Abstract

International students at the Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University (FI MUNI) in Brno face significant challenges including adjusting to independent learning, balancing work and studies, navigating university administrative systems, and social isolation. This study used interviews with 10 students and a survey of 51 to understand how widespread these problems were, finding that most students struggled with self-directed learning, the majority were working while studying, and that finding reliable university information was consistently difficult. Based on these findings, a prototype, which was a web-based support application called the FI MUNI Student Support Assistant, was built, offering five features: concept explanation, document summarization, study planning, administrative guidance, and resource recommendation, all drawing on real FI MUNI course data. A pilot test with 22 students produced strong positive feedback: 95.5% said they would recommend the tool to peers, indicating that a context-specific digital support tool can meaningfully complement existing university services for international students. …víceméně