Sociocultural Adjustment Challenges Encountered by Arab Students in Selected Malaysian Public Universities

Abstract

In recent years, the number of Arab students enrolled in Malaysian universities has increased significantly. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the major sociocultural adjustment challenges encountered by Arab students as they adapt to a new cultural environment in selected Malaysian public universities. A mixed- methods research design was employed, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample of this study consisted of 261 students who studied at five Malaysian public universities, and 10 students were interviewed from the targeted universities using the simple random sampling technique. This study was based on cross-cultural adaptation theory, drawing on the U-curve model of adaptation and utilizing a modified version of Ward and Kennedy’s (1999) Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS). The findings revealed that environmental and academic challenges had the highest mean scores, while language and social challenges ranked at intermediate levels. The qualitative interviews also highlighted four main areas of difficulty, with language and social challenges emerging as the most prominent. Therefore, it can be recommended that to encourage universities to include cross-cultural communication training for both local and international students.