Improving the Repatriation of Exchange Students

With the world ascending the globalization ladder at record speed and the increased ease of transcending national boarders, repatriation difficulties are becoming a growing matter. Unfortunately, student repatriation difficulties are generally overlooked, and the exchange students may find that the return does not match their expectations, which may lead to difficulty readjusting to a place once considered familiar, and even a home. Repatriation is often studied on an organizational level, while exchange students’ return, is not even addressed or very little research has been conducted on the matter. The overall purpose of this research was to identify the unmet needs of repatriate students in regards to repatriation adjustment, and to find potential solutions to ensure that those needs are met. This was achieved using traditional methods of a questionnaire and interviews. The research was able to determine both educational institutions and students need to work together to achieve optimal results; universities and institutions need to become more aware of post-entry difficulties and how to prepare their students, whereas students need to become proactive and learn to utilize all resources at their disposal. It is believed that these conclusions will encourage educational institutions, researchers, and expatriate students to make use of the valuable information in this paper. They can optimize the overall re-entry process by adding to this research with their own research, identifying the difficulties faced by expatriates, developing awareness on the matter, and pooling together their knowledge and efforts to yield efficient and effective solutions.

Keywords – Student Repatriation, Exchange Program, Educational Institution, Expatriates, Exchange Students