A systematic review of international students’ experiences transitioning from non-Anglophone high schools to universities in Anglophone settings

Abstract

This systematic review explores the extent and nature of research on the experiences of international students transitioning from non-anglophone high schools to universities in anglophone settings and then curates and synthesises the empirical evidence on their experiences. An extensive and systematic search of the literature revealed 1247 potentially eligible papers. After screening, eleven empirical studies were deemed suitable for data extraction for narrative synthesis focusing on students’ transitional experiences. The university destinations in the included studies were the USA (n = 8), Canada (n = 2) and a variety of English-speaking university destinations (n = 1). Seven of the included studies were cross-sectional, and four studies were longitudinal. Results showed that previous studies have explored students’ decision-making processes, university and international readiness, and language and identity development. Five studies suggested the need for longitudinal perspectives to better understand student participants’ transition. Four studies proposed to incorporate the perspectives and impact of relevant stakeholders in investigating students’ transitional experiences, including students’ families, teachers, peers, and university professors. This review calls for more targeted, rigorous, and longitudinal studies to better understand and enhance international students’ experiences studying abroad.

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