Intercultural Communication and International Students’ Concerns at the University of Tartu

Abstract

The UT attracts hundreds of international students each year, which means that they make up a significant portion of our student body. It is thus relevant to study what intercultural communication issues they face while studying in Tartu. The main section gives an overview of intercultural communication, intercultural competences, and intercultural communication competences. The paper will also look at the UT as an international environment and what systems exist so far to support international students. This background discussion provides the framework for the empirical study in which I will first analyse the International Student Ambassadors’ blog page to see which type of content they provide and the extent to which it supports intercultural communication. To get the perspective of regular international students, a questionnaire was compiled to identify the challenges they are facing. Keywords: intercultural communication, intercultural communication competence, international students