Experiences, problems and solution offers of internationalstudents upon their adaptation year

This study aims to investigate the experiences, problems and suggested solutions of international students upon adaptation period and their ideas of internationalization. In relation with this, phenomenological approach of qualitative research was employed as for methodology. The study group consisted of 40 international students with different backgrounds who came from 21 different countries and have been studying English at a state university based in Ankara. The data were gathered through semi-structured interview questions used at focused group meetings and analyzed with content analysis method. The results of the study revealed that the biggest difficulties international students have experienced are language, socio-cultural, financial issues, and accommodation, and suggested solutions include the need to learn about the language and cultural differences after thorough research before arrival for the prospective students and considering universities' responsibilities, full support during the adaptation year, long-term orientation executions and improvement in scholarship issues.