Importance of Motivating Factors for International Mobility of Students: Empirical Findings on Selected Higher Education Institutions in Europe

Abstract

This article explores the importance of motivating factors for the international mobility of undergraduate students who participated in a mobility programme and completed part of their studies at selected higher education institutions. The empirical research was conducted on a population of 3,539 mobile undergraduate students, who took part in mobility programmes between 2006 and 2011 at three selected higher education institutions in three different European countries (1 - Germany: Duale Hochschule Baden‑Württemberg Karlsruhe, 2 - Norway: University of Tromsø, 3 - Slovenia: University of Primorska, Faculty of Management). The purpose of this article is to present the underlying motivating factors in relation to the selected institution on a sample of 288 undergraduate students during the period studied. On the basis of these findings, we came to the conclusion that most of the students participated in students’ mobility programmes especially to gain international study and life experiences. Furthermore, we established a statistically significant difference in the duration of a mobility period in connection with gender and the satisfaction with the mobility programme.