Does study abroad affect student academic achievement?

The numbers of UK students choosing to study abroad for a period has increased steadily over the years, with many students citing academic, professional, linguistic and cultural reasons as their key motivations. However, while there is an abundance of literature on the advantage of study abroad (SA) for linguistic learning, there is less known about the academic impact of studying abroad. In addition, because SA is largely a process of self-selection, this makes it difficult to derive unbiased estimates of its impact on academic achievement. Using data on students from a London-based Russell Group university, and categorising SA students as those who participated in credit-seeking SA programmes through Erasmus or bilateral/multilateral agreements with partner universities, this paper uses individual fixed effects to compare the post-SA grades for students who sojourned with their expected grades had they not sojourned, as well as with their non-SA counterparts. The results are quite robust across subgroups and indicate that grades in year 3 are less than expected for the SA group, given their pre-sojourn grades. To tackle the problem of self-selection, outcomes for SA students were compared to the group who applied but did not eventually study abroad, and to the outcomes for students who did not apply.     

Higher education students’ experiences of a short-term international programme: Exploring cultural competency and professional development

Background: Globalisation trends such as increased migration to and within European countries have led to even greater cultural diversity in European societies. Cultural diversity increases the demand of cultural competency amongst professionals entering their work field. In particular, healthcare professionals need knowledge and skills to equip them to work with clients from different cultural backgrounds. Within higher education (HE), the professional development of cultural competency should ideally feature in undergraduate education and is often promoted as a by-product of a study abroad period. However, recognising that logistical and financial barriers often exist for extended study abroad, one alternative approach could be participation, at home or abroad, in a short-term international programme set within students’ own HE institutions.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore HE students’ experiences of participating in international ‘short-term mobility week’ programmes at three European universities.

Methods: Each university involved in the research offered short-term programmes for healthcare professions students at their own institution, where both local students and students from abroad could participate. Participants were healthcare students in the programme at one of the three universities. Data were collected through focus group interviews (4–8 students per group; n = 25). The data were transcribed and then analysed qualitatively, using a content comparison method.

Results: The analysis identified six categories, which reflected students’ journeys within the short-term international experiences.

Conclusions: The analysis suggested that, for these students, engagement in a short-term mobility week programme provided valuable opportunities for encounters with others, which contributed to personal and professional development, greater confidence in the students’ own professional identities, as well as an increasing sense of cultural awareness.     

Strategic escapes: Negotiating motivations of personal growth and instrumental benefits in the decision to study abroad

Studying abroad is one way in which university students can develop personal capital and distinguish themselves in an increasingly congested graduate labour market. Data show that studying abroad indeed provides employment benefits, with evidence pointing to even greater positive effects for students from low socio‐economic status backgrounds. Focusing on a group of Canadian students about to embark on a study exchange, we find no evidence that career‐instrumental reasons played a role in participants’ decisions to study abroad. Rather, they sought personal growth and escape from the everyday frustrations of being an undergraduate student. We argue, however, that these motivations nonetheless have to be understood as strategic, since going on a study exchange abroad allows students to escape temporarily, while ‘staying in the game’ of becoming credentialed at home. We discuss the role of socio‐economic status, as well as the policy implications of these findings.     

Silent issues for international postgraduate research students: Emotion and agency in academic success

This study explores the emotional and social factors contributing to international students’ success in an Australian research university. We were particularly interested in these students’ sense of agency-what enables them to act with confidence as learners. We used memory work to focus on the social interactions and emotions involved in building successful self-identities as students, both at home and abroad. Seven international postgraduate research students participated in the study and raised issues that have affected their confidence and success in different academic contexts. Some of these have received little attention in the literature or in their induction programs. The issues include the high personal cost of competition; the weight of responsibility towards family, colleagues and workplaces at home; the need to maintain a successful self-image despite their self-doubt and lack of confidence; and the need for early academic validation in a foreign research culture. What the students had believed were individual and private issues, held in silence, came to be recognised by the group as common experiences. As a result of their participation in the study, the students set about changing private and public awareness of some of the socialisation processes that have inhibited their success.     

Study abroad as governmentality: the construction of hypermobile subjectivities in higher education

ABSTRACT

Drawing on the concept of hypermobility, the paper examines a case of study-abroad mobility from a governmentality perspective. Based on a critical analysis of policy texts and interviews with Irish students who have taken part in the Erasmus exchange programme, it argues that under the conditions of neoliberal globalisation, the normalisation of study abroad aims to produce self-governing practices that align with dominant discourses promoting voluntarist attitudes to labour mobility. These dispositions, described as hypermobility, are an additional dimension of the flexible, entrepreneurial subject imagined in neoliberal societies. The paper examines the discourses and practices at state and institutional levels and how they circulate and impact on students’ subjectivities – analysing affective detachment from home and cosmopolitan sociability as self-disciplining practices that align with the production of neoliberal hypermobile subjectivities.     

Impacts of perceived country image,institution image and self-image on students’ intention to study abroad: a study in Hanoi,Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This study examined high school students’ evaluations of a country image, institution image and self-image with regards to their intention to attend a foreign university. Using data gathered from students in Hanoi (n?=?403), this study found that the students have more positive perceptions of the host country, the host institution and their desired self-image if they choose to study abroad as compared to those of their home country (Vietnam). In addition, the perceived image of the host country and host institution can generate a significant impact on the formation of the students’ desired self-image. However, the most important antecedent of the students’ intention is the discrepancy between the perceived image of the host country and the perceived image of the home country. Based on these findings, implications for foreign institutions and home institutions in recruiting and retaining students are discussed.     

Learning Environment Perceptions of European University Students

This article describes a study of the experiences of 610 Dutch students and 241 European students who studied at least three months abroad within the framework of an international exchange program. The Dutch students went to a university in another European country and the foreign students went to a Dutch university. Using a new questionnaire called the Inventory of Perceived Study Environment (IPSE), students, perceptions of eight characteristics of the university learning environment were measured concerning the home university, the host university and the ideal learning environment. With this instrument, the learning environment can be described in terms analogous to the learning strategies performed. Large differences were found between the different countries in university learning environments, but students from different countries had strikingly similar opinions concerning their desired learning environment. There was a strong preference for activating instruction with a low threshold in teacher-student interaction and more room for student alternatives.     

Higher education inclusivity: when the disability enriches the university

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the perspectives of faculty members on disability in higher education. Their testimonies give value to the attitudes and qualities of university students with disabilities and show how they influence their professional and personal development. We carried out a qualitative study, through interviews with 119 faculty members of different fields from 10 Spanish universities, who were nominated by students with disabilities for developing inclusive pedagogy. We conducted a progressive analysis of the data using a system of categories and codes. The results describe the motivations that drove the participants to respond to the needs of students with disabilities, the personal and professional impact posed by the challenge of adjusting the teaching and learning processes, and the perceptions of the faculty members toward the contributions of these students to the university. In the conclusions section, we delve into the need of universities to embrace inclusivity. The data provided by this study reveal that disability can be a valuable asset in a university context that dissociates from the deficit lens and acknowledges that all students are important and able to learn when the attitudes and conditions are appropriate.     

Rebuilding New Orleans: A Community Field Learning Experience

This article examines how to set up educational seminars for social work students that expose students, first-hand, to a natural or man-made disaster's physical and human impact on a community. These short, intensive experiential seminars help students appreciate the social work role in addressing extreme cases of trauma and loss that have immediate application to their professional work and studies at home. The study also presents evidence via personal reflections of students and faculty about the value-added benefits of the seminar learning experience in terms of the students' integration of course material, readings, and field placement experiences, and their personal and professional growth and maturation as beginning social workers.     

主体间性视角下的学生党员理想信念教育

理想信念教育是高校学生党建工作的重要内容。在学生党员的理想信念教育过程中,教育者和受教育者同为主体,彼此构成主体际关系,具有主体间性的特征。从中外理想信念教育与研究的现状出发,针对当下部分学生党员重个人理想轻社会理想,以及马克思主义信仰不够坚定的倾向性问题,从主体间性视角,运用认知模式和体谅模式,更新教育内容和教育方式,使他们逐步坚定科学的理想信念。     

Studying abroad: developing a model for the decision process of international students

Attracting international students is increasingly important for higher education institutions. In order to contribute to the understanding of how international students choose a university, we conducted a qualitative study in a public university in the north of Portugal. Results show that students seek an international experience mainly for personal, academic and professional development reasons, relying on personal contacts as information sources and support groups. Academic reputation and quality are the most important attraction factors. We develop a theoretical model of the studying abroad decision process, including the main motivations to leave the country of origin, the information sources and the decision factors.     

The impact of the university context on European students' learning approaches and learning environment preferences

This article describesexperiences of 610 Dutch students and 241students from other European countries whostudied at least three months abroad within theframework of an international exchange program.The Dutch students went to a university inanother European country and the foreignstudents went to a Dutch university. By meansof a questionnaire students' perceptions ofthree main characteristics of the universitylearning environment were measured concerningthe home university, the host university andthe ideal learning environment. The studentswere also asked about their way of learning atthe home university and at the host university,in particular about the extent of constructivelearning and reproductive learning. Evidencewas found for the influence of aspects of thelearning environment on the two learningapproaches; e.g., a learning environmentcharacterized as student-oriented discouragesreproductive learning and promotes constructivelearning, especially when conceptual andepistemological relations within the learningdomain are stressed. The learning environmentpreferences of the students were partly relatedto their learning orientations at the homeuniversity, but they were strikingly similarfor students from different countries. Therewas a strong preference for those learningenvironment aspects that promote constructivelearning.     

An examination of the adjustment journey of international students studying in Australia

This study examined at two Australian university campuses the types of problems that prompt international students to seek counselling services. The concerns reported by ninety students fell within three broad categories; adjustment issues, academic concerns and psychosocial problems. Follow-up interviews with a subset of these students (21) were used to gain more detailed information about their personal adjustment issues and also their experience of counselling services. Counsellors were also interviewed to obtain their perspective on the adjustment and counselling experience of students. Most problems for students occurred within the first 12 months of commencing studies and for many tended to reduce in incidence thereafter, but for some students the issues and problems remained ongoing. While the findings are limited to international students at only two Australian campuses, and furthermore the sample sizes are not large, the results suggest that these students often face extreme adjustment difficulties. Moreover, it is suggested that such students tended to only access counselling services when near the point of collapse, or following academic referral. The importance of pre-departure orientation packages for prospective students, while still in their home country, might reduce the incidence of such adjustment issues.     

大学生浪漫关系研究述评

浪漫关系是指情侣在相互交往中形成的一种心理关系,也是情侣之间的一种人际关系。目前几乎所有的大学生都处于浪漫关系之中或是对浪漫关系有一定的期待,大学生群体的浪漫关系实质上是一种恋爱关系。大学生浪漫关系的良好发展有助于大学生人格的完善以及社会性的良好发展,同时浪漫关系对大学生的心理健康发展有一定的作用。国内外对浪漫关系的概念界定不统一,测量工具有待于进一步深入完善和发展。未来应该对浪漫关系的概念、影响因素以及浪漫关系终止后所造成的影响进行更深入的分析。     

A practical tutorial programme for first-year university students: impact of its academic recognition / Un programa tutorial práctico en alumnos universitarios de nuevo ingreso: incidencia de su reconocimiento académico

The task of guiding and tutoring in higher education contributes to increasing the quality of teaching at university. Students who access university studies require specific guidance which is different from that required by more senior students. The aim of this study is to present a comprehensive model of tutorial guidance. The model seeks to satisfy the specific needs of first-year university students, both in terms of personal support and formative and informative support, through a set of coordinated activities during the first year of their degree. The teaching experience carried out demonstrates the students’ interest in the tutoring programme offered, and measures the impact that its academic recognition has in terms of students enrolling on and following the programme. The methodology used shows the characteristics of the programme introduced and then shows the results obtained, which are discussed in relation to the research objectives.     

Gauging the impact of study abroad: how to overcome the limitations of a single‐cell design

Criterion and construct validation analyses support the use of both retrospective questions in lieu of a pretest and a methodological innovation to compensate for the absence of a control group in a program evaluation that calls for an unavailable experimental design. The findings obtained with this method present evidence that study abroad programs have a very positive impact on US university students.     

The influence of student learning characteristics on purchase of paper book and eBook for university study and personal interest

First-year university students (n = 199) completed an online questionnaire that queried their purchase of paper books and eBooks for university study and personal interest. The questionnaire also required students to rate their learning characteristics including reading strategies, study self-regulation, learning control beliefs and achievement motivation. Self-reported student learning characteristic scores were associated with self-reported book purchases. For example, as student extrinsic motivation scores increased, number of paper books purchased for university study tended to increase. As student learning control belief scores increased, purchase of eBooks for university study tended to increase. Collectively, such results lend support to the conclusion that education students who embrace emerging technologies such as eBooks and who read for leisure perceive themselves as more able learners than students who do not embrace emerging technologies such as eBooks and who do not read for leisure.     

高校青年教师负性情绪的表征与控制

高校青年教师是高情绪工作群体,正性情绪对工作和个人发展能起激励作用,而负性情绪对其身心健康、工作效率和学生都将产生不利影响。本文通过分析当前高校青年教师负性情绪的主要表征,探究其产生的原因,并提出应对负性情绪的策略。     

谈新形势下高校辅导员工作

新时期国际国内形势的深刻变化给高校辅导员工作带来了许多新问题,辅导员工作是高校工作的重要组成部分,对此高校辅导员应提高认识,潜心研究工作规律,教育、管理、服务学生,不断提高综合能力,从而做好大学生的思想政治教育工作。