International Students & Housing

During the 2021-2022 school year, many UC Santa Barbara students were unable to find appropriate housing for the school year. Many decided to defer enrollment and to stay home. This situation made me reflect on my experience with housing as a senior international student at UC Santa Barbara. I also reflected on how easily international students find housing and of ways some may have been impacted by the housing crisis in Isla Vista and Goleta. In my first year at UC Santa Barbara, I was fortunate enough to find roommates who quickly became very close to me. They were American and knew how housing worked in the US. I also met a junior who oriented me on how the housing system worked in Isla Vista since I wanted to live off campus after freshman year. Thus, I feel very privileged to have been provided a good amount of information about the time of the period we were supposed to start looking for housing and applying. Finding secure housing for international students may be a challenging task.

Although I was fortunate enough to have people to learn about housing from, I still recognize housing struggles that many international students face. For instance, according to an article published by the Canadian Journal of Higher Education, a survey conducted on 500 international students found that 40% faced difficulties finding affordable accommodation close to campus (Calder et al, 98). The article also mentions that oftentimes, international students are left to face house insecurity during breaks when the universities close the campus residence halls (Calder et al, 98). I personally resonated with this last point. On the Thanksgiving break of my freshman year when I still lived in campus housing, I remember the school closed its residences. It was my first quarter at UCSB and I had nowhere to go. Everyone went home and I was going to be alone. However, my mom and my grandparents came to rescue. I could have just spent those days by myself at a hotel, but they came to visit and we all stayed together in a hotel. Finding a place to eat during Thanksgiving day was another challenge.

Ultimately, I recognize how privileged and lucky I am that my struggles related to finding secure housing were not comparable to some of other international students’. During this quarter, I was able to interview another international student, pursuing a graduate degree, who was from the same country as me. They shared how finding housing and dealing with the whole process was very difficult during the pandemic. They had stayed in their home country for the first year of the program since the COVID-19 pandemic caused a delay in their visa application and travel restrictions and that led her to have to cancel housing. The interviewee also had a hard time finding a place to stay after arriving in the US and that was particularly difficult since it added to their stress of having to adapt to a new country and meet new people.

According to Forbes-Mewett’s book “The New Security,” the housing planning process begins before the student arrives in the host country which may cause international students to pick a location not super close to the school due to the “little understanding of the distances between the accommodation and the university or college campus” (Forbes-Mewett, 144). The interviewee expressed information conducive to these findings as they stated that they regret getting housing at a location far away from campus. They want to be able to move closer to their new friends since the bus they take to go to their apartment restricts them from spending time with their new community. I believe that finding a solution for everyone is unrealistic since everyone has a different experience and circumstance. Therefore, Universities should initiate a plan related to student housing that is detailed enough and presents students with the facts in addition to offering international students the possibility to remain in the dorms or be allocated during the holiday’s closing. Keeping the international students in mind when conducting operations, such as determining policies and facilitating housing security is very important for Universities’ Housing Department. This should be included in cultural and non-cultural training offered to the Housing Department employees. 

Works Cited

Forbes-Mewett, Helen. “International Student Housing Security.” The New Security, Palgrave Macmillan UK, London, 2018, pp. 135–164. Crime Prevention and Security Management.