An Exploration of the Academic Lived Experiences of Algerian PhD Students within a British University

Abstract

The abundance of research about international students’ experiences of transition and adjustment is unquestionable. This study further explores some of the intricacies of international students’ academic transition and adjustment experiences. It seeks to challenge the deficit narratives surrounding international students and their experiences. This study specifically explores how a group of Algerian PhD sojourners make sense of their academic adjustment and transition experiences within a higher education institution in Britain. To fulfil the aim of this study, I adopted an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach, wherein I conducted online semi-structured interviews with seven participants during the Covid-19. One of the key findings of this study is the way the participants constructed their academic experience as positive and rewarding, while also acknowledging a few challenges: for example, academic, emotional. As the data revealed, the academic experience of these participants seems to be constructed in terms of two major transitions, that is, educational transition and role transition. To adjust and deal with those transitions, the participants decided to be proactive by exerting their agency and resorting to different sources of support along with employing different coping strategies. Another prominent finding is the outcome of their study abroad experience coupled with the participants engagement with the environment which contributed to experiencing learning transformations such as making more sense of the self, developing social and personal skills. This experience led to a great transformation of their academic identity and skills. The participants’ accounts show how complex their experiences were, contradicting studies that depict the experiences of international students solely in terms of challenges and deficiencies and resonating with recent studies that describe international students as capable, agents, and resilient. The findings reveal that the academic transition that the participants experience was muti-layered and interwoven that it made it intricate for me sometimes to infer and attribute some aspects of it to whether it is a matter of being in a new cultural and academic setting or pursuing the doctorate degree. The participants described the nuanced nature of the academic lived experience they had in Britain which involved various instances of sense making of their selves, capabilities, educational experience both home and host, and learning transformations.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Canterbury Christ Church University