It is not a secret that most of the students would like to study abroad.
It becomes a worldwide tendency to be ‘international student’ with
‘international experience’. There are
different reasons for it that push or pull students to study abroad.
Foreign students can be pushed, if the existing system of tertiary
education of home country is found poor and they are seeking to get a new
cultural and intellectual practice. Another reason for students to be pushed is
concerning with better job perspectives in the future. Moreover, students can
be pulled to leave home country to study, because of the high quality of
foreign higher education institutions, as well with learning new language
(Perna et.al, 2014). Does it mean that those factors play an important role in
making decision of the students? I think they are the main factors in making
decision about the destination to study overseas.
It is not surprising that most of those students are from poor or not so
developed countries. Altbach (1991) also suggests that there are pull and push factors taking into consideration of third World students who are most inspired to be involved in the context of foreign study. If the educational system of your country has ‘flaws’, it
is understandable why students unsatisfied with it and aimed to cross the
border of home country to study abroad.
In my opinion, the flaw of foreign students studying outside of their
origin country will be increasing year by year, as a rate of profit is so high,
especially for receiving countries. While there is a taste of profit, foreign students
will be so welcomed to study in those host countries. Host countries seem to
think like that: “Wherever you are my dear, foreign student and while the trump
card of globalization and internationalization are in our hands, you will be
always pulled or we makes your country push you to study in our area!”
Reference
Perna, L. W.,
Orosz, K., Jumakulov, Z., Ashirbekov, A.,
& Kishkentayeva, M. (2014).
Understanding
the programmatic and contextual forces that influence participation in
a government-sponsored
international student-mobility program. Springer
Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Altbach, P. G. (1991). Impact and adjustment:
Foreign students in comparative perspective. Higher
Education, 21(3), 305-323.
ReplyDeleteThat title of “Push me or I will be pulled” made me read it! And I don not regret reading the blog, it was worth it.
The number of students desiring to study abroad is constantly increasing. To my mind, there are much more pull factors for Kazakhstani case Fortunately, Kazakhstan does not have any difficult political issues that push people to leave or youth to obtain education somewhere else. The reasons of pull factors are clear: “international degree” improves your life by getting better job with higher salary. Other than that “international experience” puts you into higher position on social level. In other words, it means more “friends” around.
Interesting fact that students who study abroad are mostly from poor backgrounds. I think it is 50/50. I need some data or statistics to know the truth). For now, it seems to be both: students of rich and those who come from poorer families. In any case, international education, having advantages, also has disadvantages. Let us recall experience with Bolashak students, who decided to stay there despite of governmental money spent on their education. And also smart and talented self-sponsored students who left country forever. This brain drain puts at risk the future of the country.
Nevertheless, there are examples of people coming back, or just true patriotic youth who get Kazakhstani education in order to serve for the sake of our country.
Dear Diyara,
ReplyDeletenice post about push and pull factors.
Your opinion on rationales that hosting universities pursue to attract international students as I believe based on commodification theory international education system. The opinions about this trend are quite contradictory. Many think that it is really negative trend that consider education services as the subject of trade, which they believe goes against to the core idea of education being the public good. Others are proponents of this neoliberal point of view which claims that everything that happens on free market conditions is wright and true. In other words, if somebody wants to pay and study, who can blame the institution providing this services being profit oriented.
Diara,
ReplyDeleteYour topic make sense. Some relevant topic is brain drain. Those push and pull factors to study abroad cause brain drain issues in some countries. Of course there is believe that it is brain gain now. I believe it is good to have exchange programs, to have a chance to travel. Student life is the brightest time, so I will push my daughter to study abroad and come back.