The article discusses a  range of common problems faced by international students while studying in Russia, drawing on the example of Ural Federal University (Ekaterinburg). Analysis of the sociological data has shown that international students have to deal with the following adaptation barriers: organizational barriers which students face when joining the educational process; socio-cultural barriers which mostly stem from the lack of language proficiency; getting accustomed to daily routines of living on the campus; informational barriers caused by a low awareness of the conditions of life and studying in Russia (Russian cultural norms and values, the climate of the Urals, etc.). The article reveals a correlation between the specificity of the countries international students come from and the main stages of their adaptation, providing guidelines for improvement of international student support at Ural Federal University.

W niniejszym artykule przedstawiono oddziaływanie pandemii COVID-19 na akulturację i strategie akulturacyjne studentów międzynarodowych w UE, USA i Australii. Pandemia wyostrzyła trudne i ryzykowne aspekty akulturacji studentów, przyśpieszając ją. Izolacja pandemiczna oraz chaos informacyjny spowodowany pandemią utrudniają badanym przejście od fazy szoku kulturowego do fazy zdrowienia/adaptacji. U tych, którzy przed pandemią zbliżali się do tego etapu, można zaobserwować zatrzymanie adaptacji i przyjęcie strategii wymuszonej separacji. Studenci wybierają strategie akulturacyjne - lub przez pandemię są skazani na takie wybory - które nie wiążą się z budowaniem relacji ze społeczeństwem przyjmującym: separację i marginalizację. Integracja pojawia się jedynie w kontekście relacji z innymi studentami międzynarodowymi, mieszkającymi w tym samym miejscu. Równocześnie studenci wyrażają obawy co tego, czy pandemia i jej skutki umożliwią im dalszą integrację ze społeczeństwem przyjmującym. To z kolei rodzi obawę przyszłego odpływu studentów międzynarodowych z UE, USA i Australii, czemu można zapobiec, zmieniając paradygmat myślenia o miejscu studentów międzynarodowych w systemach wspomnianych krajów.

This research investigated international undergraduate students’ needs when adjusting to their new campus, academic and social life. The results from a significant survey of international students provided us with an evidence base to understand the improved student experience this cohort may seek in what will likely be a competitive environment for attracting international students post-COVID-19. While this case study has focused on one faculty, our findings are relevant to higher education institutions across disciplines, domestically and internationally.

The aim of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of tandem classrooms in promoting intercultural communicative competence by comparing the competence of students before and after participation in tandem classes. This research is based on the descriptive statistics from a survey administered at a university in South Korea. The survey was conducted in 2016 during the second semester, and it used students who participated in tandem classrooms by employing a questionnaire to measure the effectiveness of the tandem classrooms in relation to intercultural communicative competence and the students’ perception of their own competence after completing the tandem classes. The result of the research shows that unlike the initial expectations, there is no meaningful sign that the surveyed students have developed intercultural communicative competence, which means that tandem classrooms did not actively help students improve this competence. In this study, an in-depth interview with students was also conducted in 2019 to find out why such a result occurred. Although tandem classrooms would be highly valuable as a language learning method, the approach may require redesigning and reimplementation in great detail to become a method for developing intercultural communicative competence. Therefore, this study highlights the underlying need for a revised curriculum for students attending tandem classrooms.

The article analyses short-term student mobility. In the context of internationalisation of higher education and the development of the global market of educational services universities develop and implement short-term programmes of student mobility in order to recruit international students. These programmes are less restricted than full time programmes, which allows them to meet the needs and expectations of students. International experience gained as a result gives them the opportunity to choose their path in postgraduate education in institutions abroad. A questionnaire survey of the Chinese students participating in the short-term student mobility programmes (n=31) is reported. In addition, a number of interviews with the staffwhose work is connected with teaching overseas students (n=5) was conducted in 2019. The findings of this research may demonstrate that Chinese students intend to become familiar with an additional set of common cultural competences. In other words, their interest in Russia, its history, culture, traditions and customs is becoming a strong motivation in choosing a university and a short-term educational programme. It could be the case that low language proficiency, bureaucracy, (namely, difficulties in acquiring the necessary paperwork and being accommodated in a hall of residence) become hurdles on the way to completing such a programme successfully. While developing programmes, host universities should be guided by common cultural competences in order to promote further development of short-term student mobility.

Motivations of students coming from Eastern Europe to study in Poland – international, local and institutional context

The article comprises a presentation of the motivations that accompany students coming from Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine when deciding to study in Poland. The theoretical framework for examining the motivation of foreign students’ migration decisions is the push-pull factors model by Everett Lee. The analyzed material comes from an online survey of foreign students studying at the University of Wroclaw and the Maria Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin in December 2022 and January 2023. The study focuses on the factors that attract foreign students to specific destinations in three contexts: international (why Poland?), local (why a particular city?), and institutional (why a particular university?). The pull factors of greatest importance for foreign students from both universities turned out to be economic and cultural ones. The evaluation of the level of democracy in Poland was also significant. Taking into account the local context, it is worth noting that Wroclaw and Lublin attract not only with their original educational offer but also with their “urban atmosphere,” a “climate” conducive to ethnic difference. Social networks – understood as having family or friends in the country, the city of study or the chosen university – turned out to be the least important for the decision to study in Poland.

Acculturation strategies among international students of English-speaking management programs in Poland

The primary objective of this study was to identify the acculturation strategies employed by international students enrolled in English-speaking management programs in Poland. The study employed two research models: the Tridimensional Acculturation Model developed by Ferguson et al. (2012) and the Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM) proposed by Navas et al. (2005). Both models conceptualize acculturation as a multifaceted and context-dependent process. International students pursuing full-time management study programs exemplify a group susceptible to remote acculturation conditions (Ferguson and Bornstein, 2012). The study was based on in-depth interviews with 19 individuals and was carried out with the use of the Cultural Identity Mapping technique (Ferguson, 2018). Three acculturation strategies employed by students have been identified: separation (an orientation towards the culture of origin while rejecting elements of other cultures), integration (a simultaneous orientation towards two cultures), and multicultural strategy (an orientation towards more than two cultures). The identification of the third strategy contributes to ongoing discussions regarding the limitations of twodimensional acculturation models which fail to encapsulate the increasing complexity and diversity of individuals’ acculturation experiences (e.g., Sam & Ward, 2021; Rudmin, 2006). Finally, remote acculturation turned out to play an important role in the processes associated with the acquisition of the third culture.