Challenges Faced by Internaional Students Studying at Kwantlen Polytechnic University

This ongoing research aims to explore everyday life challenges encountered by international students and the coping strategies they use to adjust to life circumstances in Canada. We assumed that international students might encounter challenges pertaining to language, study and adjustment, financial issues, connecting with the community and prejudice. The current sample of thirty eight male and female students from China, India, Saudi Arabia and other countries were administered a challenges questionnaire, coping and religiosity scales. The item of all the instruments had an underlying five point Likert type rating scale. The highest mean score of Indians on the challenges scale showed that they faced the most challenges followed by Saudis. The five top issues concerning internationals were their quest for additional resources to pay for their education, they paid higher fees compared to Canadian students which was unfair, they missed their families but enjoyed family support and were happy with the education. The difference among different nationalities on individual items of challenges scale indicated that Saudis felt overwhelmed by the school work, but had social support and liked Vancouver climate. Indians had good understanding of English, did not feel study related stressed and remembered information well. Chinese had difficulty finding affordable accommodation. The multiple regression analyses using challenges scale as criterion indicated that religious involvement and the use of problem focused coping by the internationals were good predictors of successfully dealing with the challenges. Contrary to our expectations, internationals did not report feeling isolated or being discriminated.