Social support to international tertiary students in an Australian regional area

Cultural transition leads to acculturative stress which causes huge pressure for international students transferring into the new environment. In order to release their pressure and enhance their psychological and social wellbeing, a system of social support should be established to help them to adapt to the new environment. In this study, a total of 20 international students and 5 university staff were recruited to participant in the semi-structured interviews and give their understanding of social support system in a regional area in Australia. Four important sources of social support were identified in this study: family, friend, university and community. Due to different functional characteristics, each source plays distinct roles in assisting international students. Evaluation to these sources of social support was also discussed in this study.