Exploring international students experiences of studying in UK universities: a narrative inquiry of Nigerian students

This thesis is a narrative inquiry of 10 international students from Nigeria studying in selected UK universities. The thesis draws from emerging discourse on international student’s overseas experiences and extends this knowledge by analysing these experiences from the framework of trauma, individuation, spiritual emergency and the African initiation process, in an attempt to gain an in depth knowledge of Nigerian students’ experiences of studying abroad in the current period. The previous understanding of international students’ experiences from culture shock framework does not account for how their difficult experiences affect their psychological, emotional, physical, social and spiritual wellbeing, so this thesis have reconceptualised these problems and explained them in more depth using the trauma framework and contributed to knowledge in this area. It is an exploratory qualitative study and data for the study was gathered through narrative interviewing. The narrative or story telling method applied in this study enabled the researcher to capture how the participants construct meaning to their lived experiences. The narrative inquiry is chosen because it gives voice to silenced group of people like the Nigerian students whose experiences are not heard. Narratives gathered were textually analysed to evidence the narrators’ unique individual experiences. Findings revealed that the participants had experiences that coincided with trauma experiences such as feeling of helplessness, disorganization, confusion, depression, sleeplessness and disorientation, lack of concentration and supressed emotion as they lived and studied in UK. The thesis concluded from the findings of the study that there is resemblance of trauma experiences in the participants’ stories. The study recommends that support was necessary when they are in UK, while adequate information should be provided before the students sojourn to the UK since most of their difficulties were as a result of failed expectations from their preconceptions about studying in the UK before they arrived.