Spatial direction of barriers to international student mobility at the University of Miskolc

Abstract

Hungary joined the Erasmus program in 1998, and, by 2012, its share of outgoing students reached the European mean. Since then, however, this number declined and, starting from 2014, the country could not meet the financial quota allocated for sending students abroad. This trend, furthermore, affected Hungarian institutions differently and is especially conspicuous at the University of Miskolc. This study aims to uncover causes of declining interest, to identify mobility barriers and to give suggestions to overcome them.

The study is based on a questionnaire conducted in February 2016 on all students enrolled at the University of Miskolc. A total of 225 answers were recorded, and follow-up interviews were made based on the preliminary results. In the second phase, we interviewed 15 students and 5 teaching staff members. While the raw data may suggest that there are considerable differences between answers from different departments, binomial logistic regression analysis points to other factors: students’ familiarity with the Erasmus programme and the staff responsible for it; international experience; foreign language skills; fear from the credit transfer mechanism; study level.

We argue that the university might be able to improve on most of the critical factors by adopting a proper strategy. Better communication and involvement could familiarize students with Erasmus opportunities; improvements of services could help overcoming language deficiencies and credit transfer problems, and foreign study trips and international summer schools could provide them an important international experience. These suggestions would be easy to implement, however, currently they are hindered by universities’ lack of financial resources.

Although the study was conducted at the University of Miskolc, our result can be useful for all Hungarian stakeholders.