Financial Stress, Health Trade-Offs, and Educational Choices
Abstract
This chapter reveals the hidden yet profound struggles of international students as they navigate financial stress, health-related trade-offs, and academic pressures. Using narrative inquiry and autoethnography, it exposes systemic inequities within global higher education. Financial insecurity, lack of healthcare access, and institutional neglect are shown as structural issues, not exceptions. Yet, amid these challenges, students demonstrate resilience, agency, and strategic adaptation. Their stories connect personal experience with broader policy failures, offering a compelling call for more inclusive, equitable systems that uphold dignity and human potential.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Employment and Welfare Studies
Global Health and Surgery
Resilience and Mental Health
Publication details
- Journal / source
- International Student Narratives in Globalized Higher Education
- Publisher
- IGI Global Scientific Publishing
- Pages
- 273–304
- Publication date
- 21 January 2026
- Language
- NG
- Document type
- Book chapter