ABSTRACT
In December 1982 Lord Scarman delivered, in the House of Lords, a critical judgement which upset a series of assumptions about definitions of being an overseas student. Contacts with the Overseas Students Society at York provided a basis for initial discussions about the kinds of areas of concern which might be significant. There were, in addition, students holding British passports who had spent most of their lives abroad because of their parents' work and who, in the context of adapting to a strange environment, could conceivably be held to justify being treated as overseas students. The overall feeling is that the information which emerged is reasonably representative of the experiences of overseas students at York. The lack of integration, coupled with the necessity to find human contacts with other overseas students, promotes an inward-looking attitude and a significant lack of opportunity to enlarge on a facility to use English in communication.
