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To go or not to go: The Decision to Pursue Higher Education Abroad

Transitions Across Schools and Cultures

ISBN: 978-1-78190-291-2, eISBN: 978-1-78190-292-9

Publication date: 31 October 2012

Abstract

Cross-border student mobility represents a critical educational transition, especially for those students who choose to pursue a degree abroad as opposed to a short-term stay, and implies a complex adaptation process with regard to academic, sociocultural, and psychological factors. As a consequence of growing demand for international education and availability of resources and policies that encourage cross-border mobility, the number of international students worldwide is increasing continuously. Yet, little is known about the factors that motivate students to study abroad, and especially why some students choose to go whereas others to stay, given similar opportunities to study abroad. Accordingly, the purpose of the present chapter is to synthesize existing research on the decision-making process to study abroad, to outline important distinctions in types of student mobility and associated motivational implications, and to outline ways in which motivation theory can contribute to a better understanding of this process. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how motivation theories can help to address some of the open questions identified in prior research and thus contribute to a better understanding of the decision-making process to study in a foreign country.

Citation

Lauermann, F. (2012), "To go or not to go: The Decision to Pursue Higher Education Abroad", Karabenick, S.A. and Urdan, T.C. (Ed.) Transitions Across Schools and Cultures (Advances in Motivation and Achievement, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 177-204. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0749-7423(2012)0000017010

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited