, learning across cultures and languages create additional challenges for international students, so that their initial transition into UK HE is more difficult than home students (ibid.; Foster, 2011). In fact, international students are confronted by a number of specific challenges, among which language proficiency, academic background and social integration (ibid.).