International students describe practical and emotional transitions after arrival

Updated Sep 07, 2026

student supportinternationalisation

Judith Cork, Francesca Cavallerio and Matthew A. Timmis explore the early experiences of students arriving from India, Pakistan and Nigeria. Their 2025 photovoice study treats transition as several overlapping changes, rather than a single induction event.

What the study reports

Seven students aged 17–21 had started in January 2024, across five courses and two campuses of one UK university. Photographs and focus groups explored their first ten weeks; later member reflection revisited their experiences.

Accounts covered unfamiliar food and travel, separation from existing relationships, forming friendships and developing independence. Participants’ circumstances and responses varied. Some described feeling more settled at the later reflection session, approximately 18 weeks after arrival.

The authors question support confined to an initial welcome period. They also acknowledge limited insight into institution-specific processes and the distinctive effects of January entry. This small study does not establish how common each experience is or that all international students must resolve practical needs before academic engagement.

Questions for university teams

Our recommendation is to ask students what remains difficult after induction, and when support would have been useful. Include practical and academic experiences without assuming their order or relative importance. Offer ways to contribute that do not depend entirely on confidence in spoken English.

Where student comments inform this review, retain the distinction between a reported experience and an explanation for an institutional outcome. Compare themes only where participation and group sizes make comparison defensible.

FAQ

Should January and September entrants receive identical support?

Use local evidence to decide. This study identifies questions to investigate; it does not directly compare those two intakes.

Was this a full-paper review?

No. The abstract and accessible indexed methods, findings and discussion informed this briefing. The complete PDF was unavailable.

Reference

Judith Cork, Francesca Cavallerio and Matthew A. Timmis (2025). When the only thing familiar is the moon – initial transitions of Indian, Pakistani and Nigerian students into UK HE. Studies in Higher Education.

Review update, 7 September 2026: qualified the earlier generalisations about students’ priorities, narrowed the practical recommendations and disclosed the partial-text review.