The evaluation of educational experience by international students of the University of Groningen

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The evaluation of educational experience by international students of the University of Groningen

Jim Klooster S3027597

Bachelor Project Autumn 2018 Final version

Supervised by van Steen

January 31, 2018

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Summary

In the light of the on going housing problems for students in Groningen in general and especially international students this research reflects on the educational experience that these international students have. Both the higher education institutes (in this case the University of Groningen) and students have multiple reasons to make international student mobility happen. In this research, the experience of international student mobility is analysed from the student’s point of view.

First of all it shows that in the decision-making process for students the quality of education and factors related to that are important. For credit mobility was also the presence of formal agreements with the home university important while for degree mobility students the future job value of studying at the UG was of higher importance.

Expectations might be that due to this issues with student housing the satisfaction of international students about their experience with the University of Groningen in general have dropped. This research however shows that this is not entirely the case: 91% of the respondents states that they are (very) satisfied about their decision to study at the UG and only 2,5% claims that their educational experience does not meet at all with their expectations.

Besides that it shows that the evaluation differs between different factors that influence the educational experience. Some factors are rated very positive such as the quality of education at the University of Groningen or the life in the city of Groningen, while others are rated rather negative such as the availability and quality of student housing or the amount of contact with Dutch students.

However, for not all of the proposed factors was a link found with the opinion of international students on their general educational experience or their decision to study at the University of Groningen.

This research also shows that there is a link between the type of mobility, credit mobility or degree mobility, and certain aspects of the decision-making of studying at the University of Groningen. There is however little evidence that the country of origin influences certain aspects of the decision-making or the educational experience at the University of Groningen.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background 4

1.2 Research problem 5

1.3 Structure of the thesis 6

Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework

2.1 Complex reasoning behind International Student Mobility 7

2.2 The case of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands 7

2.3 Educational experience 8

2.4 Hypotheses 10

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 The survey 11

3.2 Ethics 11

Chapter 4: Results

4.1 Decision-making leading to the University of Groningen 12

4.2 The factors of the educational experience 14

4.3 Branding of education at the University of Groningen 17

Chapter 5: Conclusion 19

References 21

Appendix 24

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Chapter 1 – Introduction

1.1 Background

Lately there has been a lot going on about the situation of international students in Groningen. Most of the news reported about the lack of suitable housing which was available and this grabbed news because the international students risked being homeless abroad (Kennedy, 2018). Several temporal solutions were suggested of which the one about International students sleeping in tents grabbed the most attention. Tensions in the Netherlands are that it should not be possible that young students who made the decision to come to our country would have to sleep in tents (Beukeboom, 2018;

Berkhout, 2018).

The city of Groningen has two large higher education institutes being the Hanzehogeschool Groningen and the University of Groningen. The approach of these two institutes regarding international students differs. For the year 2018-2019, the Hanzehogeschool had an amount of 862 new internationals who enrolled at the institute which was about 13% of the total amount of new students (Hanze.nl, 2018). For the University of Groningen the amount of new international students in October 2018 was 2944 on a total population of new students of 6980 (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 2018). So not only the percentage of new international students at the University of Groningen is higher (42%), but also the total amount of new international students is more than three times higher, which shows that international students are currently relatively more important for the University of Groningen.

There exist multiple reasons why the higher education institutes in Groningen try to attract international students. The international students could for example create higher financial and non- financial benefits. For international students there are also multiple reasons why they could be attracted to study at one of the higher education institutes of Groningen. First of all a student could want to study in Groningen for knowledge benefits; as certain knowledge or skills cannot be obtained in the country of origin (Perkins & Neumayer, 2014). Another reason could be potential increased job opportunities by studying in Groningen interesting (Hazen and Alberts, 2006). Besides that a student could also just want to study in Groningen for the experience of studying abroad, studying specifically in the Netherlands or even more specific in the city of Groningen (Lee & Rice, 2007).

As they are the institutes attracting the international students it could seem that the University of Groningen and the Hanzehogeschool Groningen should together have made sure that there was enough housing before accepting all those international students. The question however is till what extent the University of Groningen is responsible for this, as in the Dutch law there is no place for universities to provide housing. This task is for the so-called “Woningcorporaties” (Housing- cooperations) and other private suppliers of housing. What the universities are responsible for however is the rising amount of international students who get accepted in the programs. Because both the amount of international students and the percentage of international students is higher this research focuses it merely on the University of Groningen.

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1.2 Research Problem

Non-financial benefits

According to the University of Groningen it is very important to attract international students. By attracting the international students next to the domestic students the university is able to attract a higher total amount of students, which is necessary to maintain and further improve the current high level of education. By attracting those students it is possible to improve to do more high-level research. Another effect from attracting international students is cultural enrichment (Younes & Asay, 2003). By having students from different backgrounds, a university has a higher variety of knowledge on what is going on in the globalized world. It is important to keep up to date with issues that occur in different parts of the world to make sure that university research remains relevant (Teekens, 2000).

Financial benefits

The attracted international students also give the university more financial possibilities (King & Ruiz- Gelices, 2003). Just as domestic students, international students need to pay a tuition fee. While EU- students pay a similar fee to the domestic students in the Netherlands, the students who do not originate from the EU pay even larger sums. In the UK there has even been a governmental policy that tried to attract international students. In the policy an increasing amount of international students would increase the chance of domestic students to attend higher education. The idea was that when more students would fill the classes that the education would become cheaper and better accessible for domestic students because of scale advantages (DFES, 1999). Whether more UK- domestic students have had the opportunity to attend higher education remains questionable but the amount of international students has definitely grown because of the policy changed (Findlay, 2011).

A growing amount of international students is a trend that has been going on as well in the Netherlands (Wittenborg, 2018).

The case of the Netherlands

There has however little research been done to the effects of this growing number of international students in the Netherlands, let alone at the University of Groningen. Because of the large share of international students at the UG and the importance of these students, it is interesting to further analyse their reasoning behind their decision to go study at the UG. Besides that is chosen to focus in this research on the educational experience, as the education is one of the key elements of their experience in Groningen at the UG and the element which can be influenced by the UG the most. By doing so, insight is gained in how the international students experience the education at the University of Groningen and to what extent the educational experience meets the expectations of these students. This information can be used to optimize the experience for international students in the future. The educational experience is a concept that is influenced by multiple factors and not by the education itself only (Ninnes et al., 1999). Other factors such as former experience in higher education and cultural aspects are also highly influential (Ninnes et al., 1999).

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Taking this together, the goal of this research can be formulated as follows: This research aims to evaluate the educational experience of international students studying at the University of Groningen.

To achieve this goal the following questions need to be answered:

1. Why do students study abroad?

2. Why have international students currently enrolled at the University of Groningen, chosen for the University of Groningen?

3. Which expectations did these international students have regarding their educational experience?

4. Which factors, according to the students, influence and have influenced their educational experience in Groningen?

5. What lessons can be drawn from this research for the (international marketing of) educational programmes at the University of Groningen?

1.3 Structure of the thesis

The structure of this thesis is the following: The second chapter will present theoretical backgrounds with relevant research that has been done on international student mobility and educational experiences. The third chapter will describe the situation of the University of Groningen in the academic world and the position of the Netherlands as a country to study in relatively to the rest of the world and will explain the research design of the survey. In the fourth part this thesis will give the results of this research and answer the different questions that arose earlier. Finally there will be a conclusion in the fifth chapter that will compare the results with the existing literature and reflect on the research process.

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Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework

2.1 Complex reasoning behind International Student Mobility

There are multiple reasons for students to decide to do (a part of) their study abroad. One of the reasons that are often mentioned is that when a student decides to study abroad their job opportunities in the future will increase. Not only will there be more jobs available, the jobs will also reward higher salaries and are more interesting (Hazen and Alberts, 2006). The task for the foreign university, in this case the University of Groningen, is to provide knowledge and skills that cannot be gathered in the country of origin (Perkins & Neumayer, 2014). By doing so a student is able to a gain of Human Capital that cannot be achieved in the country of origin (Baláž & Williams, 2004). The question however is to what extent a university is capable of supplying this knowledge and skills that are not yet available in the country of origin. There are again multiple factors, which influence whether this is the case.

A second factor could be the country of origin and the level of education in that country. When the country of origin already has good quality Higher Education Institutes (HEI), it decreases the chance that the study abroad instead of studying in the country of origin will improve the skillset of a specific student (Perkins & Neumayer, 2014). This is easier said than measured however because the use of university rankings (e.g. ARWU or WUR) is questionable in differentiating different levels of education (Jöns & Hoyler, 2013). Besides that it is also questionable whether this different level of education is also the case for the specific subject that the student studies. Countries with similar general levels of education in HEI still differ in specific subjects, for example because of different levels of focus.

Another reason for students to go abroad for studies is that they see their study abroad as a gateway for a definitive migration towards the country of destination (Li et al., 1996). In the period of study a student is able to get familiar with the culture of the country of destination and to get in touch with potential employers (Li et al., 1996). To make sure that students choose for their specific university, many Higher Education Institutes put a lot of effort in attracting those students for example by attending fairs in the countries they try to attract students from, or by using local agencies to select and attract students. It is even possible to do (some parts of) the university’s program via digital courses or via a local campus in the country of origin (Findlay, 2011).

Another potential reason for international mobility is related to the place identity of the university of destination (María Cubillo et al, 2006). According to the theory that a country image influences the attraction to a product. As the education at an institute for higher education can be seen as a product, the place identity or the country image can also influence the decision-making of international students (María Cubillo et al, 2006). Another place specific factor in the decision making can be the availability and quality of student housing, as is shown for international students in the UK (Huang, 2008).

For students that are already studying at an higher education institute is also important with which universities their home universities has formal agreements with (Nyborg, 1996). It is much easier for students to study at an university with which their home university has formal agreements than to go to an university for which these agreements are not in place.

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Growing International student population in the Netherlands

For the Dutch case the numbers of international students, for the country as a whole, have seen a rise (Rienties & Tempelaar, 2013). A by-effect of selecting talented students from abroad is that universities have higher probabilities of attracting better researchers (Findlay, 2011). This could potentially lead to a higher quality of education and a higher spot on the international rankings.

For the University of Groningen specific the percentage of internationals has reached as high as 20%

of the total amount of students (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 2018). The largest share of international students originates from the neighbouring country Germany, followed by the Asian countries of China, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan. As neighbouring countries like Germany are seen as countries with relatively high quality of education throughout the country just like Japan compared to Indonesia and Thailand (Figure 1), the reason why people from these countries chose the University of Groningen is likely to differ.

2.3 Educational experience

So the goal of this research is how the students that decide to study at the University of Groningen evaluate their educational experience. So it becomes clear which factors influence their general educational experience and their satisfaction about studying in Groningen in general. This also provides information about which factors are evaluated relatively positive already and which factors are currently less well experienced.

The educational experience itself is a concept that is said to consist of multiple factors. The most important factors of how a student experiences the education are factors related to the education itself. Elements of how satisfied a student is about the education are for example the quality of the education, the relative amount of students per lecture, the quality of the teachers and the level of the courses (Tam, 2001). However, the educational experience is also likely to be culturally dependent (Osborn, 2004). Important in these cultural aspects of an educational experience is the social environment of international students (Guidry Lacina, 2002). Elements described to be part of this social environment are the living in the city and the social connections they make (Guidry Lacina, 2002). An important part of the living in the city is the availability of qualitative good student housing.

Besides that, it is also interesting to see how they experience the life in the Netherlands and the city of Groningen in regards of their educational experience.

Little research has been done on students after mobility, and even less during mobility. Especially important in the debate around international students is what studying at the University of Groningen attributes to the learning process of the students, and . When an international student could achieve the same amount of process experience and knowledge collection in his country of origin, it could be argued that the additional value of the study abroad experience is minimal. Then the question is whether the whole international student migration was worth it from an educational perspective.

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Figure 1: Conceptual Model

The Conceptual Model

From the theoretical background arises that first of all the country of origin influences the wish of a student to study abroad as students from different countries are also in completely different situations (Figure 2). For example students originating from countries that have a better economic position are more likely to have the possibility to choose for international student mobility. This makes it likely that the position of the country influences the wish of a student to study abroad. Of course, there are more triggers for students to decide to study abroad. Students who have a wish to study abroad can roughly be divided in two groups: Credit Mobility Students and Degree Mobility Students. The first group are students who are interested in just taking certain courses or a part of a program at another university. The second group is interested in taking an entire bachelor or master program at another university. When the students decide for a university where they want to study they have the opportunity to study at the University of Groningen (UG) or they choose a different university. If the student chooses for the University of Groningen then this student then also has an educational experience with the UG. One part of their experience at the University of Groningen is the educational experience, which consists of the education itself and the features which belong to that and the other factors that influences an international student’s educational experience such as culture, student housing in Groningen, etc.).

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2.4 Hypotheses

According to research that has been done in the field already it is likely that there will be differences in what international students expect from their stay in Groningen. Also, for the educational experience it is therefore likely that there exist differences between international students.

A first hypothesis is that it is likely that for credit mobility students the educational experience is of less importance than for degree mobility students. In the first place because degree students will stay in Groningen for a longer period, which brings that if the education falls short, they have to experience this for a longer time. Besides that, if the entire education of a degree student has fallen short he has not had a useful study time, while for a credit mobility student it would ‘just’ be a part of his entire degree. Especially Erasmus students are likely to weigh less on the educational experience (Gonzalez et al., 2011). Because this project is subsidized by the European Union and has a high cultural goal, of creating a throughout Europe shared identity, the educational revision of these internationals is likely to be less negative.

A second hypothesis is that the country of origin influences the educational experience at the University of Groningen. Besides that it is possible that the educational experience of international students differs highly for students from different parts of the world. It is possible that someone who is used to a lower level of (higher) education in his or her country of origin is less likely to have a negative educational experience (Baláž & Williams, 2004). It is however also possible that these students get frustrated by the higher level of education because their grades in the Netherlands compared to their grades they achieved earlier are much lower and could lead to not finishing their education especially if they have had a different approach to critical thinking (Ninnes et al, 1999). In a less harsh situation in which the level of education is high and the expectations are therefore met the student can still not be satisfied because he feels like he is busy all the time and has less time next to his study to what he is used to. Students from countries that already have high standards of (higher) education are likely to have different reasons to move to Groningen and therefore also have different expectations of their educational experience. These students are more likely to have chosen for Groningen because of an exact program that the University of Groningen offers or because they wanted to study in Groningen to experience studying abroad or in the Netherlands specific. Their desires for education are likely for the first group to be whether the program fits their expectations and for the latter group to be more dependent on their experience outside the study program.

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Chapter 3 Methodology

3.1 The survey

This research design consists of many different factors and groups. The different factors in the decision-making process of international students and the evaluation of different factors of the educational experience already create a large amount of different categories to be analysed. A quantitative research method is needed to be able to understand the interactions between the different factors on the one hand and the general educational experience, type of mobility or country of origin on the other hand. In this research is chosen to conduct a survey among international students of the UG because there was no suited dataset yet. There is not chosen for qualitative analysis in this research because the survey consists of a large amount of possible factors in the decision-making and evaluation of the educational experience. Besides that, there was also the possibility for students to add other reasons that were not covered in the survey yet.

For this research a group of 122 internationals is surveyed. The group of internationals is attracted in different ways. A large chunk of the response group consists of students in the international exchange class of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, who filled in a hardcopy of the survey. Other students have been attracted at the University Campus Zernike, and via different digital platforms. The survey was shared in groups specifically meant for international students at the UG for example via websites and applications such as Facebook, Reddit and WhatsApp. In total 31 respondents filled the survey in as a hardcopy and 91 filled in the Google Forms version. The survey was aimed at both exchange (Credit Mobility Students) and Degree Mobility Students (58 and 64 respondents).

In this survey possible issues could be the presence of some sort of confirmation bias (Nickerson, 1998). Because this survey asks both about the reasons why someone has decided to go study in Groningen and how the respondent feels about their educational experience now they might feel like they have to change their expectations or opinion afterwards to be self-confirming. Besides that also the social desirability bias could occur for some respondents (Leggett et al., 2003). Some respondents could feel the need to change what they really expected and what they actually experienced to an expectation or experience that they feel like is socially desirable.

3.2 Ethics

The respondents have been able to fill in the survey completely anonymously online. Besides that, the respondents who filled in the hardcopy version are also till some extent anonymous as this was a big group at once. Therefore it is maintained uncertain which answers belong to which respondent. In the survey itself is not asked for much personal data, as it is not relevant for this research. During the distribution of the survey and the search for respondents it was always made clear for what purpose the survey was handed out and that respondents could always get in contact if they had any questions or remarks.

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Chapter 4 Results

4.1 Decision-making leading to the University of Groningen

The basis of this research is that international students have made a decision to come to the University of Groningen to study in the Netherlands. To understand further action, thoughts and reflection it is important to know why students study abroad at the UG. As stated before there are many reasons which could cause a student to decide to move to the UG. In this research students were proposed a number of reasons that the students could rate how important they had been for their decision. The ten proposed reasons were deducted from the literature as discussed in Chapter 2.

Figure 2: Country of origin of participants (Retrieved from own data; visualized with ArcGis)

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I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X 0%

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Factors that influenced decision for UG

Very unimportant Not important Neutral / No influence Somewhat important Very important

Figure 3: Factors that influenced decision for the University of Groningen

First of all, the respondents from the survey originate from 34 countries in different parts of the world (Figure 2), with the largest group originating from Germany (20%). The results of how important each reason was for the decision to study at the UG differ (Figure 3). Some factors were very important for a large majority of the respondents in the decision to study at the UG such as ‘the quality of education at the University of Groningen’ and ‘the specific unique content of studies at the University of Groningen’ (both over 70% very important or somewhat important), while other factors such as ‘the availability/quality of student housing’ and ‘my previous experience at the University of Groningen appear to be less important (Less than 25% very important or somewhat important).

Large role for finance, friends and international education

Besides this question there was also room for students to enter additional reasons for why they chose the University of Groningen if they wore not covered by the ones stated before. 39% percent of the respondents stated that they had other reasoning for choosing to study at the UG. The reasons can be categorized in different overarching subjects. The largest group (7% of the total amount of respondents) stated reasons related to finance or tuition at the University of Groningen such as“Tuition fees were cheaper” and “Studying here was the most affordable option for study abroad programs”. Besides that, the reasons given are recommendations of other students/relatives (6%) or entail the availability of English education and the international atmosphere in Groningen. Other reasoning mentioned is more specific and sometimes seems to overlap with one or multiple of the reasons proposed in the earlier question.

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4.2

The factors of the educational experience

To understand the current situation of international students at the University of Groningen it is important to find out which factors according to the international students themselves influence their situation in Groningen. In this research only the factors that could influence their educational experience are taken into account. Respondents of the survey answered how they rated several potential factors of the educational experience, and their educational experience at the UG in general.

I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI

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Evaluation factors educational experience at the UG

Very negative Negative

Neutral Positive

Very postive

Figure 4: Evaluation factors educational experience

Of the eleven factors that were proposed to influence the educational experience, seven were rated positive or very positive by 70% or more of the respondents (Figure 4). The factors that were rated negatively were especially the availability and quality of student housing in Groningen (Over 70%

negative or very negative). The factor of the amount of contact with Dutch students was more evenly distributed.

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46.7 50.8

2.5

Do your educational experiences match with the expectations you had before arriving in Groningen?

Yes Partly Not at all

Figure 5: Evaluation of educational experience

46.7

44.3

5.7 3.3

General opinion about the decision to study at the UG

Very positive Positive Neutral Negative

Figure 6: General opinion about the decision to study at the University of Groningen

When analysing the general opinion about the educational experience at the University of Groningen and the decision to study at the UG, it shows that only for a minority the expectations don’t meet the experiences, for the others experiences meeting expectations was at least partly or even completely the case (Figure 5). The majority of the respondents are positive about their decision to study at the UG (91% positive or very positive) and none of the respondents rated their decision very negative (Figure 6).

Because many respondents were positive in their general opinion about their educational experience with the UG and the decision to study at the UG some categories had a small amount or zero respondents, caused that many categories had to be combined for analysing the association of the

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Factor Association Strength I The quality of education at the University of Groningen ^Yes Moderate II The amount of students per teacher in the lectures ^Yes Weak

III The quality of the teachers Yes Weak

IVThe level of the courses ^Yes Moderate

VThe amount of contact with Dutch students Yes Weak

VI The amount of contact with international students No -

VII Life in the city of Groningen No -

VIII Life in the Netherlands No -

IX Costs of living in Groningen No -

XAvailability of student housing in Groningen No -

XI Quality of student housing in Groningen Yes Weak

Figure 7: Associations between factors educational experience and the educational experience

The statistical analysis of the results of the survey shows that not for all of the proposed factors of educational experience an association with the general educational experience is found. For the factors ‘amount of contact with international students’, ‘life in the city of Groningen’, ‘life in the Netherlands’, ‘costs of living in Groningen’ and ‘availability of student housing’ there is no association found with the general educational experience. The general educational experience has on its turn a moderate positive association with the opinion about the decision to study at the UG after merging the categories ‘negative’ and ‘very negative’.

Influence of type of mobility

If the respondents are differentiated based on type of mobility, as specified in chapter 2, and compare them based on the reasons for studying at the University of Groningen there are significant associations between ‘type of mobility’ and the importance of ‘my home university and the UG have formal agreements in place’, ‘availability/quality of student housing’ and ‘the potential job market value of studying at the UG’. For degree students the importance of the formal agreements and the availability/quality of student housing is lower but ‘the potential job market value of studying at the UG’ is more important than for students who are on credit mobility. If they are compared on their evaluation of the factors of their educational experience there are differences on ‘amount of contact with Dutch students’ and ‘availability of student housing’; degree mobility students are less positive than credit mobility students for the availability of student housing while degree students are more positive about the ‘amount of contact with Dutch students’. There is no significant difference found neither in the general evaluation of the educational experience nor in the satisfaction of the decision to study in Groningen between the different types of mobility students.

Influence of country of origin

To research the influence of the country of origin on the opinion of respondents the respondents are separated in different groups. One categorization that is made is made between students originating from the European countries that are part of the Erasmus program on the one hand and students from other countries on the other hand. For this distinction there is no evidence for a difference between the two groups for the different factors of their reasoning to study at the UG. Also for the

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Another division made is by region of origin. If the respondents are divided in three groups of countries of origin (Asia & Africa, Americas and Europe) there is still no significant difference regarding their educational experience and general satisfaction on their decision to study at the UG.

German influence

The group of respondents from Germany (20% of total) however, significantly differs from respondents originating in their decision-making from other countries based on their rank number on the factors ‘my home university and the UG have formal agreements in place’, ‘quality/availability of student housing’ and ‘the specific unique contents of subjects at the UG’. Students from Germany rate these factors less important than students from other countries than Germany for these factors.

In the case of the educational experience there was no difference found between students from Germany and students from other countries.

4.3

Branding of education at the University of Groningen

As stated before the UG tries to attract international students because of the importance of financial benefits (Ruiz-Gelices, 2003) on the one side and non-financial Benefits by for example cultural enrichment (Younes & Asay, 2003) on the other side that international students can generate.

In general students are satisfied about the most features of their educational experience at the University of Groningen and life in the city of Groningen itself. The negative aspects of studying in Groningen are clearly linked to the lack of student housing and also the amount of contact with Dutch students, the first more for degree students and the second more of an issue for degree mobility students.

Results show that for branding the programs the UG could focus more on the aspects that are linked to the educational experience and the satisfaction of studying at the UG. The aspects that are linked to the educational experience are ‘the quality of education at the UG’, ‘the amount of students per teacher in the lectures’, ‘the quality of the teachers’, ‘the level of the courses’ and ‘the quality of student housing in Groningen’. The first four categories mentioned have a large share of students rating it positive or very positive (over 60%), ‘the quality of student housing’ however has only a small share rating it positive or very positive (10%). To improve the educational experience the UG should focus therefor on improving the quality of student housing.

The availability of student housing and lack of contact with Dutch students in Groningen is clearly an issue as the international students studying in Groningen generally rate this factor relatively low. This however appears not to lead to a lower educational experience or satisfaction about the decision to study at the UG in general. There is no evidence that the availability of student housing or the amount of contact with Dutch students leads to lower satisfaction in general. That causes that when the UG wants to improve the educational experience in general it doesn’t need to focus on these issues.

There are several differences between degree mobility students and credit mobility students their expectations of studying at the UG. As stated before; for exchange students rate the importance of ‘ the potential job market of studying at the UG’ value lower but the ‘availability/quality of student housing’ and ‘my home university and the UG have formal agreements in place’ higher. The last

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The amount of students that come to Groningen on exchange is higher from countries outside of the Erasmus Program, which is probably linked to the costs for these students to study at the UG compared to for students from countries outside the Erasmus Program.

When comparing the exchange and degree students, exchange students appear to be more negative about the amount of contact with Dutch students compared to the students who take the degree program. To improve the international marketing of the educational programmes the University of Groningen could focus more on this contact with Dutch students to satisfy especially the exchange students more.

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In general students are positive about their educational experience at the University of Groningen.

91% of the students is (very) positive about their decision to study at the UG and only 2,5% states that their educational experience is not at all in line with what they expected. Therefor it can be concluded that international students are positive about their general educational experience.

It is clear that students have multiple reasons to study abroad; almost all the potential factors in the decision-making process were rated (very) important by more than half of the respondents. The existence of formal agreements with a home university, the availability/quality of student housing and a previous experience were (very) important for less than half of the respondents.

The reasons for why students chose Groningen did not entirely align with those deducted from the literature (chapter 2). Formal agreements between a home university and the UG (Nyborg, 1996) and the information received from the UG are rated (very) important by less than 50% of the students for their study at the UG. A previous experience with the UG was important for only 15% of the students.

Both the city of Groningen and UG-specific programs/content are also rated important by the majority of the students for their decision in Groningen as expected from María Cubillo et al (2006).

When analysing the different factors that could influence the educational experience, evidence is found for the more direct to education-linked factors to have weak/moderate links with the educational experience that is in line with the findings of Tam (2001). For the factors more related to culture is no evidence found that it influences the educational experience except for the quality of student housing, which seems in contrast with Guidry Lacina (2002).

There appear to be multiple differences between credit mobility students their experiences and those of degree mobility students. Also there are differences based on location for the decision for a degree or credit mobility and the experience at the University of Groningen that aligns with what could be expected from earlier researches (Parsley & Wei, 2001). There is no evidence found for a different educational experience for students from different countries of origin as proposed by Baláž &

Williams (2004). When reflecting to the conceptual model (Figure 1), the influence of the country of origin on the decision and reflection are not clear, there don’t exist strong ties between the different elements. The type of mobility is in fact connected to some elements of the expectations and the evaluation of the educational experience of students in Groningen as explained in Chapter 4.

For future branding of the UG it has become clear, that the majority of the international students that has chosen for Groningen, has chosen it for reasons directly linked to education and UG-specific characteristics (the city of Groningen or specific subjects). As stated before, international students are in general satisfied about studying in Groningen. It can be said however that there is still room for improvement for some of the factors that have links to the educational experience, for example the quality of student housing and the amount of contact international students have with Dutch students. According to international students themselves they are able to have a high level of education at the UG that is necessary to gain Human Capital (Baláž & Williams, 2004). It does not seem like that the UG promotes studying at the institute differently than it is in reality.

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However one of the main issues with this research as was already stated earlier, is the issue of self- confirming results. The high level of satisfaction about the decision to study in Groningen could still very well be dependent on the feeling of respondents to give an answer in which they confirm their own decision or to give the most socially desirable answer, because the results of the different factors are very positive. Because this research was anonymous the chances of this happening should already be lowered, but that this factor still influences the results cannot be taken out of account just by this research. This can especially not be taken out of account for the part of the response group who filled in the hardcopy survey. These surveys were handed out to a group of international exchange students, who filled in the survey the same afternoon. It is possible however, that this group has interacted with each other about the topic before and during the answering of the survey. This could potentially have influenced the outcomes. While checking for differences in this group afterwards however I found no significant differences between the results of this group and the students who filled in the digital survey.

There are some comments to be made on the process of this research however. First of all there is the large dichotomy in the response group. 31 respondents were part of the international program for exchange students at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences alone. This group was surveyed on one afternoon while they were together which could have influenced the results. Other than that, this means that this is more than half of the total amount of exchange students in this research, which can have highly determined the results of that part of this research. For future research, it could be interesting to specify this for different faculties and see of the results then differ.

A mistake that was made in this research is that the costs of living in Groningen were not treated in the survey as a factor influencing the decision-making but as a factor influencing the educational experience. From the theoretic background it seemed likely that this influences the decision-making but there is no ground found that this influences the educational experience. The way the question is drafted now makes it impossible to research the importance in the decision-making of international students. As some students put in the effort to name the financial costs as ‘other reason’ in their decision-making it is likely that this is of importance for a large share of the international students and is definitely interesting to research for future research.

Also the country of origin of this response group might not be an entirely correct display of the international student population in Groningen. Among the foreign countries with a relatively large share of the total international population at the UG are the Asian countries of China, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand according to the theoretical framework. They are however only a small share of the response group. The way of finding respondents (via social media and personal contact) could be an explanation for this difference. For future research it could be a good idea to implement more ways of attracting students to contribute to a survey.

Another issue was the amount of respondents, for the statistical analysis many answer categories were combined and because of that the results are less detailed than they could have been. Because most of the students reflected very positive to their educational experience and the group of students who are not originating from countries in Europe was not that large many cells remained

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For a thesis in the future I have learned that after collecting data it is wise to immediately start analysing the data instead of thinking that you are already for 75% finished. In the process of this thesis a lot of work has been done in the last few weeks because little had been done in the month of December, this caused that I had no time to analysis everything as thorough, as I would have liked to.

In the end I did not keep up enough with the schedule I made beforehand which caused that I postponed my statistical analysis and my GIS analysis. In hindsight I should have been stricter to myself.

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Figure 1. Survey on International Student Mobility

Dear international student,

My name is Jim Klooster and I am a student Human Geography and Urban & Regional Planning and currently I am writing my Bachelor Thesis on international student mobility. For my research I am looking for international students currently studying at the University of Groningen. The research is aimed at both full bachelor/master program and exchange students. I research the opinion of the educational experience of international students specified on different features. The research is entirely anonymous and the answers will only be used in this research specific. If you want to have more information or have questions you can contact me via

j.klooster.3@student.UG.nl. Thanks in advance for filling in the survey!

Jim Klooster

1. What type of international student are you?

o Credit mobility student or so called: “Exchange student” (Not a full bachelor or master program)

o Degree mobility student (Full bachelor or master program) 2. What is your country of origin?

3. How important were the following aspects in your decision to study at the University of Groningen?

Very

unimportant Not

important Neutral / No

influence Somewhat

important Very important My home university and the

University of Groningen have formal agreements in place.

The ranking on worldwide university rankings (such as the ARWU)

The quality of education at the University of Groningen

Availability/quality of student housing The specific unique content of subjects or study program in Groningen The potential job market value of studying at the University of Groningen

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4. Are there any other aspects that influenced your decision-making?

o No o Yes If Yes, please explain:

5. How do you evaluate the following features of your educational experience so far?

Very

negative Negative Neutral Positive Very positive The quality of education at the University

of Groningen

The amount of students per teacher in the lectures

The quality of the teachers The level of the courses

Amount of contact with international students

Life in the city of Groningen Life in the Netherlands Costs of living in Groningen Availability of student housing in Groningen

Quality of student housing in Groningen Other aspects that influenced your decision-making

6. Do your educational experiences match with the expectations you had before arriving in Groningen?

o My educational experiences don’t match at all with my expectations.

o My educational experiences partly match with my expectations.

o My educational experiences match with my expectations.

7. In general my opinion about my decision to study at the University of Groningen is:

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Figure 2: Type of mobility on Decision making

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Decisionmaking: My home university and the University of Groningen have formal agreements in place

1,0 58 87,16 5055,00

Total

122

Decisionmaking: The rankings on worldwide university rankings (such as the ARWU)

,0 64 65,79 4210,50

1,0 58 56,77 3292,50

Total

122

Decisionmaking: The quality of education at the University of Groningen

,0 64 65,98 4223,00

1,0 58 56,55 3280,00

Total 122

Decisionmaking:

Availability/quality of student housing

,0 64 53,41 3418,50

1,0 58 70,42 4084,50

Total 122

Decisionmaking: The specific unique content of subjects or study program in Groningen

,0 64 59,65 3817,50

1,0 58 63,54 3685,50

Total

122

Decisionmaking: The potential job market value of studying at the University of Groningen

,0 64 71,98 4606,50

1,0 58 49,94 2896,50

Total

122

Decisionmaking: The information I directly received from the University of Groningen

,0 64 63,09 4037,50

1,0 58 59,75 3465,50

Total

122

Decisionmaking: The information I received from other sources than the University of Groningen

,0 64 63,38 4056,00

1,0 58 59,43 3447,00

Total

122

Decisionmaking: My previous experience with the University of Groningen

,0 64 65,42 4187,00

1,0 57 56,04 3194,00

Total 121

Decisionmaking: The city of Groningen

,0 64 57,45 3677,00

1,0 58 65,97 3826,00

Total 122

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Test Statistics^a

My home university and the University of Groningen have formal agreements in place

The rankings on worldwide university rankings (such as the ARWU)

The quality of education at the University of Groningen

Availability/q uality of student housing

The specific unique content of subjects or study program in Groningen

The potential job market value of studying at the University of Groningen

The information I directly received from the University of Groningen

The information I received from other sources than the University of Groningen

My previous experience with the University of Groningen

The city of Groningen

Mann-

Whitney U 368,000 1581,500 1569,000 1338,500 1737,500 1185,500 1754,500 1736,000 1541,000 1597,000 Wilcoxon W 2448,00

0 3292,500 3280,000 3418,500 3817,500 2896,500 3465,500 3447,000 3194,000 3677,000

Z -7,858 -1,471 -1,632 -2,736 -,650 -3,520 -,537 -,642 -1,564 -1,390

Asymp. Sig.

(2-tailed) ,000 ,141 ,103 ,006 ,515 ,000 ,591 ,521 ,118 ,165

a. Grouping Variable: What type of international student are you?

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The quality of education

Chi-Square Tests

Value df Asymptotic Significance (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 13,800^a 2 ,001

Likelihood Ratio 14,254 2 ,001

Linear-by-Linear Association 13,322 1 ,000

N of Valid Cases 122

a. 0 cells (,0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 5,14.

Symmetric Measures

Value Asymptotic Standardized Error^a Approximate T^b Approximate Significance

Ordinal by Ordinal Kendall's tau-b ,325 ,080 4,029 ,000

Kendall's tau-c ,349 ,087 4,029 ,000

a. Not assuming the null hypothesis.

b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis.

The amount of students per teacher in the lectures

a. 1 cells (12,5%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 4,67.

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Kendall's tau-c ,188 ,095 1,986 ,047

The quality of the teachers

Kendall's tau-c ,281 ,087 3,223 ,001

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The level of the courses

Kendall's tau-c ,370 ,087 4,250 ,000

Amount of contact with Dutch students

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Kendall's tau-c ,265 ,096 2,770 ,006

Quality of student housing in Groningen

Kendall's tau-c ,272 ,097 2,795 ,005

The evaluation of educational experience by international students of the University of Groningen