Socio-cultural adaptation of international students at a Russian university: a communicative aspect

The body of international students studying at Russian universities has been growing due to the intensive development of contacts between countries. The requirement to increase the competitiveness of Russian universities in the field of international educational services necessitates the study of the socio-cultural adaptation among international students. The research aims to investigate the communicative aspect of socio-cultural adaptation among international students while their study at a Russian educational institution. The authors analyzed the structure of communicative aspect of sociocultural adaptation of international students, identified the difficulties the international students encounter, and considered the forms integrated by SUSU Center for Socio-Cultural Adaptation to develop the communicative aspect. A diagnostic toolkit, including a socio-cultural adaptation scale (SCAS-R), structured interview with the representatives of different ethnic groups, a questionnaire, formalized and informalized conversations were used to identify the difficulties international students encounter. The research shows that the greatest challenges identified are group engagement, language proficiency, and academic adjustment. The influence of forms of inclusion of international students in a different cultural and educational environment integrated by the SUSU Center for Socio-Cultural Adaptation (CSСA) to optimize the adaptation of international students is revealed.