Adjustment issues of international students: a case study of Pakistan

In the current century, the students in the current century has a different political, economic, social, and cultural world than the students in the previous century. As a result, many countries consider that they must educate and involve their students in cultures beyond their country’s boundaries in the hope of producing inter-culturally capable students. They face so many problems in academic and social lives in their new environment. The purpose of this study was to examine and evaluate the problems of international students in Pakistan and to investigate if significant differences existed between subgroups based on their length of stay here in Pakistan. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to 200 international students studying in eight different universities in Karachi, Pakistan. Only 100 duly filled questionnaire forms were considered for the study. The methodology used in this study was quantitative and qualitative to show problems and experiences of international students in academics, culture, social, and educational environment in Pakistan. The study found that the greatest issues of the international students in Pakistan are part time job, reasonable accommodation, internship training, language problems, and cultural and academic development. Statistical analyses also shown that the varying length of the stay of students in Pakistan has no significant impact on the perception of international students toward certain adjustment challenges. The policy recommendations were made to improve Educational understanding for International Students in Pakistan for policy makers, university administrators, and faculty/staff.