Is a Foreign degree worth it?

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We - students, are traditionally considered to be mobile population. With globalization and introduction of student mobility the boundaries of this world for us are almost erased. Nowadays, a new notion came into the sight – International Student Mobility (ISM). ISM is the “process when students cross the national borders for the purpose or in the context of their studies” (Souto-Otero et al, 2013, p.1). Scholars are sure that this process must enable students to benefit educationally, linguistically and culturally. However, current trends suggest that these traditional assumptions and patterns are changing. According to the European Union statistics, many students who actually signing up for ISM programs, eventually DO NOT participate. And something very similar happened to my friends too. They successfully passed all examinations and won the grant of Erasmus Program, but finally decided not to go.

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Let me explain you what Erasmus is: 

* Erasmus is the largest mobility student-exchange program of the European Union. More than 4,000 higher education institutions from 30 countries take part in the program. Most of Erasmus students receive grants; only 3% do not. Each year it sends 200,000 students abroad with annual budget more than €450 million. 

If this program is so good, why my friends, finally, decided not to participate the program and stay here, in Kazakhstan? Are there any hidden disadvantages? 

I wanted to understand the fears and apprehensions of students, something that retained them in their home countries. You will be shocked but I found the answer...  

The researchers - Souto-Otero, Huisman, Beerkens, de Wit, & VujiĆ, conducted a web-survey of Erasmus and non-Erasmus students (from 7 countries) commissioned by the European Parliament studying on different degree levels: bachelor (54%), master (21%) and PhD (1%). The results had shown that the most significant barriers were: the Educational quality and the Credit recognition (HE system comparability). 

Educational quality - students had little information about the university they were assigned to, and the biggest issue they faced with was the transfer of credits from the European university to the home one. Even taking into account the fact that most of the countries signed the Bologna Declaration, the credit system in many countries (not only in Kazakhstan) is still on the process of synchronizing... Who knows how many years will it take? Students decided not to take a risk, and stay at home universities. The best solution for them was to go to summer internship rather than to go and get a degree. 

Another interesting fact was that the level of degree dimension demonstrated that the pattern (explained above) varied between students of different age. For example, bachelors (n=9,5) paid much more attention to higher education system of comparability, while master students (as we are!!!!!) considered it to be the least important barrier (n=252), and vice versa, social and family aspect (home and children sick) that the master students noted as the most significant factor was at the last place for bachelors.

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The findings of this research indicate that there is a huge level of interest in the idea of moving abroad, however, due to educational factors, actual prospects for being mobile appear to be more restricted, often leaving mobility beyond reach. Moreover, personally, I am not so positive about the ISM. After analyzing the data, and talking to my friends who rejected Erasmus grants, I was absolutely sure that nothing would move off dead center while the insufficient policy recognition of mobility needs remains to be negligible. If the government requires students to go and study abroad, it has to create conditions for this... Otherwise, the students become those who suffer most... 

And what do you think? 

Reference:

Souto-Otero, M., Huisman, J., Beerkens, M., de Wit, H., & VujiĆ, S. (2013). Barriers to international student mobility: evidence from the Erasmus program. Educational Researcher, 42(2), 70-77.