TY - GEN
T1 - Saudi international students’ perceptions of their transition to the UK and the impact of social media
AU - Alsuhaibani, Anas
AU - Cox, Andrew
AU - Hopfgartner, Frank
AU - Zhao, Xin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - In their transition to a new country, international students often feel lost, anxious or stressed. Saudi students in the UK in particular may face further challenges due to the cultural, social and religious differences that they experience. There is a lot of evidence that social media play a crucial role in this experience. By interviewing 12 Saudi students from different cities in the UK, the aim of this study is to investigate how they perceive their transition to the UK and how social media is involved. The analysis indicates that Saudi students’ perceptions of transition tend to fall in to one of two markedly different camps. Some students see transition as an opportunity to detach themselves from their home country and to engage with the new society. Those students turn to social media as a tool allowing them to build bridges with the new society. Other students feel less enthusiastic to make a full engagement with the UK society. Those students find social media as a good tool to maintain connections and links with family and friends in their home country.
AB - In their transition to a new country, international students often feel lost, anxious or stressed. Saudi students in the UK in particular may face further challenges due to the cultural, social and religious differences that they experience. There is a lot of evidence that social media play a crucial role in this experience. By interviewing 12 Saudi students from different cities in the UK, the aim of this study is to investigate how they perceive their transition to the UK and how social media is involved. The analysis indicates that Saudi students’ perceptions of transition tend to fall in to one of two markedly different camps. Some students see transition as an opportunity to detach themselves from their home country and to engage with the new society. Those students turn to social media as a tool allowing them to build bridges with the new society. Other students feel less enthusiastic to make a full engagement with the UK society. Those students find social media as a good tool to maintain connections and links with family and friends in their home country.
KW - International students’ transition
KW - Saudi international students
KW - Social media
KW - Study abroad
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85084181240
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-43687-2_15
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-43687-2_15
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85084181240
SN - 9783030436865
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 198
EP - 208
BT - Sustainable Digital Communities - 15th International Conference, iConference 2020, Proceedings
A2 - Sundqvist, Anneli
A2 - Berget, Gerd
A2 - Skjerdingstad, Kjell Ivar
A2 - Nolin, Jan
PB - Springer
T2 - 15th International Conference on Sustainable Digital Communities, iConference 2020
Y2 - 23 March 2020 through 26 March 2020
ER -