A social network perspective on ABC of international and host-national students

While internationalisation in higher education has become increasingly common, research and the various chapters of internationalisation experiences across the globe in this book indicate that international students continue to face a number of challenges while studying abroad (De Vita, 2001; Kondakci, Broeck, and Yildirim, 2008; Rienties, Heliot, and Jindal-Snape, 2013; Zhou, JindalSnape, Topping, and Todman, 2008). In Chapter 1, we argue that international students experience triple transitions: moving to a new country, moving to a new educational system, and moving to higher educational degree programmes. Within these triple transitions, international students experience differences in the social and organisational cultures, dealing with daily life issues, languages, and academic and interpersonal expectations and realities (Jindal-Snape and Ingram, 2013; Rienties, Beausaert, Grohnert, Niemantsverdriet, and Kommers, 2012; Rienties, Hernández-Nanclares, Jindal-Snape, and Alcott, 2013). Research suggests that any mismatch between expectations and realities, for instance, can be stressful (Zhou, Topping, and Jindal-Snape, 2011).