3 Housing Challenges For International Students And How To Solve Them

Coming to study in a foreign country brings excitement and opportunities for international students. However, leaving home and moving to an unfamiliar cultural environment can also come with unique housing challenges that impact their quality of life and academic success.

Awareness of these common housing issues for international students will be key for your department to support this group effectively. This allows you to implement solutions that attract more international students to come to your campus with a smooth transition that facilitates a positive experience.

Challenge No. 1: Limited Knowledge of Local Housing Market

One of the most common and stressful challenges students face when coming to study in the U.S. is navigating the local housing market with limited knowledge and resources. Unlike American students, who may be more familiar with rental agreements, housing regulations, and real estate norms in the U.S., foreign students can feel overwhelmed when trying to secure off-campus accommodations.

There are factors like communicating with landlords, understanding lease terms, and paying rental deposits. Students from other countries may find it difficult to overcome these hurdles on their own in an unfamiliar environment.

On top of that, international students might face discrimination from landlords, rental scams, and predatory rates or illegal fees that take advantage of their lack of local market knowledge. These bad experiences can leave some questioning whether coming to study in the U.S. was the right decision.

Solution: Provide Valuable Resources

A valuable way your housing department can help is by providing targeted resources, services, and support systems that meet the unique needs of this demographic.

For instance, have a dedicated international student housing advisor available. The housing advisor can answer questions, explain renting best practices, connect students with vetted rental listings, and assist them with securing accommodations. You can also create customized guidebooks, workshop series, and peer mentoring programs to educate foreign students about local real estate norms, rental regulations, and housing rights to safeguard them from illegal practices.

Of course, encouraging more international students to live in on-campus housing eliminates the stress of navigating external housing arrangements. You can always opt for streamlined application management services through solutions like Housing.Cloud. Such solutions make allocating rooms and matching roommates easier for your housing staff.

Challenge No. 2: Financial Constraints

The cost of living and tuition can be another overwhelming financial burden for many international students pursuing studies at out-of-country colleges and universities. Factoring in expenses like fees, deposits, housing payments, and health insurance creates intense financial pressure for students coming from abroad.

Exchange rates and currency conversions can make this financial situation even more challenging. Even with a part-time job, most international students do not have enough money to comfortably cover all of their costs, which can negatively affect their well-being. Unaffordable housing arrangements force some students to cut back their spending on basic needs or forgo opportunities that are readily available to local American students.

Solution: Introduce Financial Assistance Programs

Given the financial challenges for international students in the U.S., your institution can provide adequate financial assistance programs. This makes it possible for foreign students to achieve their education goals without facing extreme hardship.

Some helpful initiatives can include:

• Rental assistance programs to lower on-campus housing costs

• Developing partnerships with banks that offer student loans or lines of credit

• On-campus job recruitment assistance with employers aware of student visa work regulations

• Peer financial guidance from senior international students

• Budgeting seminars and workshops

Such housing department efforts help alleviate foreign students' financial constraints. It lets them instead focus their energy on academic challenges and other extracurricular activities.

Challenge No. 3: Cultural Adjustment and Isolation

Leaving family, friends, and familiar comforts behind in their native country, many international students deal with culture shock and loneliness. Language barriers and misinterpretations of cultural norms can make it more difficult to connect with their American classmates.

Some hesitate to participate in extracurricular activities due to shyness over their imperfect English-language skills. Different academic expectations around class participation, group-work dynamics, or student-teacher interactions may also trigger overseas students to isolate themselves.

Additionally, if housing assignments separate international cohorts or group domestic students without considering cultural fit, those struggling to adjust may withdraw rather than ask for help.

Solution: Facilitate Community-Building Activities

An impactful priority would be to develop programs and initiatives deliberately geared at helping international students integrate into the campus community.

Strategies worth introducing include:

• Match foreign students with roommates/housing based on personality assessments to identify shared interests for built-in connections.

• Train residential advisors on intercultural communication tactics to bridge the cultural differences between U.S. and international learners.

• Create campus "buddy systems" or monthly meetups. It helps to group global students with classmates who speak their native language and are willing to help them practice their conversational English.

• Organize culture/language exchange partnerships between native language speakers and local American students.

• Host student housing events celebrating global cultures through food, music, attire, or talent showcases to facilitate campus integration.

With such social community-building programs, you create more welcoming environments. This allows international students to form a strong support network and easily deal with the challenges of studying abroad.

Attract More International Students To Live on Campus and Simplify Your Housing Operations With Housing.Cloud

By tackling barriers around housing literacy, affordability, and cultural integration, you make studying at your institution more accessible and welcoming to qualified applicants globally. The expanded perspectives you gain will benefit all students while showcasing your campus's inclusive values to attract diverse talent. This also drives your revenue by boosting on-campus residency and student satisfaction rates.

Purpose-built student housing platforms like Housing.Cloud further make your international student housing operations easier, reducing your manual workload so your staff can spend less time on paperwork and more time supporting each resident's needs. You can automate room assignments, customize communications, and track occupant insights over time rather than starting from scratch annually. Moreover, seamless integrations with enrollment, payments, and other campus platforms provide a unified experience across the student life cycle.

Let Housing.Cloud handle the heavy lifting so you can deliver the human touch international students need to comfortably call your residence facilities home. Schedule a demo today to simplify your student housing operations while expanding global access.