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Master Thesis

HALMSTAD

UNIVERSITY

Master's Programme in Strategic Entrepreneurship for International Growth, 120 credits

Internationalization of Higher Education:

Understanding the International Students' Choice of a Swedish University and the Decision-Making Process

Independent Project in Business Administration, 30 credits

Halmstad 2020-05-29

Prisca Thiru - 900815, Aleksandra Denisova -

961114

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Abstract

As the growth of Internationalisation of Higher Education shifts from former dominant nations like USA, Canada, England and Australia to other nations in Europe and Asia such as Germany, Sweden, Japan and Singapore, this study seeks to understand the decision-making process of an International Student looking to study at a Swedish University. Borrowing from previous studies, the ‘push and pull factors’ are used as the main theoretical reference as well as in discussion of the findings. Specific factors special to Sweden and the European Union in general such as visa policies and tuition fees are also discussed. For empirical data, international students already undertaking various master’s programmes as well as former master’s students at the Swedish university answer an online questionnaire pertaining to:

decision to study abroad, decision to study in Sweden and decision to study at the particular Swedish University. Moreover, empirical data includes an interview with a representative of the university under analysis. In-depth analyses of data using Standard Deviation (SD), calculation of p value, ANOVA and Tukey’s tests are also performed to give clear comparisons of the various data sets such as ‘programme specialisation’ and ‘home country’ and their influence on the decision-making process. Personal satisfaction and better career prospects are identified as the major ‘push factors’. Programme quality and requirements, Sweden’s quality of life and health of environment, safe place to study, and location in the European Union are identified as main ‘pull factors’. It is found out that the home country of international students has a huge influence on their decisions to study abroad/ in Sweden/ at a certain university, although specialization also has influence, it appears to be drastically less. The findings have important implications in helping aspiring students make informed decisions as they consider choice of country and university, as well as implications for Higher Education Institutions as they respond to the demands created by globalisation of higher education, and subsequently endeavour to attract more international students through marketing or curriculum development of their programmes.

Keywords: Internationalisation, Higher Education (HE), International Students (IS), Push-Pull Factors, Decision-Making.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to appreciate the contributions of various people who made this paper a success.

First, a big thank you goes to our supervisor, Prof. Svante Andersson, who walked with us every step of the way, helping us to fine-tune our topic, pointing us to relevant literature and giving feedback all through. Moreover, we would like to thank Halmstad University for collaboration and especially the International Coordinator, Kalyani Pillalamarri, who provided us with essential statistics and information needed for this paper. Thank you to our opponents and colleagues at the university who gave us feedback regarding our work, leading us to a better version of the final paper. Finally, a big thank you to all the respondents to our questionnaire.

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Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction ... 4

2.0 Theory and Literature Review ... 6

2.1 Internationalization of Higher Education ... 6

2.2 Internationalization of Higher Education: Sweden ... 8

2.3 International students in Sweden ... 10

2.3.1 Attraction of international students in Sweden ... 10

2.3.2 Legal aspects for international students: staying in Sweden ... 10

2.4 Decision-making process of International Students ... 11

2.4.1 Push and Pull Factors ... 11

2.4.2 Conceptual framework, Chen (2008): Factors influencing the decision-making process to study abroad ... 12

2.4.3 Factors influencing choice of the country ... 13

2.4.4 Factors influencing choice of an institution ... 13

3.0 Methodology ... 14

3.1 Choice of Higher Education Institution for analysis ... 14

3.2 Selected methods of data collection ... 14

3.2.1 Interview ... 14

3.2.2 Questionnaire ... 15

3.3 Formation of groups ... 15

3.4 Two approaches used for quantitative data analysis ... 16

3.4.1 First approach for data analysis (related to RQ2) ... 16

3.4.2 Second approach for data analysis (related to RQ1) ... 17

4.0 Empirical Data ... 18

4.1 Interview with the representative of Halmstad University ... 18

4.2 Results collected through the questionnaire for IS ... 20

5.0 Analysis ... 23

5.1 Overview and general analysis of obtained data ... 23

5.2 First approach: finding statistically significant differences among the groups ... 27

5.2.1 Factors influencing the choice of IS to study abroad ... 28

5.2.2 Factors influencing the choice of IS to study in Sweden ... 32

5.2.3 Factors influencing the choice of IS to study at Halmstad University ... 35

5.2.4 Summary of the analysis results with the first approach ... 40

5.3 Second approach: analysis of the most important factors that influence IS to study in Sweden ... 42

5.3.1 The most important factors influencing the choice of IS to study abroad ... 42

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5.3.2 The most important factors influencing the choice of IS to study in Sweden ... 43

5.3.3 The most important factors influencing the choice of IS to study at Halmstad University ... 45

6.0 Discussion and Implications ... 46

6.1 Connection of results with push/pull factors and internationalisation of HE literature . 46 6.2 Connection of results with theory on Sweden ... 48

7.0 Conclusion, limitations and future research ... 49

References ... 52

Appendixes ... 56

Appendix 1 – Interview questions for International Students Coordinator ... 56

Appendix 2 – Online Questionnaire Questions ... 57

Appendix 3 – Additional analysis of factors for group 1 ... 61

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4 1.0 Introduction

Higher Education (HE) between borders has become an important tool for the globalisation of education (Knight, 2015). Since knowledge is considered universal, knowledge producing institutions thus have a universal appeal (Geerlings & Lundberg, 2019). Subsequently, as universities respond to market demands, their operations become global as well (Varghese, 2008). Some countries, such as Canada, have gone as far as making policy changes to include International Students (IS) as part of their future economic growth and success (Scott, Sadfar, Desai & El Masri, 2015). Theories such as knowledge recombination show that movement of people facilitates movement of knowledge and thereafter, this foreign knowledge is associated with greater idea generation and creative achievements (Franzoni, Scellato & Stephan, 2014).

Scott et al., (2015) state that international education provides a good foundation for intercultural learning and expansion of networks and is specifically beneficial if the IS can be absorbed into the host country labour market. Host countries are also interested in IS because they bring to these local universities financial resources that otherwise would be unavailable for them, like foreign capital, competition and economic profit, and subsequently, institutions aim to attract IS (Grayson, 2005; Varghese, 2008).

In the past, the decision to study abroad was highly influenced by political and colonial sponsorship, where students seeking to study abroad received funding from their home- countries’ governments based on the political ties with the destination country (Varghese, 2008). The author continues to explain that this has since changed and market principles are now the driving factors, as students now personally fund their own education. This sentiment is echoed by de Wit (2011, p.9), who affirms that “competition and market processes have more and more influence on the manner in which internationalisation is implemented”. In a study assessing International Students’ (IS) decision making process when choosing to study abroad, Cubillo et al., (2006) identified that various critical factors influence their decision.

The authors cited factors such as personal reasons, institution image, country image effect and programme evaluation. Some authors have also used country-specific traits to explain the decision-making process of students. Varghese (2008) mentions some of the country-specific features that influence student flow in cross-border education to include; cost of education, ideological affinity, language aptitude, employment opportunities, easy visa formalities etc.

Further to this, Chen (2008) analysed the students’ choice of a university from the angle of marketing activities conducted by the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), which influence

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the decision-making process of students. Trade-offs are then made after evaluation of all the factors, and a final decision settled upon (Cubillo et al., 2006).

Many studies have been done to show how internationalisation and globalisation have impacted global education (Munusamy and Hashim, 2020).Students’ choice of studying abroad has also been discussed extensively in literature in an independent context (Hubbard & Rexeisen, 2020).

However, most of the literature available seems to mainly focus on Canada, USA, United Kingdom and Australia, as they were the pioneers of internationalisation of higher education (Liu, Elston & Zhou, 2013; de Wit, 2020). To further explain this, Guruz (2011) states that these countries had higher enrolments of international students because they offered courses in English, which is the most widely studied language. In recent times however, other countries have embraced internationalisation in their education systems and policies and have subsequently attracted a great traction of foreign students (Guruz, 2011). Some of these countries are Germany, New Zealand, Japan, China and Singapore (Liu et al., 2013; Wu, 2018;

Wen & Hu, 2019; Macionis, Walters, & Kwok, 2019). According to Douglass and Edelstein (2009), there is growing proof that students globally no longer consider the US as the primary place to study; and to a great extent, this means that there is a rise in the perceived quality and prestige of HE in the EU and other countries.

However, there is little research available on this growing trend in smaller European countries.

Sweden, for instance, is among such small European countries that attract many IS every year from all over the world (Morris-Lange, & Brands, 2015). Most of the literature lumps the research under broader classifications such as ‘Europe’ or ‘Nordcic countries’, for example (Schworm, Cadin, Carbone, Festing, Leon & Muratbekova-Touron, 2017; Myklebust, 2017).

This generalisation according to regions may sometimes fail to identify country-specific factors such as policies, which may greatly influence the decision-making process of a student wishing to pursue studies abroad. The research gap in this paper seeks to relate a potential student’s choice of studying abroad and the decision-making process to the literature on internationalisation, with a particular focus on Sweden. The choices and decision-making processes are considered in this study as dependent variables on the push and pull factors of internationalisation, which is an independent variable. Authors of this paper posit that the choices are first and foremost guided by how various HEIs have adopted or adjusted to the internationalisation of Higher Education (HE), as well as how internationalisation of education

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to an extent demands that better choices be made in order to fit into a rapidly changing and global society. To this effect, this paper seeks to answer the next research question:

RQ1: Which are the main factors that influence the choice and decision-making process of international students wishing to study abroad in Sweden?

Moreover, Lee (2014) included various IS in the study from different countries and distinct programmes but neglected that there might be differences in the decision-making process connected either with the programme of studies or country of origin. At the same time, Chen (2008) tested the data on decisions of IS with connection to level of studies (undergraduate, graduate and research students) and showed that there are differences in the decision-making process of IS connected to it. However, the influence of home countries and specialization were not tested in Chen’s (2008) study. Therefore, the second research question of this paper aims to test other issues that might influence the decisions of IS to study abroad in Sweden and fulfil the existing literature gap:

RQ2: Does the programme specialization or home country influence the choice and decision- making process of international students wishing to study abroad in Sweden?

The study is limited to focus on master’s students only and their decision-making process when choosing to study abroad. This research includes international master’s students from various countries and different fields of studies. Representatives from master’s programmes are taken as a target group since master’s programmes are generally more popular among IS in terms of studying abroad (Morris-Lange, & Brands, 2015). The answer to the stated research questions will be found by conducting a study of one university in Sweden to make a detailed and comprehensive work.

2.0 Theory and Literature Review

2.1 Internationalization of Higher Education

Regarding higher education, Wit and Knight (1999) describe internationalisation as both the concept and the method of integrating a global dimension into the teaching, research and service functions. The authors further explain the development of the same in Europe, by explaining how the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) in 1969 established the Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) as part of one of its divisions dealing with education, the Centre for Educational Research and

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Innovation (CERI). In 1972, IMHE was commissioned to operate independently with the specific aim of one; putting more focus into enhancing professionalism in the management of HE institutions through research, training and information exchange; and two, facilitating a wider dissemination of practical management methods and approaches for member countries.

Varghese (2008) cites cross-border education as the best example of the globalization of HE.

According to Teichler (2017) internationalisation in the Higher Education domain in definition focuses on two main concepts; one, border-crossing, where factors such as physical mobility and knowledge transfer are addressed. Secondly, the authors also liken the term

‘internationalisation’ to ‘diversification’, that is, a direction of change involving specific activities that are geared towards being more international. Internationalisation and globalisation are terms that are sometimes confused or used interchangeably in literature.

Knight (1999) explained the relationship of those two terms as follows; globalisation involves the flow of various factors such as technology, knowledge and or people across borders. It affects countries in different ways due to country-specific traits such as history, culture and priorities. In relation to HE, the author proceeds to define internationalisation as one of the ways in which a country responds to globalisation while still maintaining the individuality of the nation. Similarly, Guo and Chase (2011) state that globalisation has fuelled the internationalisation of HE. Currently, there is a major strategic focus at both state level and within individual universities on internationalisation (Pashby & Andreotti, 2016). This is characterised by various trends and processes that involve “movements of students and staff in and out of Higher Education Institutions; partnership building for collaboration, prestige and capacity building; and various approaches to internationalising curriculum including joint programs, international content, built-in experiences abroad, overseas campuses and the exporting of credentialing” (Pashby & Andreotti, 2016 p.773).

In an exploratory analysis reviewing the research done on internationalisation in higher education, Yemini and Sagie (2016) observed that over the last two decades, the topic of internationalisation has become very significant in the global Higher Education system. The authors also noted that over time, more scholars are increasingly focusing on student mobility as well as multicultural challenges, which are both related to the increasing physical movements of students and the resultant intercultural issues emerging from these movements.

Internationalisation is not only considered from the perspective of the HE institutions but also from a personal level of the students. Wihlborg and Robson (2017) explore some drivers and

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rationales for internationalisation and how different policies and power relationships set the pace at an institutional, programme or even personal level. The authors try to discuss both the positive and negative aspects that may influence the choice of studying abroad. As an example, they cited one issue with mobility is how academic researchers fail to apply the knowledge obtained abroad due to issues like lack of funds or facilities.

In an in-depth review of trends, issues and challenges of internationalisation in HE, de Wit (2011) addresses various concepts such as global competition in HE, institutional networks, IS and immigration, student mobility trends, global citizenship and study abroad.

Due to the developments of internationalisation in HE, Knight (1994) created a generic typology of four approaches that institutions can use as they plan and implement their strategy of internationalising. These include activity: actions used to define internationalisation such as curriculum, international students or faculty exchanges; competency: involves abilities, knowledge and values in students, staff and faculty; ethos: involves fostering an atmosphere within campus that supports international/intercultural projects; process; involves all the activities, guidelines and laws that aim to integrate an international/intercultural facet into all the activities within a HEI.

2.2 Internationalization of Higher Education: Sweden

A key factor in the advancement of internationalisation of HE in universities is the presence of an institutional policy or strategy (Polak et al., 2015). Compared to other regions, studies show that in Europe, a larger proportion of institutions have an internationalisation policy in place (61%) compared to other regions in the world which rank lower than Europe (Polak et al., 2015). Furthermore, many European institutions have an internationalisation policy that draws a distinction between activities happening within the context of regional cooperation (EU and the Bologna Process), and internationalisation on a general level (Polak et al., 2015). The authors further explain that European programmes and approaches to internationalisation of higher education are considered to be important catalysts and facilitators for the internationalisation of HE in Europe and in other places globally. Member States in Europe have each developed their own strategies and policies for internationalisation, building on and seeing beyond the policies stipulated by the European Commission (Polak et al, 2015).

In Europe, the earliest indication of policies or programmes focusing on internationalisation of Higher Education started with ERASMUS (EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the

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Mobility of University Students) (de Wit, 2020). This was part of the European programmes for research and education, particularly in the late 1980s, which were aimed at steering a stronger strategic approach to internationalisation in HE. The programme created a common roadmap for internationalisation in most countries, which was further strengthened by the Bologna Process. Erasmus established a background for the commencement of the Bologna Process and developed systems to make it a reality, such as the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Erasmus was developed out of smaller initiatives that had been presented in Sweden and Germany in the 1970s and a European preliminary programme from the early 1980s (de Wit and Hunter, 2013). Later, the Bologna Process (1999) explored the idea of monitoring the learning outcomes of HE, solely aimed at making European qualifications more transparent and comparable, and hence more competitive. European higher education Institutions strongly draw from the Erasmus model and hence highly value cooperation.

Together, Erasmus and the Bologna Process have become a symbol of successful intra-regional cooperation and mobility within Europe as well as models for more intra-regional cooperation and mobility in other regions all over the world.

Nordic Countries signed an agreement in 1971 regarding cultural co-operation (Norden, 2014), with the explicit aim of increasing the collective effectiveness of the five member states’

investments in education. As a result, the Nordic countries developed close cooperation in higher education, mainly in the field of mutual academic recognition. (de Wit, 2020) explains that the Nordplus mobility programme, organised and funded by the Nordic Council of Ministries and launched in 1988, was evidently inspired by the ERASMUS programme of the European Union (EU). At the time of establishment, its main agenda was to encourage the exchange of students and teachers. It has since expanded since inception, with movement in higher education remaining a central activity, among various sub-programmes. Nordplus has also widened its geographical scope to “contribute to the establishment of a Nordic-Baltic educational region” (Norden, 2014).

Currently, ERASMUS has evolved into Erasmus+, a programme pooling seven existing EU programmes in the areas of education, training, youth, and sport (EU, 2014). ERASMUS and NORDPLUS encouraged mobility of credit through joint exchanges and programmes, further encouraging internationalisation of HE (KYVIK, 2014).

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10 2.3 International students in Sweden

2.3.1 Attraction of international students in Sweden

The introduction of tuition fees in Sweden in 2011 for degree-seeking students from outside the European Union (EU) discouraged prospective students from Ethiopia, Pakistan as well as other key sending countries from applying, however the education for people from the EU remained free (Morris-Lange & Brands, 2015). In response to a downward trend, many Swedish university colleges (högskola) and universities intended to keep up their IS level by recruiting more students from within the EU because most had already reached the government-set ceiling for EU student funding and thus would need to fund every new EU student themselves (ibid). Therefore, some Swedish educational institutions began to seek fee- paying graduate students in North America, Asia, and other regions to enrol in their highly specialized master’s programs taught in English (Morris-Lange & Brands, 2015). Sweden aims to attract international students and it appears to be a central aspect within a broader national strategy for higher education and research in Sweden, the Swedish governmental strategy for IS aims at fostering the internationalization of university colleges and universities in the country (EMN Sweden, 2018).

Possibility of finding a job in a foreign country after studies influences the IS’ decision to come to Sweden (Morris-Lange & Brands, 2015). In Sweden, 27 percent of Higher Education Institutions exchange their data with employment agencies (Arbetsförmedlingen), however only 17 percent collaborate with employment agencies at least once per academic year (ibid).

This collaboration is connected with the goal to assist international students on their way to the Swedish job market (Morris-Lange & Brands, 2015). Some higher education institutions in Sweden work together with local companies to facilitate job-seeking for IS helping them to stay in the country and find relevant placements, however, this does not seem to be a common policy across all universities or university colleges in Sweden (EMN Sweden, 2018). Sweden as a host country is interested in IS because they bring to these local universities financial resources that otherwise would be unavailable for them (Grayson, 2005).

2.3.2 Legal aspects for international students: staying in Sweden

Citizens of countries within the European Union are eligible to work, study and live in Sweden without obtaining any kinds of permits according to the right of residence, therefore they can seek employment for an unlimited period of time as long as they can support themselves financially (“EU citi­zens working, studying or living in Sweden,” 2020). Therefore, IS that

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have EU citizenship don’t have restrictions regarding the length for the job seeking period in Sweden and can start working immediately after finding an employer. Citizens of non-EU countries need to obtain permits issued by the Swedish Migration Agency in order to seek employment in Sweden (“EU citi­zens working, studying or living in Sweden,” 2020).

Moreover, all students of higher education institutions are eligible to work an unlimited number of hours per week as long as they proceed with their studies in Sweden (EMN Sweden, 2018).

Students that hold a residence permit for studies at a university or other higher education institution in Sweden, and who have graduated from their studies, are eligible to get a residence permit to examine the possibilities of starting their own business or to seek employment, this permit was usually granted for six months (EMN Sweden, 2018). However, due to recent changes, the graduates of HE institutions in Sweden and people residing in Sweden for research purposes that have finished their project, are eligible to apply for a 12 months residence permit to seek employment while they are still in Sweden and their previous permit hasn’t ended yet (“Resi­dence permit after studies or rese­arch,” 2020). Moreover, in order to be qualified for such a residence permit for seeking employment, students must have passed all of the courses and have sufficient means to support themselves for the whole period of looking for jobs, the maintenance requirement that they need to show is at least SEK 8,514 per month for applications that are received by the Migration Agency on 1 January 2020 or later and for those who have completed their research, the financial support requirement is SEK 9,700 per month (“Resi­dence permit after studies or rese­arch,” 2020).

2.4 Decision-making process of International Students

2.4.1 Push and Pull Factors

The global design of international movement of education can be expounded by the interaction of push and pull factors, which motivate students to pursue their education abroad (Mazzarol and Soutar, 2002). The authors describe ‘push factors’ as home country aspects that initiate the students’ desire of wanting to study abroad. ‘Pull factors’ on the other hand have to do with the host country, and the features that make them attractive to IS. To further expound on the interaction of the push and pull factors, Lam, Ariffin and Ahmad (2011), explained that first, the student must make the decision of choosing international education over local, a process influenced by ‘push’ factors. Secondly, the authors state that ‘pull’ factors aid in the step of selection of a host country, and the final stage is the actual selection of a host country. Using this background, various researchers and authors have come up with different features that

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constitute the push and pull factors. Lam et al., (2011) list some of the push factors to include;

better career prospects, improvement of language skills, experience of a different culture among others. The authors also list some pull factors to be; host country’s academic reputation, similar cultural and geographical distance from home country, cost of living, tuition fee, programme suitability and so on. Liu, Elston and Zhou (2014) in a study investigating factors influencing Chinese students to study abroad listed push factors to include; lack of enrolment opportunities, availability of sponsorship, improvement on a foreign language, broader perspective of life among others. Subsequently, the authors also found pull factors to include;

teaching quality of the foreign university, future immigration opportunities, university ranking, research fund among others. Eder et al., (2010) sought to identify motivational and constraining factors that influence international students’ decision to study abroad by using the push-pull factors as a conceptual framework. In their outline, they classify ‘push’ factors as personal growth, language and career. They proceed to list ‘pull’ factors as college, physical geography and culture. Finally, the authors include a final classification of ‘structural factors’, which they identify to be visa issues and money.

Push and pull factors are not only used by potential students but also parents. Marketers of education are also encouraged to pay attention to cultural values by observing the push and pull factors that are society-specific in the marketing of their institutions, especially when aiming to recruit students from Confucian societies (Bodycott, 2009). Mazzarol and Soutar (2002) also advise governments and their HEIs to pay attention to the push-pull factors that influence the students’ choice to study abroad. By being aware of the push factors, the authors explain that governments can work on their pull factors in order to attract more international students to the host country.

2.4.2 Conceptual framework, Chen (2008): Factors influencing the decision-making process to study abroad

Chen (2008) created a conceptual framework of IS’ choice analysis and tested the influence of level of studies on the decision-making process of students. Chen (2008) created a conceptual framework in order to analyse how the decision to undertake overseas graduate studies is made by international students. Chen’s (2008) model will be the main foundation adopted for purposes of empirical data collection and analysis for this paper. In the author’s work, three main factors were identified that influence such a decision: 1) factors influencing decision to study abroad; 2) factors influencing choice of the country to study; 3) factors influencing choice

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of an institution. Chen (2008) conducted a study of Canadian HE institutions and created a framework to serve those purposes. Therefore, for this paper, this framework is adopted in order to conduct a study of IS in Sweden and analyse their decision-making process when going to study in a Swedish university, instead of a Canadian university. Each of three factors mentioned before consists of numerous other smaller factors also grouped in categories further mentioned. All components should be evaluated by the students in order to give insights into their motivation while deciding on where to study and why to do it in regard with the decision to do it abroad, in a foreign country and in some specific university.

Factors influencing decision to study abroad consist of three additional categories that are: (1) Student characteristics and motivations; (2) Encouragement from significant others; (3) Factors related to internationalization and globalization. Each of the mentioned categories assort relevant second-level factors together as shown in Appendix 2, Table 1.

2.4.3 Factors influencing choice of the country

In the original model by Chen (2008), the factors influencing choice of Canada are proposed.

Since for this paper Sweden is taken as the country under analysis, the factors are adapted to suit this country. Therefore, a factor such as ‘proximity to the United States’ is withdrawn due its irrelevance and changed to ‘located in the European Union’ for the case of Sweden. The rest of the factors are changed mainly to suit Sweden in the original form. Thus, factors influencing choice of the country to study consist of three additional categories that are: (1) Factors related to characteristics of Sweden; (2) Factors related to characteristics of marketing information;

(3) Factors related to significant others. Each of the mentioned categories assort relevant second-level factors together as shown in Appendix 2, Table 2.

2.4.4 Factors influencing choice of an institution

Factors influencing choice of an institution to study consist of three additional categories that are: (1) Factors associated with internationalization; (2) Factors associated with marketing; (3) Factors related to significant others (Chen, 2008). Each of the mentioned categories assort relevant second-level factors together as shown in Appendix 2, Table 3. The second-level factors are adopted for Sweden accordingly and the irrelevant ones are excluded.

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14 3.0 Methodology

3.1 Choice of Higher Education Institution for analysis

The Higher Education Institution selected for this study was Halmstad University (HU), a university college (högskola) in Sweden. Halmstad University offers scholarships for international non-EU students of master’s level that were included in top 25 scholarships in Sweden, covering from 25% to 50% of tuition fees (“Top 25 Scholarships in Sweden for International Students,” 2019). Moreover, Halmstad University is internationally renowned in general and particularly by having close collaboration with players outside the academy – such as companies, local and regional councils as well as other organizations (“Collaborate with us,”

2020). To establish if HU could be considered as a good example of an international university that recruits and hosts international students from all over the world, an interview with an international office representative was organized to collect relevant facts (number of IS/number of local students enrolled) among other targets of this interview. The summary of the obtained information is presented further in the empirical data.

3.2 Selected methods of data collection

Two instruments for data collection were employed for this paper: an interview (qualitative method) and a questionnaire (quantitative method). Therefore, all the data used in this study is empirical and is collected by the authors. The interview was organised in order to collect data from the university that is unavailable at open sources. The questionnaire was selected as an instrument of data collection since it provided authors with the possibility to obtain large amount of data organised within the set framework.

3.2.1 Interview

First, an interview with the representative of the international student affairs office at Halmstad University was conducted apart from the previously stated reason to get information regarding the recruitment process of international students, target countries, programme promotions, IS’

their country of origin as well as available places for IS, financial issues regarding IS etc. The interview was aimed at giving insights into HU, with regards to factors related to IS attraction and recruitment, as limited information was available in secondary data sources. The interview also helped to substantiate and support the factors selected for the analysis of IS’ decision- making process connected to Halmstad University as a place to study. The interview was held on-line via WhatsApp video call, with a list of main questions sent in advance to the

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international office representative at HU (the list of main questions is available in Appendix 1).

3.2.2 Questionnaire

Secondly, a questionnaire was created based on the framework of Chen (2008) but adapted for Sweden as explained in the literature part. The questions in table form are presented in Appendix 2. The questionnaire was aimed at figuring out the patterns of IS’ decision-making process when deciding to come to study in a Swedish university. The questionnaire tests the influence of three main factors on the decision-making process, those factors are: 1) factors influencing decision to study abroad; 2) factors influencing choice of the country to study; 3) factors influencing choice of an institution. International students are asked to evaluate various components of these factors according to the impact on their decision to study abroad/ in Sweden/ at HU. All the components of each factor were to be evaluated by the IS using the scale from 1 to 5, where 1 = unimportant and 5 = very important (Chen, 2008). All the components of those factors are described in Appendix 2, Tables 1-3. The answers were then tested in connection with the IS’ home countries and programme of studies, as well as, in connection with the importance of each particular factor. The approaches used for analysis are described further. The questionnaire was targeted for IS currently studying at HU at a master’s level, graduates of such programmes and people that just applied awaiting admission or reporting.

For the purpose of this study, international students were defined as non-citizens of Sweden rather than non-domicile, e.g. IS are considered those who do not have Swedish citizenship.

Exchange students were not included as a target group for this study, since the recruitment process, requirements and enrolment process might differ significantly, and the decision- making process of exchange students might be influenced by other factors rather than ones under analysis.

3.3 Formation of groups

For this paper, the IS were divided into those who are studying Technical Sciences (Information Technology, Engineering, Biomedicine, Network Security and other related fields), Social Sciences (Business, Entrepreneurship, Nordic Welfare and other related fields) and the intersection of Technical and Social Sciences (Computer Management, Industrial Management and other related fields). The majority of master programmes at HU can be sorted accordingly,

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thus those that cannot be sorted using these categories were ignored in this study due to the lack of potential participants. The questionnaire was created in an electronic format and distributed via email, social media (such as Facebook, LinkedIn) and messengers (such as WhatsApp). The distribution was made mainly via personal messages to people that posted information regarding their studies at HU or have such information on their social media pages.

This was informed by personal networks of the authors, who are also IS at HU, and hence had access to various participants such as from the International Students Facebook group, Alumni of HU groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, programme specific Facebook groups, class emails etc. The participants’ country of origin could be any country except for Sweden. After the data collection, all the countries (that had responses from IS) were grouped into two categories: 1) Countries the citizens of which do not need visas to come to Sweden (“Free from visa countries”) and attend master’s programme as explained in the literature part, that include countries-members of the European Union, countries-members of the European Economic Area (such as Norway), Switzerland and UK; 2) Countries the citizens of which need visas (“Required visa countries”) that include the rest of the countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, United States etc. Answers of IS were collected through an on-line google questionnaire, afterwards they were analysed using Excel to count averages for various groups and factors under analysis.

3.4 Two approaches used for quantitative data analysis

Two separate approaches were used in this study to answer the both research questions.

3.4.1 First approach for data analysis (related to RQ2)

The first approach aimed to compare the importance of factors in connection to the created groups and determine whether the selection criteria (by specialization - group 1; by country - group 2) influenced the importance of the factors under analysis for IS, as well as what factors create such differences. This approach was used for all three blocks of factors: factors that influence the decision to undertake studies abroad, studies in Sweden and studies at HU (the results are shown in tables 5,6,7 respectively).

For the first approach, the t-test for the 95% confidence interval was used to test mean values for statistically significant differences for the group of countries (required visa/ free from visa), providing the Standard Deviation (SD) for the factors and p value for the group of countries.

Mean values in the current method showed the average evaluation of factors. Statistically

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significant differences indicate the factors that groups of IS in average evaluated distinctly, although for some factors where the difference in evaluation is huge, could be seen even without using the test, for others (where the difference is not so obvious) such tests help to find the gaps in evaluation. Furthermore, the group of specializations (Social/ Technical/

Intersection) consist of three divisions and t-test could not be used (since the t-test according to its nature can only be used to compare two parameters). Therefore, to test mean values for statistically significant differences, the one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the 95%

confidence interval was performed. Both types of tests led to obtaining the p value that signifies statistically significant differences if p<0.05 and statistically insignificant differences if p>0.05. To expound on the meaning and significance of these tests and the p-value, for any analysis of the groups where p is less than 0.05, it means that there exist significant differences, and the different groups evaluated the factors differently. For values where p is greater than 0.05, it means that the differences were not significant or non-existent altogether, and the groups evaluated the factors in an almost similar way. Moreover, for the group of specializations, additional Tukey's test was conducted, only for those factors that showed p<0.05 (signifying statistically significant differences among three specializations) in order to find out which pair/pairs of specializations created such differences. Results of this additional Tukey's test are shown in table 11 (see Appendix 3). In order to differentiate all the p values that are counted, next designations are used: “p2”- p value for group 2; “p1”-p value for group 1; “p ss/ts” – p value for the pair of Social Sciences with Technical Sciences; “p ss/its” - p value for the pair of Social Sciences with Intersection of Social and Technical Sciences; “p ts/its” – p value for the pair of Technical Sciences with Intersection of Social and Technical Sciences.

3.4.2 Second approach for data analysis (related to RQ1)

The second approach aimed to figure out the most important factors for the “Overall” group (the group that consists of all the collected answers) and figure out the mean value and SD of the obtained data. Afterwards, the factors under analysis were ranked according to the importance and sorted from those with highest average evaluations to the lowest average evaluations (results are presented in tables 8, 9, 10). The first five factors connected to studies abroad (table 8), studies in Sweden (table 9) and studies at HU (table 10) that accounted for highest averages are considered the most important ones.

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For this section, all the empirical findings are presented. Those findings include: 1) An interview with the International Coordinator, representing Halmstad University in matters relating to IS recruitment, support and related factors; 2) Results of the data collection and data sorting of the information received from IS at Halmstad University through the online questionnaire.

4.1 Interview with the representative of Halmstad University

Summary of Interview with Kalyani Pillalamarri, International coordinator at Halmstad University.

Kalyani is the International Coordinator at the international department of Halmstad University. Her responsibilities include recruiting new students, promotion and marketing of different master programmes at HU, support of international students during all the stages:

before, during and after the education at HU, as well as international relations like organising exchange studies. The interview was conducted on the 16th of March of 2020. Below is a summary of main ideas relevant to this study discussed during the interview:

Currently, there are approximately 350 master students at Halmstad University pursuing their degree, 300 of which are international students. Of these 300, around 50-60 are from the EU, the rest are from non-EU countries and usually pay tuition fees unless they have scholarships.

HU usually offers 30 scholarships a year that cover from 25% to 50% of tuition fees per semester. These scholarships are mainly given in Autumn from the beginning of the studies;

however, they could be awarded from spring in case there are leftover funds. On average, around 60% of the students finish their studies at master level every year, the rest do not.

Among the reasons for quitting, some students start working and do not proceed with their studies. Students from the EU tend to finish their studies, some IS have problems getting into the Swedish system and some non-EU students experience problems with residence permits.

To recruit IS HU uses the following approaches: promotion through international fairs on-line (like webinars) and physical fairs (mainly in Asian Countries), post information on the EU search portal for EU students and work with various social media (Facebook, LinkedIn) to promote master programmes at HU. Each master programme is promoted separately since each one has a point of difference; for example, some have close collaboration with companies like Volvo. The recruiting process usually starts with realizing which country they want to target

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for the particular year and after defining that, they start exploring the available methods of recruiting in a certain country. They tend to change such target countries from year to year. In terms of recruiting, HU doesn’t have any limits regulated or advised by the government, however, the number of places depends on the availability of supervisors for master theses.

Usually, one teaching person takes not more than three projects to supervise them, some students write in pairs. Thus, from this correlation, they can establish what should be the limit of students who could be recruited for a master programme.

Between 2014 to 2019, 51% of graduates managed to have good jobs in quality companies in Sweden, in their home countries and in other countries. The majority of IS are not interested in academic research since they want their job experience to be easily applicable to their home countries, however, there are around 5%-10% that consider research opportunities. Increasing the employability of IS is one of the aims of master programs at HU. The university has different programs that aim to support IS in general and when making a job transition such as Student Experience and Employability Program (SEEP), career advice and special events.

International students are very important for Halmstad University as they bring various resources with them like knowledge, experience, diversity and financial resources. It is clear that mixed groups have more ideas, rather than groups of people from one country. IS nearly every year develop new business ideas in the incubator of HU and make start-ups. Therefore, HU is interested in attracting IS from different countries because they bring resources that otherwise would be unavailable for the university. Moreover, IS brings a lot of sustainable ideas, when people from different societies and backgrounds work together, they bring a lot of value. IS at Halmstad University can gain knowledge that will influence their future job and life choices anywhere, thus such students along with bringing knowledge and experience, also obtain new knowledge and experience from their classmates and the university.

The job opportunities in the local market depend on the specialization of a student. Commonly, it is easier to find internships and entry-level positions for engineering, information technology and other related specializations due to active collaboration of HU with industries in such programmes. For example, they are collaborating with companies like Volvo and Scania. Since HU is a Higher Education organization, the first priority is to support students in education and the second priority is to provide them support in job-related issues. IS usually need time to adapt; they need to understand the business environment in the country as well as culture and the university through the international office is helping them to do it. Students need to adapt

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to both teaching techniques and industry requirements. In order for IS to be successful in the local Swedish market, they usually need to learn the local language and understand the requirements of industries. The international office is willing to provide support to the students, but the IS should take the initiative by contacting the companies, for example, and then asking the office for a recommendation. The idea of making support-programs such as SEEP came out as a request from students. The SEEP program has been ongoing for two years now; it includes teaching IS the local language and other job-related development for the participants (Curriculum Vitae, Motivational Letter writing, etc.). HU aims to adjust the support-programs to the needs of IS and the ideas of new projects tend to come as a response to some existing problems of IS.

In terms of collaboration with the government, HU works with the Migration Office and the Tax Agency (Skatteverket) especially when planning to attract students from countries outside the EU, for example Taiwan. These governmental institutions help HU to understand the requirements and regulations that will be applied to such students. Therefore, HU collaborates with governmental institutions when planning to recruit IS. Moreover, in order to enter HU, all the students must apply through the University Admissions in Sweden regulated by the Swedish Government and comply first with all their requirements and then with HU’s specific requirements if there are some.

4.2 Results collected through the questionnaire for IS

The results were obtained from a total of 126 respondents to the questionnaire from 39 different countries; Algeria (1), Argentina (1), Austria (1), Bangladesh (14), Belarus (2), Belgium (2), Bulgaria (1), Cameroon (1), China (1), Croatia (1), Finland (2), France (3), Germany (5), Greece (1), India (38), Indonesia (1), Iran (6), Iraq (1), Jordan (1), Kenya (1), Mexico (3), Netherlands (7), Nigeria (2), North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia) (1), Oman (1), Pakistan (8), Palestine (1), Romania (1), Russia (3), South Africa (1), Switzerland (1), Syria (3), Tanzania (1), Turkey (2), United Arab Emirates (UAE) (1), United Kingdom (UK) (1), United States of America (USA) (1), Vietnam (3), Zimbabwe (1). All the respondents were either current or already graduated master’s students from Halmstad University. The collected responses were sorted into six groups. First “Overall” group includes all answers of 126 people, the two other groups are based on the selection criteria by country as explained in the methodology of “Required visa countries” and “Free from visa countries”. Moreover, the three other groups of responses are sorted according to the selection criteria based on specialization

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of the master’s programme, e.g. sorted only by specialization no matter the home country of IS.

Therefore, the “Social Sciences” (42 people) “Technical Sciences” (67 people) and

“Intersection of Social and Technical Sciences” (17 people) group include all the people that stated each of the specializations accordingly in the questionnaire. The “Required visa countries” (100 people) group include people that stated as home countries the next ones:

Turkey, Iran, Cameroon, Vietnam, Nigeria, Syria, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Palestine, Iraq, Oman, Turkey, Tanzania, Algeria, Zimbabwe, United States of America (USA), Indonesia, Mexico, Belarus, Vietnam, South Africa, Argentina, China, Belarus, North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia), Jordan, Russia, Pakistan, Kenya, Bangladesh, India. The group of “Free from visa countries” (26 people) includes the next home counties of IS:

Germany, Netherlands, Croatia, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania, France, Switzerland, Finland, United Kingdom (UK). All the answers from the survey are presented in three groups: the overall group, in one of the country-based selection and in one of the specialization-based selection according to the collected data. The proportion of participants from “Required visa countries” (100 people) and “Free from visa countries” (26 people) is consistent in terms of enrolment of students at HU, since according to the interview previously presented in the empirical data: the number of students from the counties that require visa is several times higher compared to those that do not need visa.

Out of the total number of participants, 37 were Female and 89 Male, the percentages are shown below in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Gender of participants from Halmstad University in the questionnaire in %.

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Out of the total number of participants, 15 people were between the ages of 19-24, 78 people between ages 25-30, 20 people between ages 31-36 and 13 people were above 36 years of age.

The percentages of age groups are shown below in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Age of participants from Halmstad University in the questionnaire in %.

The survey aimed to include people waiting for the results of admissions at Halmstad University or waiting to join HU for the upcoming semester. However, no answers were received from them. Thus, only current students and graduates are presented in the data collection, from which current students are 56 and graduated from HU account for 70 people, the percentages of stated groups are shown below in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Current relationship of participants with Halmstad University in %.

The master’s programmes at Halmstad University are divided into three main types of specializations as explained in the methodology. The answers in the questionnaire account for

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42 people that identify their specialization as Social Sciences, 67 people that identify their specialization as Technical Sciences and 17 people that consider their programmes to be in the Intersection of Social and Technical Sciences. The percentages of stated groups are shown below in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Specialization of the survey participants from Halmstad University in %.

5.0 Analysis

In this part, data analysis is conducted first by giving a general overview of responses, presented in a table created after sorting the data on excel. This is a general highlight of percentages of the responses based on the Likert scale. After that, further analysis is done via the two approaches described previously in the methodology part, to give statistical proof and further interpretation of the results, based on the different groups (home country – required visa/free from visa and specialisation – social sciences/technical sciences/intersection of social and technical sciences).

5.1 Overview and general analysis of obtained data

After sorting the responses in order of most important to unimportant, the factors that majority of the students considered as most important for studying abroad included: personal satisfaction, foreign language skills, prospect of better employment and higher salary after studies and improvement of job prospects. Our findings were consistent with Chen’s (2008) findings, which also found that graduate students ranked personal motivation as the most important driver of their decision to study abroad. From the table below, it is important to note that encouragement from significant others was ranked as unimportant by most of the respondents. Similarly, Chen (2008) also observed that graduate students did not consider

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motivation from significant others as relevant. To give context to our findings in parallel comparison with Chen’s (2008), his respondents comprised of both graduate and undergraduate students, the latter whose decision-making process was highly influenced by family.

Concerning the factors that were considered as most important for choosing Sweden in the decision-making process, Sweden’s quality of life and health of environment, perception of Sweden as a safe place to study and location in the European Union were the most important.

Factors related to marketing information and influence of significant others did not seem to be crucial in the decision-making process. Our findings were consistent with Chen (2008) findings from graduate students enrolled in research programs, where factors about the characteristics of Canada were considered more important than factors related to marketing or influence by significant others. However, the author’s findings on graduate students enrolled in professional programmes showed that they ranked factors related to marketing information such as lower cost of tuition and living expenses, to be of more importance than factors related to characteristics of Canada. Given that our study focused on only one group of students, master’s students, such differences could not be analysed. However, in the next section of identifying statistically significant differences based on the groupings we created (home country and specialisation), can shed more light on how different students asses similar factors.

When it comes to factors of choice of institution, the most important factors of choosing Halmstad University were programme requirements, quality of the programme and lack of discrimination at the university. Our findings were almost consistent with Chen’s (2008), except for the fact that the original work of Chen showed that university quality and reputation was ranked higher than programmes quality and reputation; whereas for this paper programme quality and reputation were considered as most important compared to university quality and reputation.

The table below gives an overview of how all the respondents ranked all the questions, form

‘most important’ to ‘unimportant’. The percentages marked in yellow highlight which factors were considered the most important for each of the three categories.

References

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