Alex Seal
@Alex_Seal_
The Motivations
and Aspirations of UK
Study Abroad Students
Life before mobility:
- socio-economic background
- previous academic background/attainment
- previous travel experience
Interviewer: …why did you decide to do a dual-degree that had a
period of time in a different country?
Cristina: Well I guess it was mainly because during my entire life, I
lived in many countries. So, for me, I wanted to carry on with that. I
wanted to be able to study in different cultures and see different
educational systems….I was born in Romania then, uh, at seven I left
Romania and moved to Poland; then from Poland moved to Egypt;
from Egypt to Morocco; from Morocco to Qatar. Um, from Qatar to
Norway; from Norway to the UK; from the UK to Malaysia.
“Studies show that students from
disadvantaged backgrounds tend to be
more financially risk averse than their
advantaged peers. Despite the
availability of financial support for
mobility, the number of students from
these backgrounds taking part in mobility
programmes has remained low”
(GO International, 2015: 12)
David: They (relatives) were sort of wondering sometimes about the
point of why I was doing it by saying, like, “you’re already at
university; you’re already going to come out with a load of debt at
the end of it; um, you’re already going to have a degree, so why are
you doing this?”
They’re (parents) quite UK-centric and…(for) their eldest son
suddenly say, “Oh, I want to go and live in another country for ten
months and study at the university there and do this, that, and the
other”; that’s completely alien to them and I think that’s why they
were a little bit apprehensive ‘cause they…like couldn’t really relate
to it because neither of my parents went to university and neither of
my grandparents, I’m the first of the family to go to university. And
so, for them, I think it was a combination of initially how…“we can’t
afford to pay or support you for doing this”, and, um, like, “we’re a
little bit apprehensive about him going abroad because it’s not in
our psyche to go abroad and travel and stuff like that”.
Making mobility “accessible” to all students:
-
Heavy promotion of study abroad fares
-
Good use of students who have returned from a
period abroad at these fares
-
Clear transparency of funding
opportunities for mobility (ERASMUS)
-
…emphasise what the destination has to offer both
in terms of its academic and social opportunities
-
The structure of the mobility programme (alleviates
common worries/anticipations).
What the destination has to offer (example)
Owen: You know, you look at it as a package [and] you
think, south of France, cracking weather, small like
achievable city to live in, um…rugby. You think, this
package is awesome. But then you look at, you know, the
fact that (Study Abroad HEI) is the fourth best university
in France for (subject name), and you think “hold on a
minute, this isn’t just gonna be good as an experience to
live there. This might actually go somewhere on your
CV”.
Who goes where (excluding Europe)?
(GO International, 2015: 16)
Understanding the popularity of North America
• ‘Cultural familiarity’ plays a big role
• The “American Education Experience”
also feeds into this
• The appeal to ‘travel’ within the US
during study/work placement
The “American Education Experience”
• A large number of students who had
travelled to America talked about the
liberal arts system
• Many students preferred the style of
assessment in comparison to the UK
• A greater sense of freedom and
flexibility was felt in their learning
The “American Education Experience”
Selena: …being able to take film was something I’d
always wanted to do and that was really, really good.
Um, and just the variation in the things I could
do…and also the professors were so much more
(pauses) [they] seemed so much more dynamic and
willing to mix disciplines and using different teaching
methods and different assessment methods…and I
really enjoyed the energy in the classes there.
Thanks for
listening!
Any Questions?