Foreign university students' perceptions of intercultural interaction and their views on social adaptation process

The general purpose of thisresearch is todeterminetheperceptionsandopinions of foreign students studying in Turkiye in the 2022-2023 academic year regarding intercultural interaction and the social cohesion process. A mixed design was used as the research method in this research.In this study, a descriptive research model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used to determinethe perception of intercultural interactions. In addition, a case study, one of the qualitative research methods, is conducted to determine the views of foreign students studying at universities in Turkiye on the social cohesion process and students'opinions on this subject are taken. The study sample consisted of international students studying in Turkiye during the 2022-2023 academic year. To determinethe intercultural interaction perceptions of foreign students, data were collected from 262 international students by using a questionnaire. Additionally, 40 students were interviewed to determine their views on the social cohesion process of foreign students studying at universities in Turkiye "Personal Information Form" (2002) and "Acculturation Scale" (2011) are used as data collection tools in quantitative research. The package program was used for the analysis. Investigations were performed using parametric difference tests, t-tests, and ANOVA. The personal information form was used together with the other scales. A semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool in the qualitative research. As a result of the interviews with students aged between 18-40 who were studying in Turkiye, six themes emerged.As a result of the findings obtained during the research, cultural differences and language barriers affected the social relations with their host members,and the academic performance of international students. During social adaptation, the participants experienced loneliness, depression, andexclusion. In these cases, most participants received support from family members and students with a common language. On the other hand, positive variables, such as broadening students' perspectives and establishing communication between people, are observed in the adaptation process. According to the findings obtained from the quantitative research, it was determined that theperception of intercultural interaction increased as the age level increased for foreign students. It was determined that the average intercultural interaction perception of foreign university students who spent more than two years in Turkiye is higher than that of students who spent 1-2 years. It was determined that the perception of intercultural interaction for foreign students increased as the place of residence in their country changed from village to city. Finally, Africa had the highest average score for intercultural interaction perceptions of foreign university students studying in Turkiye in terms of the region they came from.On the other hand, it was determined that foreign students from the Asian continent had lower average scores for intercultural interaction perceptions compared to students from other regions.