International student mobility and labour market outcomes: The role of personality dimensions

Abstract

International student mobility (ISM) is often perceived to enhance career prospects. Surprisingly, the role of personality traits in explaining why students go abroad and relationships between ISM and labour market outcomes have received scant scholarly attention. Based on survey data from Norwegian graduates, we found that degree and credit mobility graduates were significantly more extraverted and open than non-mobile peers and that degree mobiles were more agreeable than both credit and non-mobiles. Furthermore, results revealed that whereas degree mobility is related to both wage and Occupational self-efficiacy (OSE), this was not the case for credit mobility. However, personality did affect the associations between degree mobility and labour market outcomes. In sum, our study suggests that the distinction between degree and credit mobility is important when considering the labour market outcomes of ISM and that personality does play a role in the links between degree mobility and labour market outcomes.

The Impact of International Student Mobility on Multicultural Competence and Career Development: The Case of Students from Latin America and the Caribbean in Barcelona

“…Nonetheless, even though a short-term (credit) mobility may influence students' decisions when looking for a new position, it has not been associated with greater employability or larger salaries in the long run, which contrasts with results found in relation to degree mobility [64,65]. That is why, as Sadeghi et al [24] rationalise, it is very important to differentiate credit mobility (one or two semesters abroad) from degree mobility (at least one year abroad) when revising the findings related to ISM and the labour market.…”

“…As previously stated, ISM research has often focused on Western populations, while other regions have remained unexplored [18,21] because of their intersectional [22] or unequal [23] nature. Moreover, long-term degree programmes have received particularly less attention within the ISM literature [24]. The present investigation examines a group of LAC students one year after the completion of their master's (MA) degree abroad.…”

Analysing Students’ Mobility at Higher Education Institutions: Case of Ukrainian University During the War

“…Studies show that openness (Jokela, 2009), together with low non-agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism (Fouarge et al, 2019) are associated with higher probabilities of international migration. According to Sadeghi et al (2023) mobility students possess these same factors -extraversion and openness. Mobility experience as a sign of direct experience of migration has a positive and statistically significant effect on migration propensity (Addeo et al, 2023).…”

International student mobility options following Brexit: An analysis of the genesis of Britain's Turing Scheme

“…ISM has a dual purpose, however, as it is primarily undertaken by the relatively young it can prove to be a dynamic period of personality development (Sadeghi et al, 2022). Lesjak et al (2015) conclude that, despite the Erasmus mobility programme having geopolitical goals associated with European identification and integration and more professionally orientated objectives, students also engage with the scheme for social or developmental motives such as 'having fun' or personal growth.…”