Page 22 - Movers, Shapers, and Everything in Between: Influencers of the International Student Experience

20
Chapter 1
Factors Impacting Student Experience
Understanding the student experience and how it is influenced by various factors is critical to providing appropriate support services, fostering a sense of community, and cultivating a diverse student population (Altbach & Knight, 2007). A positive student experience is associated with higher student retention (Schreiner, 2009), stronger student loyalty (Thomas, 2011), and higher word of mouth (Garrett & Merola, 2018), among myriad other benefits. Student satisfaction is tracked as part of the student experience and there is evidence that it is influenced by many things, including background and demographic characteristics (Miliszewska & Sztendur, 2012; Arambewela & Hall, 2007), social and psychological characteristics (Baber, 2020; Basuony et al, 2021; Merola, Coelen, & Hofman, 2019; Athiyaman, 2001; Korobova, 2012; Perrucci & Hu, 1995; and college characteristics (Ammigan & Jones, 2018; Nurunnabi & Abdelhadi, 2018; Ahmad, 2015; Wilkins & Balakrishnan, 2013; Athiyaman, 1997; Merola et al., 2021).
Integration is an important component of the international student experience. Academic integration is defined as “the extent to which students adapt to the academic way of life” (Tinto, 1975), and social integration as “the extent to which students adapt to the social way of life at university” (Rienties et al., 2012). Previous research suggests that there are differences in satisfaction across nationalities. For example, European and Indian students studying in the United States are the most satisfied overall with their student experience, while students from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Latin America and the Caribbean have the lowest satisfaction (Roy, Lu, & Loo, 2016).
Some studies suggest that the level of social and academic integration of international students influences their satisfaction (Korobova & Starobin, 2015; God & Zhang, 2019) and indicate a negative relationship between social support and psychological distress, including academic stress and depression (Han et al., 2013; Sümer, Poyrazli, & Grahame, 2008). In addition, the way a student relates to peers influences their integration, including sociocultural and psychological adjustment (Ward & Kennedy, 1993a; 1994; Furnham &