The socio-cultural adaptation of international students in Hong Kong universities

This paper reports the results of a General Research Fund (GRF) research project on the adjustment of international students in six UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong. The questionnaire survey was conducted with 413 international students across different disciplines studying for their bachelor, master and doctorate degrees. As the predominant group, Asian international students displayed significant lower levels of academic efficacy, social support, English proficiency but higher levels of perceived discrimination and Cantonese proficiency than Western international students. Hierarchical regression analysis further suggested perceived Cantonese proficiency was the strongest predictor of socio-cultural adaptation for both student groups.