This thesis focuses on the results of a longitudinal study conducted at Lancaster University into a group of Chinese students studying for a BA in Media and Cultural Studies. Taking as its starting point the contention that adjusting to the conventions and expectations of a different academic culture can be just as traumatic for participants as those experienced by educational professionals asked to undertake fundamental changes in their professional practices at times of educational innovation, Henrichsen' s (1989) Hybrid Model of the Diffusion/Implementation Process is used to provide a framework for the analysis. Through a combination of interviews with the students and their lecturers, as well as an analysis of their written work and essay feedback, the students were tracked from" the start of the University's pre-sessional course through to the start of their third term of degree study. The study analysed the extent to which these students adopted the practices of academic writing advocated on the pre-sessional course and the possible reasons for students' willingness, unwillingness or failure to adopt.