No moment is perhaps as significant in the life of an international school secondary student as when they bid farewell to their school and embark on an exciting journey to universities abroad. It’s a time of profound change — a new school, new friends, altered living arrangements, and an increased demand for independence. This transition is both thrilling and demanding, requiring meticulous planning to ensure success. One key quality that becomes paramount during this period is adaptability.
International students may exhibit a higher level of adaptability when supported well with such transitions, thanks to their experiences in transitory international schooling. As highlighted by Ota (2014), these students have encountered significant changes within three distinct groups: when they arrive, when they remain as friends move on and when they leave for a new place.
This project initially came about due to an invitation to present on the topic of mental health to a group of final-year secondary school students. In my preparations, I reached out to the Mastodon community—a platform for academia and students alike. I invited university faculty members and students to participate in a brief survey focusing on crucial mental health-related issues. Since I’m a proponent of open research, I made it clear that the dataset would be publicly available afterwards. As such, this project is now ongoing indefinitely.
Choosing a mental health model
This brief survey is modeled around five areas that support mental health, based on the dimensions of wellness (Adams et al., 2000; Stoewen, 2017). I focused specifically on self-care strategies, since this would equip individual students with a range of actionable activities to undertake. The five dimensions select were:
- Social Health, i.e. establishing a trusted group of friends.
- Physical Health, i.e. sleep, nutrition, exercise.
- Spiritual/Cultural Health, i.e. maintaining or establishing spiritual/cultural events or rituals.
- Psychological Health, i.e. thoughts, mood, emotions, attitude.
- Academic Health, i.e. managing the shift in academic pressures, contents and skills required.
An anonymous online survey using LimeSurvey, which is still ongoing. Quantitative in ranking these five areas, qualitative by answering an open question.
The survey will remain open indefinitely. If you work at a university and have experience supporting international students, then please consider further expanding on this open dataset. This will enable anyone working with students who are considering moving abroad for their studies to use your insights for better transitions care. The survey can be accessed here. Whilst mental health and wellbeing cannot be broken down to individual components like this and are interconnected, my focus was to provide actionable advice for international school students moving abroad.
Results University Staff
To date, 9 faculty staff members have completed this survey (thank you!). Based on all results so far, the ranking is as follows:
In addition to the bar chart, I used a basic formula to rank this data and divide it across the five dimensions of mental health. For each item ranked in the number 1 slot, it is assigned a value of 5 points. Similarly, items in the number 2 slot are given 4 points, and so on. By combining the scores from different ranks, a ranking is created that specifically focuses on these five areas of mental health. This ranking also includes a total score, which provides a comprehensive overview of the results, captured in the barchart below.
Based on the self-reporting by university faculty staff, the areas that starting international students face the most issues with becomes clear. Social scores the highest, with a score of 37. This is followed by Psychological, then Academic, with respective scores of 34 and 30.
Using a brief version of thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), I identified several themes related to housing, social networks, and international transitions.
When it comes to housing, faculty staff stressed the potential difficulties, cautioning students to be prepared for a challenging housing situation. Their advice was clear: “Be prepared for an extremely challenging housing situation and make arrangements as early as possible.” Additionally, they recommended living in dorms whenever possible.
In terms of social networks, a staff member highlighted the importance of cultivating activities and interests beyond work. They suggested taking the time to join clubs or explore other avenues to meet people. Their advice was straightforward: “Have activities and interests outside of work. Take time to join clubs or meet people in other ways.”
Concerning social health, the significance of exerting effort during international transitions was emphasised. For instance, gaining a basic understanding of the language was mentioned as a crucial step. As one respondent aptly put it, “It needs work to build a life abroad, it often doesn’t happen by itself.” This statement underscores the necessity of putting intentional effort into building connections abroad.
Of note is that one participant mentioned a particular concern on racism, stating: “Expect racism and xenophobic attitudes both within and outside of university.”
Datasets
This project page is directly linked to the survey, but please note that I personally maintain this website on my own computer. As a result, the datasets are not updated in real-time. So, after you complete the survey, you won’t be able to download your results until I manually refresh the site from my computer. Rest assured, your results will eventually appear! This approach also allows me to have control over removing any inappropriate responses.
The datasets are publicly available. Due to the low number of student responses (Nstudents = 1), I am only releasing the faculty staff responses (Nstaff = 9) at this time.