International students at a norwegian university : their experiences

Abstract

While International student is a general denomination for students all over the world who study abroad, their experience is specific and their very own. Unlike most of the other research that has focused on International students who study abroad and in English, this research is aimed to make people aware of the challenges some International students have to go through at a Norwegian university. One of those challenges and not the least of them being the fact that after just a year of learning Norwegian, they study higher education taught in Norwegian. In other words: with a very low level of a language they did not previously know, they study a demanding level of higher education taught in that language. Throughout the interviews of the four International students who come from four different backgrounds but who have in common that they learned the Norwegian language and culture for only a year before they studied their bachelor/master taught in Norwegian, we discover how challenging and interesting this experience has been for them on different levels such as linguistic, cultural and human. While being informative, this research also points out and suggests improvements that could be made at a Norwegian university in order to support future International students who might struggle with the same challenges.