The journey and experience of international students: an insight from a UK University

International students contribute circa 25.8 billion in gross output for the UK economy (Universities UK, 2017). The new UK government Strategy in March (2019) is to cement Britain’s leading role in the global market by increasing the number of international students studying in the UK by more than 30% – helping boost the income generated by education exports to £35 billion (UK Government, 2019). Therefore, the main aim of this research is to explore the experience of international students during their journey at one of UK Higher Education institutions. Previous studies covered one or two factors that affect the international students to study abroad such as costs, language, culture, etc.,. However, our study suggested six themes to cover the whole journey of the international students. The themes are: selection and admission; pre-arrival; induction; orientation and settlement, engagement; and teaching and learning. Our study offers some recommendations for each theme and for the university level.