For Their Own Good: Class Room Observations on the Social and Academic Integration of International and Domestic Students

Abstract

This paper presents the outcomes of three small studies which explore if students in diverse student groups seek and want academic and social integration. This includes an attempt to identify the facilitating factors and barriers for this process. Factors identified as facilitating integration are small group size, lack of access to compatriots and sufficient staff time and resources to create an intentional process of integration. Barriers to academic and social integration were situations where the majority of domestic students come from one area; large groups of international students from the same country and finally, a lack of resources to actively facilitate integration in a planned, interventional way.