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 theiradvantaged 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”.

(GO International, 2015: 16)

Who goes where (excluding Europe)?

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?