MAIN CHALLENGES, THAT FOREIGN STUDENTS FACE WHILE ADJUSTING TO THE NEW EDUCATION SYSTEM: A SUBJECT FIELD REVIEW

Ever since obtaining education abroad became possible, scientists started to pay attention to the problem of students' adjustment in foreign institutions. However, in the last three decades education has started to rapidly globalize, leading to an increased interest in the socio-cultural aspect of international academics. Therefore, more studies were conducted to analyze the challenges faced by those students, who decide to get a degree abroad. Understanding the main difficulties of international students became troublesome because of the large variety of different student groups and problems, peculiar specifically for them. The aim of this review is to summarize the most frequent problems of different international students' groups and to identify those that are common to all; to portray students' typical coping responses and to better understand how international students can more easily adjust and achieve overall well-being during their study abroad. A scoping subject field review of recent research on the topic of international student adaptation to a new academic environment was conducted on Scopus. A total of 2729 documents were viewed, and, according to our inclusion and exclusion criteria, 37 articles were selected and analyzed. The review shows that international students face a number of challenges associated with language and communication barriers, organizational difficulties and different cultural views, perceived discrimination and mental health problems. We identified strategies used by students to cope with some of the challenges, such as accessing support from family and other students and sticking to familiar routines. Supportive interventions mainly focus on changes that can be introduced by the institutions and its faculty to improve international students' experiences. This paper provides a more generalized view of the international students' challenges, enabling stakeholders with an interest in supporting international students to consider a supportive method for their institution. The results of this review can be used by people interested in planning education abroad.