Academic Culture in the UK

Culture Shock, (College Express, 2013)

The academic culture is the way that student study, behave in their academic life. It is varied from country to another, and it is strongly depends on the education in system in this particular country. In this blog I am going to recount new things I faced, and explain what is meant by culture shock.

When I began studying at the University of Glamorgan I noticed strange ways of studying. Ways that are not familiar to my academic culture in my country of Bahrain. For example, some assignments of my course will be an open-book exam which is like cheating in my country. However, it is not a strange thing to home students.

Many of what I have experienced has not caused me a real culture shock. My previous acquaintance and preparation before I came to the UK gave me a prior general idea of what I may encounter in the British universities. Therefore, almost everything I knew about it and got used to it.

International student are very likely to have experienced a culture shock. According to the UK Council for International students Affairs (2012), it is described as the influence of being in a totally different country where there are many traditions not familiar to their own culture, and this includes encountering new people, new environment, new language and so on. Also Monash University (2012) suggests that “Moving away from home and adjusting to a new culture can be difficult. Feeling anxious or worried about coping is part of settling in. This is culture shock.” Basically, culture shock can be depicted as the effects of being in a new country.

In conclusion, culture shock can affect the ones that have no background and expectation of what they may face in that new country. So, students are highly advised by their universities to read about the British culture and the city there are going to live in.  

Bibliography

College Express (2013) Culture Shock [Online]. Available at: http://www.collegexpress.com/interests/international-students/articles/campus-life-culture-shock/culture-shock/(Accessed: 1 March 2013).

Monash University (2012) Culture Shock. Available at: http://www.monash.edu.au/counselling/self-help/culture-shock.html(Accessed: 1 March 2013).
 

UKCISA (2012) International students and culture shock. Available at: http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_sheets/culture_shock.php (Accessed: 1 March 2013).