Evaluation of an Intercultural Peer Training for Incoming Undergraduate Students at an International University in Germany

University education is increasingly becoming international.Therefore, it is important that universities prepare their new students for thechallenges of an intercultural academic environment. The aim of the current study was toquantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of an intercultural peer-to-peer trainingoffered to all new incoming students at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. The trainingaims to facilitate the social and academic integration of students at this internationaluniversity. A total of 117 first-year undergraduate students completed a pen-and-paperquestionnaire with 47 items one semester (6 months) after attending the interculturaltraining. The results suggest that participants liked the structure of the training andthe use of senior students as peer trainers. It appears that the training improved theawareness of the effects of culture (own and other) on the social life of students.However, the training was less adequate at preparing the participants for thestudent-centered academic culture at this university. In light of itscost-effectiveness, the intercultural training could be easily adopted for use at otheruniversities as part of the campus-wide orientation activities. However, regardless oftheir culture, all new university students require more assistance to academically adaptto and succeed in multicultural classrooms