Exploring Students’ Lived Experiences and Wellbeing at a New Zealand University: Perspectives of International Exchange Students

Abstract

This study provides additional insights into the lived experiences of international exchange students in New Zealand. It contributes to the literature on international higher education by proposing an expanded framework of the relationship between students’ lived experiences and wellbeing. The findings make an essential contribution to students’ wellbeing in international higher education by generating a thematic framework that describes how positive and negative experiences enhance international exchange students’ wellbeing. The negative and positive experiences in the framework comprise five sub-themes: “Psychological adjustment”, “Local differences”, “Being with nature”, “Interpersonal relationships”, and “Experiencing new”. Findings from the research highlight that university policymakers and managers of international student support services should conceive an exchange program as a psychological process to enhance international exchange students’ wellbeing, rather than a strictly functional process to achieve educational outcomes. ------------ Exploring Students’ Lived Experiences and Wellbeing at a New Zealand University: Perspectives of International Exchange Students by Yen D. H. Nguyen, Andrea Insch and Damien Mather is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Based on a work at https://janzssa.scholasticahq.com/.