Empowering global voices: enhancing language component of self-efficacy through digital co-national peer support

Navigating unfamiliar academic requirements and different expectations in host country universities, international students often experience reduced self-efficacy – or confidence in their academic ability. Yet, across the existing variety of support mechanisms, few studies explore co-national peer support. Our exploratory experimental study investigates the potential of asynchronous digital peer support from second – and third-year international students, who have successfully transitioned from home to host academic system, to improve first-year students’ self-efficacy during the early months of their university degree. We demonstrate that co-national peers provide more effective vicarious improvement of international students’ language confidence (an important component of self-efficacy) than generalised peer support. The study contributes to higher education literature by highlighting the positive role of co-nationals in helping peers transitioning to a new academic system. It also advances emerging research on asynchronous and digital interventions, confirming it as a promising avenue for providing peer support in the early stages of a new degree and managing the initial hesitation many international students feel when asking for help.