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Researchonstudents’choicesofdestinationcountriesandinstitutionscanbe
dividedintostudiesthatfocusonthedecision-makingprocessandthosethat
focusonstudentmotivationstostudyabroad.Researchthatfocusesonthestu-
dents’selectionprocessiswellestablished.Inmostcases,thatprocessisviewed
ascontainingmultiplestagesinwhichinformationiscollectedandanalysed,and
wheredecisionsaremade[anextensiveanalysisofthedifferentmodelsfordo-
mesticstudentscanbefoundinVossensteyn,2005;forinternationalstudents
referto:Fowler,2009].
Withregardtotheselectionprocessamonginternationalstudents,Chen’s
socalledSynthesisModelseemstohavethemostfacevalidity[Chen,2007,
pp.271-306].Thisstudyprocessmodelconsistsofthefollowingthreeinterplay-
ingstages:
1.Apredispositionstage,inwhichstudentsassestheirpersonalneeds,collect
informationonstudyingabroad,anddecidetodoso.
2.Asearch/selection/applicationstage,inwhichstudentsgatherinformationon
availablealternativesandintheendselect,takeadecisionandsubmitoneor
moreapplications.
3.Achoicestage,inwhichstudents,afterreceivingoffersofadmission,recon-
sidertheavailablealternatives(i.e.programme,institution,city,country,visa
requirements,costs,etc.)andthentakeafinaldecision.
Thestudiesfocusingonstudentmotivationtostudyabroadaremorerelevantfor
thisparticularstudy.Thesestudiestrytoexplainthefactorsinfluencingstudents
toenrolinhighereducationandselectaparticularhighereducationinstitution
andcourseprogramme.Thesearetheso-called“studentchoice”models
[Hossler,Schmidt,andVesper,1999;Vossensteyn,2005].Theavailableresearch
focusingondomesticstudentshasledtothreedifferentmodels:
Status-attainmentmodels(alsocalledsociologicalmodels),
Economicmodels(alsocalledeconometricmodels),and
Information-processingmodels(alsocalledthecombinedmodels).
Theapplicabilityofthesemodelsforinternationalstudentsislimited,however,
becausemanymorefactorscaninfluencetheirchoiceprocess.Thisinherently
meansthatstudentchoicemodelsforinternationalstudentshavetobemore
complexthanthedomesticstudentchoicemodels.
Severalstudiestrytofillthisgapbydesigningstudentchoicemodelsspecifi-
callyforinternationalstudents[seeFowler,2009;foranextensivediscussionof
theseparticulartheoreticalmodels].Whatmostofthesemodelshaveincommon
istheiradoptionofthepushandpulltheory,whichattemptstoexplainthefac-
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