Subjective Well-Being of International Students in Latvian Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Students’ well-being and life satisfaction have been the crucial trends in research and practice over the last decades. Often students, who come to study to another country encounter several challenges in the process of integration in the new host country environment. The article deals with the part of the broader research which aimed at fostering international students’ integration in the environment of the host country – Latvia. The aim of this article is to explore international students’ satisfaction as well as the problems they have encountered in Latvian higher education institutions and thus find out the level of their subjective well-being according to Ryff’s (1989) stated indicators: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. The data reveal the average score 5.6 out of highest score 7 and the highest scores are for self-acceptance and positive relations with others. The research also coincided with the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, thus influencing the number of respondents and representation of the countries in the research sample. The research was conducted in the framework of the project “Multilingual and Multicultural University: Preparation Platform for Prospective International Students” (No. 1.1.1.2/ VIAA/1/16/019) co-funded by ERDF.

Scientific innovations and advanced technologies in higher education

“…Fuad et al (2020) characterized major innovations in education system development. Skvorcova et al (2020) peculiarities of higher education system functioning in Latvia against the background of education internationalization. However, the problem of the effectiveness of innovative teaching methods, and dynamic renewal of trends in the European higher education system remains understudied.…”