The relationship between anxiety and academic performance of postgraduate international students in a British university: a cross-sectional quantitative design

Aims: Anxiety has a great effect on students’ academic performance, especially among international students. Acculturation, discrimination, familiarity with the education system, weather, social support, and language limitation are among the main factors which contribute to anxiety among international students. This small scale study assesses the relationship between anxiety and academic performance of international students among postgraduate international students of in the University of Bedfordshire. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was carried out. A non-randomised purposive sampling of n = 105 postgraduate international students participated in the survey comprising of 66 male, 39 female. The findings indicate that anxiety is significantly correlated to academic performance. Workload, choice of coping with stress, future prospect, and change in the system of education are the major types of anxiety affecting our participants giving significant relationship when cross-tabulated with gender and/ ethnicity. Also in the aspect of difficulties in focusing on their studies, more than 50% disagree showing a significant relationship when compared with gender. Anxiety is seen as a tool to explain academic performance. Hence, it is important that this is considered to make their learning experience more fulfilling.