Improving the university experience for international students

Are higher education institutions doing enough for international students?Frederika Whiteheadtalks to the universities putting student experience and integration first

Frederika Whitehead Guardian Professional 2011

At the end of term two years ago I boarded a plane at Heathrow bound for Taiwan. I was just settling into my seat when the passenger who would be sitting next to me arrived. He was flustered, and very angry. He had just been charged almost £300 for excess baggage and couldn't understand why the airport staff was being so mean. "I am only a young student, I don't have that money," he pleaded. But here's the rub. The check-in staff had in fact offered him the chance to delay his return flight so that he could go home and repack, and they were willing to fly him home a day later at no extra cost, which I thought was really quite generous.

I asked him why he didn't take up the offer. "Where would I stay, I have checked out of my residence," he replied. "What about your friends?" I asked, but he just shrugged, and said: "No, that's not possible, I can't stay anywhere." I was dumbstruck. The friends I made at university have been my friends for life. I couldn't understand that this young graduate had just spent three years living in London and he didn't have a single friend that he could call on to save adding £300 to his student debt.

The issue here is clearly one of integration – the university that my fellow passenger had attended had completely failed him in this respect. Dominic Scott, chief executive of the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), says the attention universities pay to integration is patchy but that the rise in student satisfaction surveys over the past two to three years is creating awareness of the issues and in many institutions additional efforts are now being made. "Many recognise that it is very important that integration takes place within the first few weeks. If students haven't found other international and UK friends by then, it may well not happen for them at all during the rest of the year. The good universities put a lot of time into orientation, mentoring and volunteering programmes in the first few weeks – all of which can really help bring students (and the local community) together."

Scott would most likely approve of the welcome programme run by Adrienne Clarke, director of the international office at the University of East London (UEL). When I spoke to Clarke she painted a vivid picture of two contrasting first days at university. On the one hand you have the UK student who is often brought to the university during the day by their family. The boot of the car is stuffed with home comforts, the duvet is in there, some saucepans, maybe a telly, food, drink, you name it. And then there is the international student whose flight lands late at night. They are alone, 5,000 miles from home, with just one case of clothes in a country that is much colder than where they've come from.

UEL has introduced a range of measures to ease this difference. The programme starts with pre-departure briefings, so that students can meet face to face with representatives from the university to get answers to basic questions about what they need to bring with them. "They ask basic stuff like 'Do I need to bring a rice cooker' and we say 'No, you can buy them here'," Clarke says.

The next step is their airport pickup service and five-day welcome programme, which Clarke says helps to settle the young international students. "We give them duvet sets and a backpack of goodies. They love it. There is a phonecard in there because their mobiles often aren't set up to work here and some snacks." Interspersed between talks on using the library, avoiding plagiarism and using correct citation and referencing, they run trips to the local supermarket, explain the complexities of Transport for London's Oyster card, and help the students register with a doctor. "We don't want them to have to miss lectures because they are off setting up bank accounts," says Clarke.

And because all of these things take so long, to prevent endless queuing they divide the students into small groups and run simultaneous social activities: while one group is enrolling another is learning circus skills, or salsa. It helps break the ice. The five-day welcome programme run for the international students elides seamlessly with a three-day programme for the home students so by the end of the five days the two groups are well mixed.

The campus at the University of Falmouth is much smaller, and their intake of international students far lower, so they are able to deal with the students' logistical problems much more quickly and rely on the internet a lot more. UKCISA cite the university's online handbook as an example of best practice. Their International manager, Stuart Westhead says his team use a combination of their own online material and Facebook to give prospective students a full and rounded picture of student life in Cornwall.

Falmouth's official website carries all the important formal information, but after that they then allow the students to do the rest of the talking. Westhead explained that they used to run their own in-house chatroom but it was superseded by the rise in social media. "We look at their Facebook page and it's so lively, they post wonderful images of their experience in Cornwall, so we let them get on with it." The Facebook page is used by alumni, prospective and current students and Westhead says allowing the students to do things their own way is best, although he advises current students to refer prospective students to the international office when important questions come up.

Alongside a range of podcasts teaching research and essay writing skills, Sheffield Hallam university has produced a podcast to guide its international students from Manchester airport to Sheffield. As well as giving them directions it tells them what to expect and how to behave. "It says things like 'You will need to convince the immigration officer that you are a student, so get your offer letter out now'," says international student support officer Andrew Bromley.

Bromley organises scores of social events each year to help international students settle in, including a scheme called Local Friends, which he says is hugely popular: "We've got a database of about 50 local families who are keen to meet people from around the world. It's up to the host how they spend their time. They might meet for a coffee, or show them their favourite place in Sheffield, or invite them into their home. Sometimes the host families get involved because they have children that are learning languages, sometimes they just want the experience of meeting people from different cultures."

Bromley encourages home students to organise social events for the visitors. He says students in events management and public relations have been particularly keen to get involved in the past, as well as English language students who are considering teaching English as foreign language. "At Christmas international students are often alone, but last year we organised more than 20 events for them. This year we held a big Christmas Day dinner which more than 70 students attended."

UKCISA's Scott makes a compelling argument as to why the work done by international student support workers like Clarke, Westhead and Bromley is so important: "Increasingly those universities and colleges that invest in ensuring international students integrate well, make best use of the facilities and gather both British and other nationality friends tend to be most successful in recruiting others. These integration activities are not just nice to have, they are an essential part of differentiating between institutions. Figures and all research show that proper integration, which enables students to leave university with UK friends as well as a UK degree makes the difference between them being averagely satisfied customers to firm advocates of your institution."

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