The impact of cultural and language barriers on the academic performance of Arab postgraduate students

Abstract

In the last few years Malaysian Universities have witnessed a rapid growth in the number of Arab postgraduate students. Such students often possess excellent academic qualifications in their own countries but may struggle with the cultural or social as well as academic adjustments to a foreign university. This paper will investigate the particular cultural as well as language barriers which confront Arab students who are undertaking postgraduate study in Malaysia. It will attempt to identify the key challenges faced but also possible strategies tomore productively engage with those larger cultural challenges and barriers. It will also focus on the language proficiency issues encountered by many such students. The paper will report on a study undertaken into the perceptions and experiences of Arab postgraduate students at fiveMalaysian Universities: UM, UTM, UKM, UPM, and IIUM.