Erasmus University Students Motivation and Segments: The Case of Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain

Abstract

This study quantified Erasmus students’ motivations for studying abroad. Surveys were completed by 120 Erasmus students at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and their motivations for studying abroad were analysed via factor analysis. A two-step cluster analysis was used to segment students’ behaviour based on their motivations. Four factors were obtained: individual development, destination choice facilitators, academic aspects and the destination’s strong points. Behaviour was not uniform, and two different segments were found. In the first, which we refer to as “without perceived motivations”, no motivation was positively rated, while in the second, “with perceived motivations”, academics were a key motivating factor. Universities should consider working with the tourism sector to offer activities related to local culture. They could also organise classes outside of school hours to help Erasmus students learn Spanish.

Studying abroad: the role of consumer cosmopolitanism in the enrolment decisions

“…Because students prefer to choose from their university’s available options, full cosmopolitans may try to make the best choice by balancing a university that will improve their employment prospects and a country they can explore culturally and geographically. In contrast to Clemente-Ricolfe and Garciá-Pinto (2019), as well as Lesjak et al (2015), there is no indication in the data that students are more influenced to choose a country based on the touristic characteristics of the destination over the characteristics of the host university.…”

“…The attractiveness of this programme is its accessibility and wide range of countries to choose from for the exchange period, and such an appeal has triggered the development of alternative programmes, such as short-duration programmes for youths groups from 13 years old ( Youth exchanges | Erasmus+ , no date). As expected, extensive literature is available on the Erasmus programme (King and Sondhi, 2018), be it on the motivations to enrol (Krzaklewska, 2008; Fombona et al , 2013) or on what influences the choice of country (Sova, 2017; Clemente-Ricolfe and Garciá-Pinto, 2019).…”

“…Additionally, seeking to experience a different culture is also one of the primary motivations to enrol on the programme (Fombona, Rodríguez and Ma Ángeles Pascual Sevillano, 2013;Sova, 2017), along with improving a foreign language (Freed, 2003;Llanes, Tragant and Serrano, 2012;Ahmad and Buchanan, 2016) and seeking international experience. As González et al (2011) and Juvan and Lesjak (2011) state, personal motives exceed academic and these can not only help improve student engagement, but also socialisation with locals and opportunities to experience host countries' culture, which can lead to professional growth in the long run (Hadis, 2005;Waters, Brooks and Pimlott-Wilson, 2011;Lesjak et al, 2015;Clemente-Ricolfe and Garciá-Pinto, 2019b). According to Sova (2017), the cultural dimension is "one of the most important Erasmus students' motivations" (p.28).…”

“…Studies that focus on students' choice of destination for a mobility period are mainly case studies that focus on specific countries (Özoğlu, Gür and Coşkun, 2015;Ghazarian and Keller, 2016;Varpahovskis and Ayhan, 2020) or universities (Fombona, Rodríguez and M a . Ángeles Pascual Sevillano, 2013;Clemente-Ricolfe and Garciá-Pinto, 2019b). In fact, research suggests that factors related to the destination characteristics, such as weather, history or tourism factors, seem to influence the students' decisions more than the universities' characteristics (Beerkens et al, 2016;García-Rodríguez & Mendoza Jiménez, 2015;Lesjak et al, 2015).…”

“…When discussing the motivation for studying abroad, the model proposed by Krzaklewska (2008) brings two dimensions: the first one, called the experimental dimension, encompasses the cultural motivation and the personal motivation and represents the student’s desire to learn about new cultures, have new experiences and have fun while studying abroad; the second is called career dimension, which encompasses career and academic motivations, and is related to the students’ academic path and increase in the likelihood of employment due to their period abroad. Indeed, the academic and personal development dimensions are also mentioned by other authors, such as Clemente-Ricolfe and Garciá-Pinto (2019), which also called attention to a factor labelled as individual development, which considers the development as an individual as well as academically.…”