E-ISSN 2281-4612 ISSN 2281-3993 Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 4 No 2 July 2015 399 Foreign Students’ Adjustment in Early Days of Their University Education: The Stress and Strains Ackah, J. Y. Faculty of Religious Studies and Dean of Students Affairs jyackah@yahoo.com Kuranchie, A. Faculty of Education and Academic Advisor kuranchiealf@yahoo.com (Corresponding author) Doi:10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n2p399 Abstract The study purported to understand the experiences of foreign students on their early days of their university education. A lot has been done to ascertain how students generally fare on university campuses but little research attention had been paid to how people from different socio-cultural, political and economic backgrounds fared when they settled to commence their education in a foreign land, and how they managed the challenges. The qualitative study used 26 international students from five countries pursuing undergraduate education at the Catholic University College of Ghana. The study unveils that the international students in the University College experience some social, academic and economic challenges in their early days on campus. The study has brought to the fore the inadequacy of the measures that the authorities put in place to enhance international students’ adjustment on campus. The university authority needs to have special and intensive orientation for its fresh international students to ameliorate, if not to eradicate, the hardships such students encounter when they gain admission and commenced their study. The knowledge gained from the study is key to tertiary institutions in formulating effective orientation and strategies for institutions that admit international students. Keywords: International or foreign students, social, economic and academic challenges, cultural differences, cultural shock, adjustment and experiences. 1. Introduction The role of education in human resource and national development has been realised since time immemorial. Consequently, nations have made strenuous efforts of giving their citizens quality education at all levels of education. Individuals and countries sponsor students either in or outside their home countries to enrol in programmes at universities that would satisfy their developmental needs. Some families and individuals also expend their limited resources on university education in local and foreign institutions. Since the inception of university education over 800 years ago, it has spread to all continents and all countries, and students’ enrolments have also increased markedly. There has been a massification of higher education in the recent time. Student enrolment had passed the 100 million mark and that if universities were a country, that country would rank twelfth among the world’s largest country, just after Mexico (UNESCO, 2008). It is not only the numbers of university students that have increased astronomically, but also the range of courses that universities offer has increased manifold. Universities have been providing litany of courses to meet the diverse needs of individuals and nations. Higher education can no longer be discussed in strictly national context but borders on internationalization, which is an embodiment of the whole operation of higher education (Okoli, 2013). The internationalization of higher education has been a major growth industry world wide (Bodycott, 2009). People from all walks of life move to different countries to receive higher education with the view to acquiring knowledge and skills that would enable them achieve success in personal, academic and professional endeavours. Across the world, more students choose to study abroad, enroling in foreign education programmes (Okoli, 2013). In 2009, more than 367 million students attended tertiary education outside their native countries (OECD, 2011). International students have become a respectable population group in academic institutions in most countries, the world over. Educational institutions that admit international students also derive immense benefits from it. It is asserted that international students enhance the academic environment by providing