Challenges Faced by International Students

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background

Aydinol (2013) noted that there are many international students that move to abroad for studies. However, they end up facing a series of challenges as a result of lack of awareness related to the international experience. Based on the study conducted by Aydinol (2013), the success of most of the international students relies on a series of factors which are not limited to communication with the locals, sociocultural adjustment as well as language competency. On the other hand, Flierl et al. (2018) noted that in 2006-2007, the United States alone is said to have classified 541324 students as international students who pursued different courses in universities and colleges. The numbers rose to 903127 by the year 2016-2017 with a good number pursuing engineering, computer science, mathematics and management at the same time. Flierl et al. (2018) further indicated that despite the number of international students that flood the universities, most of these students face a series of transitional challenges. The quality of the experiences could be associated to the need of adjusting towards language and culture in the host country. The adjustment would significantly lead to the acculturative stress reported across the social support network. Some of the students would even experience homesickness and loneliness. These experiences have been supported by the findings established by Wu et al. (2015) who noted that some of the difficulties encountered by international students are not limited to the language difficulties, challenges in terms of adjusting the academic culture, complications in terms of communicating with the faculty as well as peers, social experiences, feeling of isolation and anxiety among others. Wu et al. (2015) further focused on the experiences between international students and the staffs. Based on the study, the findings pointed out that the staff members were never empathetic as a result of the students’ language proficiency. Most of the staffs ended up criticizing most of the international students for not focusing on academic advancement through consultations. Lack of English proficiency is largely a barrier towards successful participation in the host community. International students would rarely would barely understand their instructors and communicate with their colleagues. However, Kuo (2011) is of a dissent opinion regarding the interactive learning between international students and their instructors. The author noticed that while language barriers carry the blame, there are other factors that would impede the social interaction among the students, between students and their instructors, and between students and the immediate community. Across the studies, however, there is research gaps could still be traced across the studies. Some of the notable gaps include robust solutions towards building a better international student experience. In addition, there is less focus on technological advantage that has been explored for the purposes of eliminating the language barrier.

1.2 Problem Description

According to Figure 1.1, studying abroad has become popular over time. There are more than 5 million students who decide to study abroad every year. The UK and China are the countries with the second largest number of international students in the world and account for 10% of the total population of international students. The US has the largest number of international students which is account for 22% (Institute of International Education, 2019).

The population of international students in the UK has continued to increase every year, from 2000 to 2018 (see Figure 1.2). There are many reasons as to why more students choose to study in the UK. According to the International Students Survey (2019), 59% of the international students choose a country abroad to study because the country welcomes international students and 56% of the students consider the UK to have universities with high-quality teaching. From a career perspective, for many students, the original intention of receiving higher education is to get better job opportunities. In fact, 65% of the EU students and 62% of the overseas students strongly agree to study with students from other countries is a better preparation for working in a global environment (Higher Education Policy Institute, 2015).

In addition to this, the impact of international students in the UK is multifaceted; for example, International students bring positive economic benefits to the UK; plus, it is an excellent way to cultivate and absorb high-technology talent and to promote international cultural exchange (Migration Advisory Committee, 2018). Figure 1.3 shows the statistics of international students at the University of Bath for the academic year 2017/2018, in which approximately 6000 international students out of a total of 17646 students accounted for more than 30% of students studying and living in Bath; according to this report, more than 130 countries are represented by these students (Annual Report 2017–18, 2018).

However, international students still face difficulties while adapting to campus life. For instance, students whose first language is not English face challenges that language aspect. Misunderstanding and non-understanding will both result in the students not completely understanding the intended meaning of lecturers (Jeannette et al., 2011). Another issue (Ian, 2014) is cultural difference, which can influence the relationships among international students, domestic students, and the academic staff that supervise or teach these students. Each university in the UK has its own approach to helping international students to adapt to campus life. For example, the University of Bath attaches considerable importance to the problems faced by international students. An interview with the international student co-ordinator from the students union helped to gain a better understanding of international students at Bath. She mentioned that the University of Bath holds certain sessions for international students during Welcome week every year to provide some general information such as health-care information (International student co-ordinator, 2019). An email is sent once a week, which includes all the activities arranged only for international students starting from week one, such as cultural coffee. “In terms of the number of people who open the email that goes out once a week, the range is 38% to 40% of the international students. This is not even half of the international population, and the number has as yet never reached 50%. We are competing against all other emails, unfortunately”, she said. When talking about whether they are making any improvements to welcome international students, she pointed out that the questionnaires, aimed to get feedback from international students about the Welcome week sessions, will be distributed from this year onwards and a new activity has been added, which only focuses on Chinese students. All the Chinese students have been invited to attend the activity to meet friends and ask questions in Chinese. She said, ‘They feel comfortable using their first language to communicate, which is normal’. The reason that they chose Chinese students (including students from Hong Kong) is that these students make up the largest group of international students, accounting for 8% of the total number of students at Bath. From her point of view, there are two problems with helping international students. The first is that because of the language barrier, sometimes, it is difficult for her to understand what the student’s problem is. The second is more serious: many students are unwilling to ask for help and prefer to solve their problems by themselves, which prevents her from helping them. She said： “I think much of the problem is cultural rather than language-based because when you come here as an international student, you might be shocked, like “Oh everyone is open here!”; these students are just learning about this very different culture here. Therefore, some students might find it very difficult to get used to this different culture.” Currently, the university supports international students by organising events such as workshops, socials. However, these events are not well attended. Therefore, there might be opportunities to improve the support of international students by using technology. In the proposed project, a chatbot to support international students is suggested.

1.3 Project Aim and Objectives

According to the issues described above, the proposed project will investigate an application (Chatbot) for gathering solutions to the general issues that international students might encounter in multiple languages. This is particularly directed to the freshmen who have not yet arrived in Bath or who lack the experience of campus life. The supporting objectives include

To explore the experience of international experience in United Kingdom

To determine the impeding factors and challenges faced by international students in UK

To highlight technological advantage in boosting international student experience

To design and develop the multilingual chatbot for the international students in UK

1.4 Dissertation Structure

This dissertation will include the followingg six chapters as outlined. Chapter 1 – Introduction discussed the population of international students and the issues they are facing. The project aim and objectives are also included in this chapter. Chapter 2 - Literature and technology survey will dig into problems faced by international students deeper and discuss solutions to these issues. Then it will present the definition and history of chatbots. After that, it will give examples of existing chatbots in generic and more specifically for students. Chapter 3 – Requirements will discuss the decision made of requirements for the chatbot and then outline the essential requirements. Chapter 4 - Design and Implementation will describe the design concept and implementation of the chatbot based on the usability study. Chapter 5 - Testing and Evaluation will describe the testing results of the functionality of the chatbot and then evaluate the final prototype. Lastly, Chapter 6 – Conclusion will look at the achievements of the project. Limitations will be mentioned, as well as possible further work could be suggested in this final chapter.

Chapter 2: Literature and Technology Survey

2.1 Introduction

Multilingual chatbot apps, powered by Natural-language programming (NLP) have the potential to improve international student experience. “A chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) program that simulates interactive human conversation by using key pre-calculated user phrases and auditory or text-based signals.” (Techopedia.com, 2019). They work similar to Google Assistant and Alexa but are more tuned into the University environment and needs of the international students. Customized chatbots that are developed based on existing student needs can help improve the experience of international students enrol in UK Universities. This literature and technology review will help analyse the necessity, the feasibility, current opportunities and research gap for developing such an app. The purpose of this literature and technology survey is to identify why there is a need to improve international student experience and what can be done to achieve that. The review will identify the problems faced by international student population in general, and how a chatbot could help address those concerns raised in research works. The review will also evaluate some of the existing chatbots and identify the research gap that will be pursued as dissertation.

2.2 Literature Survey

2.2.1 Significance of International Study/Students and Growing Rates of International Students

International study is pursued by eligible people all over the world because of the need to develop their skills to cater to a global market place (Ziguras, & Law, 2006; Crossman & Clarke, 2010). At one end, they want to develop their education and career prospects. Their employment value increases with international education (Crossman & Clarke, 2010). At another end, they might also want to consider higher studies as a way of immigration to another country. For instance, Zhou (2015) argues how international students are motivated to complete their higher studies in the United States because of immigration reasons. Universities also market and push for international student enrolment because of how it improves their study environment (Wilkins & Husiman, 2011). As global educational providers, Universities want to support a multicultural environment, and at the same time they want to improve their revenue (Cantwell, 2019; Hegarty, 2014). Many countries and universities rely on international students for their local economy as well, considering them as financial assets (Smith, & Khawaja, 2011). Therefore, any problem for the international student acquires significance as it can have an impact on multiple stakeholders. The growing population of international students also reflects the need to address their concerns (which will be discussed in the next two subsections of the review). Figure 2.1 shows that in 2017, there were over 5.3 million international students in the world. This reflects an increase of the 3.2 million (65%) from 2000 (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2019). The United States is the most popular target country for students to study abroad (contains 1,094,792 international students in 2018). The United States attracts more than one million international students (Figure 2.2). The UK, in the second place, hosts more than 500,000 overseas students. The enrollment of international students in these two countries grew by 1% from the year 2017 to 2018. China is ranked third place in international student enrollment and a percentage increase of 10.49% is noted from the previous year where there were 489,200 international students in 2018. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Spain are few other countries that are next in the order of enrollments (Institute of International Education, 2019).

2.2.2 International Student Experiences and Challenges

An analysis of international student experiences and challenges will reveal the need from technology perspective. In 2017, there were more than 5.3 million of international students all over the word that mentioned in the previous section. Reports point out that the growth of numbers of international students in higher education is expected to hit eight million by 2025 (Quacquarelli Symonds, 2018). This remarkable growth is accompanied by some opportunities and challenges that deserve to attract a great attention of universities. When studying abroad, international students will experience a variety of norms, thoughts, language, pedagogy, and culture that may conflict with their own (Pham and Saltmarsh, 2013). Differences in language, cultural background, and living environment might influence the experience of international students and their feelings or even their psychological condition during their study in the foreign country (Larcombe, et al, 2016). Psychological distress because of environmental changes and lack of support could result in increased perceived loneliness (Bhochhibhoya, Dong & Branscum, 2017). According to Mesidor and Sly (2016), the adjustment process of international students can be divided into five areas, including academic, physical health, financial, vocational and personal-social. These are also the areas they expect to be supported. The process of adaptation for international students can impact their satisfaction. Similar to Mesidor & Sly (2016), Gbebhard (2012 cited in Mesidor and Sly, 2016) has also figured out how some key areas could affect international student behaviour adjustments, such as academics, social interaction and emotional reaction to the environment. Language barriers and unfamiliarity with the resources would be the significant problems for international students to overcome in the new environment (Gbebhard, 2016). An aid to help international students would therefore improve their quality of transition into the new University and country.

2.2.3 Chatbot for International Students in the United Kingdom

Given that the aim of this dissertation is to develop a chatbot to support international students studying in the UK, it is important to understand the specific issues that these students face in this country. Now most of the existing challenges that were analysed with respect to international students in section 2.2 can also be considered in conjunction with the UK University experience as well. In addition, there are some more insights in literature that are also presented here. Language issues are predominant concerns for international students. English is the lingua franca of the University (Jenkins, 2013). However, when getting acclimatized to life in the University, campus and local society in general, students from ESL (English as a second language) background feel challenged. This affects student engagement and satisfaction. Korobova and Starobin (2015) developed a study to discuss across the relationship between student engagement, student satisfaction and their academic success. According to the study, the researchers have identified that the higher satisfaction of international students might lead to a better performance. Therefore, it can be identified that improving student satisfaction is useful for both students and higher education institutions. A chatbot app that helps ease the transition of international students into their campus environment and their locality in general could add to their satisfaction. Ammigan and Jones (2018) were able to analyse how University support systems in the form of student orientation, information dispersals, and more can help support students. Most Universities have websites, but they are more general and are not customized to the language needs of the user. As Glass et al., (2015) present, Universities are already making use of professional and interesting academic performance to attract students, but they need to pay attention to the student engagement (Glass et al., 2015). For most of the universities, the formal support system from the university might not meet the demand of international students at present (Rakhshandehroo & Ivanova, 2019). Rakhshandehroo and Ivanova (2019) mentioned that it can be hard for international students to adjust a new lifestyle in a short time. A chatbot app that is customized to student needs could achieve better engagement. Technology is helping students make the transition to UK Universities already. For instance, there are virtual tours for students who can explore their campus and their new environment. Universities are also providing applications that help the student live the experience of being in the University. Messenger apps and chat apps within customized website environment helps students stay connected. “Technology can provide a solution, working to engage and communicate with international students in a way that they understand and are comfortable with. Technology to overcome language barriers and understand the expectations of university life is an obvious example here” (Rogers, 2019, para. 10). However, there are not much research works showing the use of linguistic applications that could help students overcome the language barriers. Gu and Maley (2008) in their research work on student perceptions of challenges when they enter a English dominant environment like the United Kingdom, were able to identify that language barriers and lack of cultural knowledge of the United Kingdom could deter their learning experiences. There were pedagogical, personal and also psychological factors that affect the student, and early results of the study showed that students take time to survive the demands of learning to live in a new environment. This time to adapt can be reduced by addressing language barrier issues. Students endeavour to adapt to new linguistic environment in both the classroom and social activities and life in the new country (Liu, 2013). Reduction of language barriers can improve accessibility to many things and could serve as a motivation for international students. Therefore, there is a need for an app that could help students manage the language barrier and also the cultural barrier that accompanies language issues. The chat bot app could help students here.

2.3 Technology Survey

The review of existing research on issues faced by international students, such as with respect to language issues, access to opportunities, etc., present the need for some technological application that could help them. The chatbot could be a convenient app that the student could download on their smart-phones. It could help them use their own languages to check for options within their campus environment or their locality. The use of own language to chat with the bot, would also make them feel more at ease. Some of the challenges presented in the earlier section include personal and psychological, and the chatbot could help address some of these challenges. Now in order to develop the chatbot, in addition to a literature review, a technology review is also needed. A technology review will reveal the forms of chatbot, or similar applications already in use, their pros and cons, and if some of these features could be adopted to develop a new one.

2.3.1 Chatbot

This section of the review focuses on Chatbot history and the development of chatbot for commercial and educational reasons. An introduction into some of the initial prototypes in Chatbot and the contemporary evolution of NLP powered chatbots are presented here. “A computer, program, algorithm or artificial intelligence which communicates with a person or another participant of the communication can be called a chatbot” (Zemcik, 2019, p.1). Chatbots aim is to make the human believe that they are talking with another human (Shawar and Atwell, 2007). It responds to messages by making use of pre-programmed schemas and adaptive machine learning algorithm. This makes the chatbot response appear real and pertinent. The history of chatbots can be traced to Alan Turing in 1950, when he posed a question on whether machines can think. In an article published in ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’, Turing asks if a computer communication can be indistinguishable with a human. Hence was born the criterion that is used even in current times, called the Turing Test. People chat with someone over the computer and then decide whether the person is human or an AI chatbot. Turing had prophesied almost 60 years back, “I believe that in about fifty years’ time it will be possible, to programme computers … play the imitation game so well that an average interrogator will not have more than 70 percent chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning.” (Zemcik, 2019, p.1) Eliza: In this history of chatbots, Eliza, modelled as a Rogerian psychotherapist is one of the oldest (McNeal and Newyear, 2013). She was a programme created by Joseph Weizenbaum. The name character of Eliza was gleaned from G.B Shaw’s work ‘Pygmalion’ where Eliza Doolittle is a character that is learning to speak English like a high society lady (Zencik, 2019). AI Chatbot Eliza attempts to speak like a psychotherapist, who mixes answers and open questions thus keeping focus on the human conversant.

Parry: On the same line of creation of Eliza, Parry was soon created. Parry was a chatbot created by computer scientist and psychiatrist Mark Colby. Colby was a professor of Stanford’s psychiatry department, who developed the chatbot Parry with a strategy that made it distinctively different from Eliza (Shum et al., 2018). Where Eliza acted like a psychotherapist (typically like a doctor treating her patients with counselling) and Parry on the other hand behaved as if he was a schizophrenic patient. He speaks as if he is paranoid and dysfunctional. Parry was developed as a testing platform for psychiatrists in training and hence its function was to communicate with young psychiatrists who wanted to diagnose paranoid functioning. Eliza the chatbot was even allowed to talk to Parry the chatbot, and an interesting conversation was generated by scientists in a conference in 1972. Racter: Racter is a chatbot written by the Inrac Corporation. It was an AI chatbot developed for a commercial application for Apple, Macintosh Platforms. It randomly generates English prose. Dr. Sabaitso: This is a chatbot that came with a synthesized speech program, and hence it was a novelty that is not present in the previous chatbots. It communicated verbally. This made conversation with the chatbot more humanlike. However, even this chatbot does not reach the level of finesse that chatbots of current times have. Dr. Sabaitso in particular appears to converse in a much more complex way. In current times, the chatbot technology aim is to create much more complex communication but with NLP (Abdul-Kader and Woods, 2015; Kerlyl et al., 2006). Companies work with research institutions and Universities to facilitate open innovation in this area. For instance, in 2018, the Loebner prize was presented for a winning award of 3.5 million dollars for a chatbot creation. The chatbot must be able to communicate in a smart manner with Amazon Echo. Companies like Dutch Airlines KLM already make use of chatbots for answering messages of their customers. KLM was being flooded with 1.7 million messages and the company needed chatbots to help them answer the digital queries of their customer. The chatbots handled the standard fact checks and answered simple questions. Where there were complex questions then a human customer service agent got into the conversation to help passengers. Dell makes use of a chatbot from Datasys (Bordawekar and Shmueli, 2019). H&M, the clothing retail company makes use of an electronic assistant or chatbot that assists the customers with wide variety of clothing shopping choices. E-shops like Goodlok and 1-800 Flowers etc. are some more commercialized versions of chatbots. Notably, the larger the company, the larger the investment in chatbot. Advanced chatbots with Humanoid faces like Sophia are available as well, and there is much open source code on chatbots available online that could be tapped into for current work. Corpora and NLP processing has aided in the development of chatbots (Shawar and Atwell, 2003).

2.3.2 1-800-Flowers

1-800-Flowers were developed by a flower-delivery company and is used on Facebook Messenger. Users can order flowers and answer questions from the system to record addresses, consignees, etc., thus making the ordering process more efficient (Banfi, 2018).

Conversational commerce is made use of in 1-800-Flowers interface. When this interface was originally released, it used to connect with a number where a real person interacted with the user. Now a conversational interface is used, where recorded voice is used to help the customer. Now this is a very generic chatbot interface, as it is just automated, and less of NLP, but the interface shows the basic components that could be present in the chatbot for international students, such as choice representations and images among others, where international students face language barriers, the use of images to assist students would be more helpful. It would aid the student better. Where 1-800 Flowers chatbot is more commerce oriented and less service oriented, the new chatbot for international students will be more service oriented.

2.3.3 Blink the Bee

Blink the Bee was developed for helping students to be better organised via Facebook Messenger. Users can message tasks to the chatbot, and it will help them to create a to-do list.

Blink the Bee is already customized for helping students. However, it is more of an organizer and therefore does not connect back to a rich database of customized student needs. The chatbot being developed for international students will connect back to different options. If a student wants to locate the bursar office then the chatbot should show the map or deliver the directions in student selected language. Alternatively, if the student is searching for out of campus but local transportation, the chatbot should direct the student to the public commutation address or should direct them to an online booking website. Notably, areas where the chatbot in Blink would connect with a simple database, the database in which the new chatbot is meant for international students, will connect with a more complex database.

2.3.4 Deakin Genie

The Genie app was developed to assistant students in the Deakin University ensures the user is supported and organised of their tasks (Deakin University, 2018).

Compared to the other two chatbots, 1-800 Flowers, and Blink, the Deakin Genie is the closest to the chatbot being envisioned in this work. The Deakin Genie is specifically designed for students to help them be more efficient in their course work organization. It helps them stay prepared for their coursework and helps them tune into their course environment. However, this app is designed with all students in mind. It does not focus specifically on the international student’s language barriers. Secondly, the app is an aid for the coursework, and maybe as an extension would also aid the student to get their University work done, but it is not an extension to understand locality or social opportunities. The chatbot is moreover linguistic specific to aid students from different language backgrounds. Deakin genie does not have these options.

2.4 Technology for international students

Using chatbot technology for engaging international students and eliminating some of their language barriers or phobias is a new approach. Much of the existing works are focused on education and organization. Benotti et al., (2014)’s work showed how high school students showed better engagement with a chatbot. It could help the instructor prep students for coursework. Kerlyl et al., (2006) analysed how chatbots can help in natural language acquisition and learning. Where there are students of different languages, it helps negotiate natural language. Shawar & Atwell (2007) research showed that students are more comfortable with a bot than a person. Given all these insights, a chat bot to help improve the experience of international students in UK Universities does appear to be a promising work.

2.4 Summary

The literature review and technology review were conducted for the purpose of understanding how a chatbot can facilitate and improve student experience in UK Universities. International students face many personal, pedagogical and psychological challenges in their study environment, and their location of living. The difference in culture and language are two pertinent threats. The chatbot application helps simply the linguistic barrier that students face and could make their transition smoother.

Chapter 3: Requirements

3.1 Introduction

This chapter will outline the requirements for the chatbot and explain the reason for the decision. The requirements will circumvent some limitations and propose basic requirements based on the literature and technology surveys in the previous section. To expand these requirements, international students involved to fill out a questionnaire. The findings will be used to determine the particular requirements.

3.2 Initial Questionnaire

The initial questionnaire aids extraction of necessary opinions from international students regarding their experience in a new environment within United Kingdom. The questionnaire shall include both the close-ended and the open-ended questions that would help the research to extract as more information as possible regarding the international experience, and proposed changes that need attention.

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