Supporting international students’ academic acculturation and sense of academic self-efficacy

Abstract

International students arriving in New Zealand must acculturate to studying in a new academic environment. This article evaluates graduate and postgraduate level international students’ perceptions of their home and host environments and the benefits of offering an academic preparation course to support international students’ sense of academic self-efficacy. The data were collected using quantitative surveys, including a pre-post design with a control group. The findings highlight notable differences in many students’ host and home country academic environments, and how international students’ sense of academic self-efficacy tends to reduce at the commencement of their academic journey in New Zealand. However, participation in an academic preparation course may be able to minimize this decline. Hence, the academic adjustment of international students should be increasingly perceived as a joint responsibility of both students and education providers, highlighting the need for institutional adjustments in a form of relevant academic support services.