Common causes of university stress and cross-cultural adaptation among foreign students in Russia

Muzychenko Yulia Nikolaevna

The study aims to understand what common stressors are there in the lives of expatriate students in Russia, Moscow in 2018, thus to investigate what cognitions (thoughts and ideas) they have about their cross-cultural transition and to propose new innovative methods in educational services export in order to solve some of the difficulties. Qualitative data was gathered via interviews and e-mail correspondence with 2 top-level international education administrators, 21 international students from Bauman Moscow Technical State University (BMSTU) and via survey from 107 international students from the same university. The qualitative data analysis was performed using thematic analysis through the prism of socio-ecological model and the CSAI stressors classification. The main categories extracted from the narrative data were related to organizational stressors on organizational and community levels. The study offers several new ways of improving overall students’ states by solving some of these challenges. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords:international education, expatriate, cross-cultural stressors, cross-cultural transitions, export of educational services