Pre-Sessional P6
P0600 Foundation Project/Academic Speaking Skills
ID: 15000007
Group 2
28.08.15

Topic: Which type of meals do international students, who are studying in University of Worcester choose to have during the time they are living in St. John Campus? Ready meals, take away meals or cooking by themselves?

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to say thanks to my teacher, Ms. Austen. I have received a lot of useful advices and enthusiastic supports from her since the beginning of my project.
Besides, I appreciate twenty respondents, who participated in my survey. Their specific answers gave me an opportunity to finish my research successfully. 1. ABSTRACT
Dietary habit seems to be a typical problem with international students, especially for whose culture food is far different. Thus, this research will find out the type of meals that are usually chosen by these students as well as the reason for their decision. In addition, the question whether they have to change their eating habits is mentioned. Twenty international students in both genders, who came from both Western countries and Asian countries have been asked to fill in the form containing six questions. The results have showed that preparing meals at dorm have been selected by sixteen people over the total sample with several similar reasons. However, there is a few exceptions in the Asian girl group. Thus, it is established that preparing meals by oneself is the common decision wherever they came from. 2. INTRODUCTION
At the moment, the number of students who decide to study abroad is increasing gradually. This is an opportunity for them to widen their knowledge as well as become independent. While living far from home, international students have to face a number of problems and food can be one of the noticeable issues. There are several differences between the foods in students’ hometown and the local foods in the United Kingdom. These differences depend on numerous reasons such as culture, location, religions. Therefore, this issues is researched for understanding the eating habits of international students during the time they stay in St. John campus, University of Worcester. When food is not prepared directly from their family, which type of meals will be chosen: ready meals, take away meals or cooking by themselves? Additionally, what is the reason for this choice and do they have to change their usual eating habits to adapt new life? This report includes five main sections which is the literature review, methodology, results, discussion and conclusion. At first, the report will indicate some background information. Secondly, it will describe the methods which was used for collecting data. In the next section, it will describe the result of the survey. Then, the results will be discussed and conclusions will be added in. 3. LITERATURE REVIEW
It is no doubt that dietary habits is one of the difficult issues for many international students who study overseas. Without direct supports from family, these students have to overcome this problems by themselves. As there are a large amount of students who study away from their home countries, a lot of researches have been dedicated to this specific issues. Thus, changing cultures, being busy with adapting to new life, being independent and responsible may lead them to change their usual eating habits. By investigating, several studies report these concerns which include reasons for this problem and the reactions of students to this issues.
To begin with, Papadaki et al (2007) shows that the eating habits of international students, who are away from home have changed in different ways. Although, a part of them have healthier meals which is considered a positive fact, there is a number of students who lose desirable eating habits. By comparing the weekly consumption of different meal types, the authors contend that since the beginning of the course, there is a decrease in home-cook meals and an increase in microwave/ frozen meals and take-away meals (Papadaki et al, 2007). It means that they consume fewer home-cooked meals and more convenience, take-away meals. In addition, Ridgwell (2009) states that these convenience foods such as frozen food or chilled food are ready to eat which is convenient and widely available. There are plenty of choices that it is suitable for who have individual meals, who are busy with work and have less time to cook. As Papadaki et al (2007) notes, the reason for changing habits is due to food shopping and preparation role which is usually done by students’ mother. In addition, lack of family environment, time shortage, cooking and planning meals experience are also the reasons mentioned by Papadaki et al (2007).
Besides, Brown et al (2010) shows that having a familiar taste from hometown food will make students feel comfortable and reassurance. The differences between student’s country food and the food from the country which they arrive in make them have a food shock especially for Asian students. They feel it is difficult to get used to new food. Thus, there is a belief that cooking their country food will keep students healthy, avoiding overweight and reducing stress and homesickness. In addition, these students are more responsible to follow the healthy diet and improve cooking flavor (Brown et al, 2010).
To sum up, different culture, lack of support from family, poor cooking skills are issues that affect the diets of international students. It is difficult to get used to new dietary, but this crucial problem requires quickly adapt to keep healthy for continue their study. At the result, these problem lead to various type of meals which are chosen by students. Ready meals or take away meals for time-saving and diverse choices or cooking by themselves to make their hometown dishes and saving money.
The aim of this study is for finding out which type of meals that students choose to have during the time studying oversea in University of Worcester and living in St. John Campus. In addition, by comparing to the previous period, did these students remain their eating habits or not. This research was achieved by using a questionnaire to collect the important information. 4. METHODOLOGY
The investigation was conducted in several halls and popular building where students usually gather such as First Point, the Made canteen and the Hine building. Twenty international students between sixteen and twenty-five years old in both genders who are living in St. John campus were asked to fill in a form. They were divided equally into four groups consisting of Western boy group, Western girl group, Asian boy group and Asian girl group. This form was designed with five close-ended questions and one open-ended questions. The first five questions were a multiple-choice with a few spaces for additional comments that were used for understanding a general information. The last question was for finding out details which was used for gathering some extra data. 5. RESULT
The result were collected from twenty respondents that include five Western boys, five Western girls, five Asian boys and five Asian girls. According to the research, the result showed at below.
To begin with, this bar chart showed the results about type of meals which are chosen by students. It was clear that the main choice was prepare meals at dorm which was chosen from sixteen people over twenty people. (Figure 1)
The related pie charts showed the percentage of each choices from four different sources. It was noticeable that 100% Asian boy chose to cook by themselves while the percentages of Asian girl who want to cook is 40% lower. From Western countries, the pie chart showed the similarity between the two groups that there was 80% students chose prepare meals and 20% chose the others. (Figure 2)
The forth graphs described the percentage of different ideas for not choosing the other type of meals by international students. Both four groups chose price at the main factor for not choosing the other type of meals. While 40% Western girl chose price, there was 20% student in each remains group chose price at the reason. The other factors such as time-consuming, health and other personal reasons also occupied a large amount for 40% in different groups. (Figure 3)
According to the results, the fifth bar graph illustrated the number of students who have changed their eating habits while studying abroad. From the graph, nearly three-quarters of students still keep their habits. While the result of Western boys and Asian boys were similar, the data of the girl was different. There was 100% girl from Western countries remains their habits, whereas the number of Asia girls who changed habits increase significantly to four people over five people. (Figure 4)
The next pie charts described the percentage of students’ decisions in two groups who want to try new types of meals. There was some similarities between both groups which was 60% student supposed to be neutral and 10% student supposed to agree with the question number five. (Figure 5)
From the figure six, this pie charts showed the additional information for question five, which were the new type of meals that international students in Western and Asian countries wanted to try. The results indicated that the majority (more than 60%) did not express an opinion. In Western group, the second largest part was take away meals (30%), whereas, the second largest part in Asian group chose ready meals (20%). (Figure 6)
In general, international students who are living in St. John campus tended to prepare meals by themselves and this eating habits remained from the previous time. Nonetheless, there was an exception in the Asian girl group. In addition, more than half of these students had no ideas whether they wanted to try new type of meals and the same results showed that they did not have an idea for new type of meals that they might consider to have.

Figure 1

Figure 2
TYPE OF MEALS CHOSEN BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENT IN ST. JOHN CAMPUS (%)

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

6. DISCUSSION
According to the results, it is clear that most of international students prefer cooking by themselves rather than choosing the other type of meals. The reason for this choice were quite similar between the four groups. Most of international students choose to cook by themselves because they believe it is healthy and it is save time as well as money. Especially, it is quite surprise that the boy group chooses this type of meals because they are confident with their cooking skills that they prefer preparing meals for not only them but also their neighbors. With the Western boy, another reason is that they need quite big ration of starch and protein from meat and the meals from the other types are not big enough for them. Then, a part of the Asian girl chooses ready meals because of the conveniences and various flavors. Thus, a relation to the decision for not choosing the other type of meals is noticed. It is clear that the other meals are not selected most because these students believe that cooking by themselves is the best way to keep them healthy as well as saving time and money.
From the arrangement of the important factors for selecting meals, the most important reasons that students considers for making decision was health, which is chosen from nine over twenty students (45%). The second critical factor relates to price and time-saving, which is 30% each. The other such as kitchen facilities and cooking skill come next with the forth place and fifth place, respectively. As the consequence, this is a suitable results that emphasize the reason why they choose cooking by themselves. For saving money, they usually cook together to take the promotion for buying bulk from the stores. Furthermore, it is a great idea that instead of cooking alone, they take turn to cook in a group which can save lots of time for focusing on study.
It can be seen that there is a significant data relate to the Asian girl group. Different from the time before, four over five participants have changed their eating habits. The reason for this is because their meals used to prepare by their mothers. Additionally, the differences between the taste and flavor of local food in the UK lead them have to change their habits. Besides, the price spends on ready and take away food are higher, the flavor is also far different from their hometown make them struggle to adapt the local food. While the Asian food has more strong season as pepper, special kind of salt, the Western food are more slight and simple. Thus, they started to cook by themselves and improve their cooking skills gently.
Different from the results of Papadaki et al (2007), this research shows that international students pay more attention on the healthy and balanced diet. Even though there is small minority of students tend to eat more take away and ready meals, they desire to cook their own meals. As being affected by the home-cook meals of their neighbors, this minority part of students want to try this new type of meals for keeping healthy lifestyles and improving cooking skills. On the other hand, there is a similar to the research of Brown (2010). Homesickness and strange food generate the desire to prepare hometown meals. It motivates them to cook hence, they become more responsible to their health while living far from family. 7. CONCLUSION
To sum up, due to the differences in culture, there are several differences between students’ hometowns and the United Kingdom. For adapting to new live, each ones have behaved variously. While there are a few exceptions, most of international students remain their cooking habits from the past. As the results, despite the distance between two countries and lack of supporting from family, these students are more independent and responsible for their life than before.

Reference:
Brown, L., Edwards, J., Hartwell, H. (2010) A taste of the unfamiliar: understanding the meanings attached to food by international postgraduate students in England. Appetite. [e-book] Oxford, Elsevier Ltd [Accessed 20 August 2015].
Papadaki, A., Hondros, G., Scott, J A. and Kapsokefalou, M. (2007) Eating habits of University students living at, or away from home in Greece. Appetite. [e-book] Oxford, Elsevier [Accessed 20 August 2015].
Ridgwell, J. (2009) Examining Food & Nutrition. Essex: Heinemann.