Background

Discuss about the Influence of Motivational and Personality Factors.

Creating the global citizen who are culturally sensitive has shifted from the high ranks. Studying abroad overseas has been deemed by many individuals to be an important collegiate vehicle that create the global citizens (Awad, 2014). Studying overseas has been found in some studies to have a positive impact to the student cultural learning as well as personal development. Nonetheless, there is only one percent of the total college student population who has studied in overseas. Making on assumption that the entire student who study overseas return with an increased in the learning as well as personal development is problematic (Bryman, 2015). Not only is the study on the effect on the effect of study overseas limited, but there are some studies which have discovered that there vs a positive effect to the cultural learning and the development. The goals and the motives which the students have for studying overseas generally mediate on the cultural learning which they gain from the experience (Awad, 2014). This is much the possible explanation when it comes to the inconsistent to the finding in the cultural learning especially when studying overseas, of which has been studied. The most overlooked areas of the research, within the study overseas experience, is the  qualitative approach in order to understand on the cultural learning, the meaning which the students assign to their own experience and the transformational learning  which occurs due to studying overseas (Bryman, 2015).  The purpose of this research study is to determine the motives for university students to travel overseas, using the qualitative approach.

This research study aims at examining the motives for university students to travel overseas (Bryman, 2015). The research would seeks to close any gaps in the knowledge base and offer a qualitative approach to the understanding the motive what the university students had when they traveled to study in oversea organization (Bryman, 2015). A qualitative approach is essential since it could address on the limitation of the quantitative research through providing an holistic understanding to the study overseas experience. The finding could offer an insight towards the enhancement of the pre departure orientations to becoming more intentional especially when promoting the cultural learning while oversea and to obtain the desired outcomes along with the goals the study overseas experiences (Bryman, 2015). Moreover, the finding could offer some insights to the designing of the pre-departure orientations in order to offer education in regards to and prevention any possible increase in risky behavior while at the overseas.  

• What are motives of why male university student travel overseas?
• What are motives of why female university student travel overseas?
• What are differences between male and female university student travel overseas?
• What are similarities between male and female university student travel overseas?

Methodology

For the last decade, the researchers have looked into students’ motives to travel overseas and preference for the study destination in regards to the push and the pull aspects (Harwood & Petri?, 2016). The push factors are referred to as the elements which function within the home country and also initiate the decision of the student to going through international study from their very own country; there may be lack of usage of the home universities and the poor quality of the education particularly in their home country (Bryman, 2015). On the other element that is the pull it involves aspect in the host country or even the institution which attract the students for example the interesting culture , the living standards , together with the social economic status of the host nation , enhancing on ones career prospects together with the immigration possibilities (Buesing , 2004). A number of other studies that are not employing the push and the pull design; they have managed to determine numerous factors that could motivate the students to pursue on their education in overseas (Li, Olson & Frieze, 2013). These might entail the encouragement from the family, viewpoint on the poor quality of the education in the home country, merits of the international encounters, safety and cultural proximity and the prospects of immigrants (Buesing , 2004). The response to different literatures have shown that the students are motivated to study overseas by numerous aspects in regards to the personal perception , push factors to the home nations as well as the pull factors of the host nation.

This research on the topic will be studied through the use of the qualitative method, strengths of the method would be identified and a description of the analysis which will be carried out.

By answering on these questions which are highlighted above, this report would utilize qualitative research as the method (Harwood & Petri?, 2016). Additionally, it would cover three levels of coding which are the open coding, selective ad the axial coding.

The data from the qualitative studies usually describes on the qualities or the characteristic of something. It is not possible to reduce on these descriptions to the number, but one can achieve through the encoding on the process (Travers, Morisano & Locke, 2015). The method comprises of the standardization of the collection of the data which allows the statistical comparison. The method requires the flexibility which allows one to respond to the data of the users as it emerge during a given session.

Data Analysis

When one has enough time and the budget, it is possible to engage to an activity which is regarded as the behavioral coding and this entails assigning of the numeric identifiers to the qualitative behavior (Harwood & Petri?, 2016).

The use of the qualitative approach is that it attempts to avoid the pre-judgment and at the same time tries to represent on the subjects based on the perspective to enable the leaders could read the reviews (Wu, 2014).

It is the processes of analyzing the textual content which entails labeling concepts, defining as well as developing categories which are dependent on their properties and dimensions. It is more often utilized to analyze qualitative data (Harwood & Petri?, 2016).

This entails the disaggregation of the primary themes in the qualitative data testing. With regards to the grounded theory it is the method of relating the codes to one another via combination of the inductive and deductive thinking (Lindlof & Taylor, 2017).

Selective is the approach to deciding on the core category-which is the central problem and systematically in relation to the other categories (Harwood & Petri?, 2016). In this research during the process of comparing, the data was compared constantly to each other to enable emergence of common themes.

 The analysis of the data is done through content analysis. The data is analysed in order to determine the factors and the motives which makes the student study overseas. The data is analysed to determine on these aspects which are then organized to the common and the relevant categories (Harwood & Petri?, 2016). Once the initial coding has been carried out, the categories are then collapsed into broad themes. The frequency and the rank of each of these themes were determined and a direct quote was utilized in order to help illustrate on these themes.

Content analysis was utilized to determine on the male students motives for studying overseas. Travel was the theme which emerged from the data research. Individuals in most of the time go to the oversea to study and fulfil on their dreams, and at the same time learn about cultural aspect to that particular country (Luo & Jamieson-Drake, 2015). Moreover, individuals have passion such as art, or perhaps learning a new language. Moreover, many loves to travel in order to meet new people, or it could have been part of their dreams for many years thus; they want to travel to fulfil part of this dream. Another motive factor is that migrant personality. Individuals that are highly mobile are thought to have migrant personality. This kind of the personality has been regarded as mobicentric (Wu, Garza & Guzman, 2015). The individuals who are migrant personality are believed to be predisposed to migrate, rather than being extreme form through emigrating from one area to another (Silverman, 2015).

Differences in Motives between Male and Female Students

The content analysis was used to highlight what motive factors which prompt the students to travel to overseas (Nachatar, Schapper & Jack, 2014). They data showed that the students motives was due to various elements such as represent the international and supportive environment, cost issues, and the outcome and the benefits. On the internal and supportive environment aspect indicates that the tudents were tremendously concerned in relation to the location of the institution which they would be researching and presence of the other students (Nachatar, Schapper & Jack, 2014). Depending on the research it shows that it was because the students, aside from their formal study, they desired to enjoy their life , at the same time develop on the networks in order to train themselves with the skills that were crucial to their future career in the international labour market ( Nachatar , Schapper & Jack , 2014 ) . Another motive factor that could have impacted the female to study overseas is neophilia ( Loberg , 2012 ) . This is thought to be the appreciation for and the desire to have a new experience or love of a new place. The data found out individuals who scored high on the neophilia were more ready to accept on the personal and social change. Moreover, these individuals were found to have a lot more unorthodox tastes so they were more ready to take the risks in order to gain new encounters (Lillyman & Bennett, 2014). Other motive factor was to see the famous sites and landmarks. Additionally, it was to take classes in a new setting unlike the home country (Saldaña, 2015).

There are numerous differences which exist between male and female to travel overseas. The male go to overseas to fulfil on their dreams and at the same time learn about the cultural aspects of the host country (Lillyman & Bennett, 2014). Some travel as a result of the passion such as the art or learning new languages. There are some who like to travel to meet new people and others due to the aspect of personality migrant. On the other hand, female students is due to the element of neophilia, gain new experiences, others was due to different element for example is to represent international and supportive environment (Lillyman & Bennett, 2014). Others were due to the costs issues and benefits in the host country were cheaper than their own country.

Similarities have existed between the male and female university students to travel overseas. One of the motive factor which is common is that they all want to travel to host country and fulfil their dreams through the education they would get (Bohman & Borglin, 2014). Another similarity to travel to the overseas is to gain on the awareness about the different country as well as culture. Additionally, they also wanted to travel because of the sense of adventure and excitement (Bohman & Borglin, 2014). Another similarity between male and the female university student traveling overseas is to enable them get away from the responsibilities along with the worries of the work, family or even friends.

From the research it has been found that there are numerous factors which motivate the students to travel overseas.  These factors include languages, culture, climate and personal experience. Traveling oversea gives one the opportunity to be exposed to the numerous different experiences which could impact on the rest of the life of the students. Some of the students are motivated to the extent which they end up changing their major or even path of the careers due to the new things which they get to learn from being overseas. There have been several factors which could serve as influencers and they could draw similarities between the male and the female students.

One of the similar factors is to gain experience in another country. The students wanted to feel the experience of living in another country which made them to be more excited since they would get to experience another culture and interact with individuals in that country. It was also found that students seemed to be motivated to travel to overseas because of particular pull factors for example improving on the likelihood of the employment internationally, enhancement of the foreign language competences and international experience. There are also a number of the demographic elements such as the genders, age groups, and the levels of the education to pursue made a different when it came to the choice of the host county and the institution they would study.

With these finding, it is recommended that the university students who are traveling overseas to take into account to these kind of the demographic factors to offer them a relevant information which would assist them to make decisions that are more informed. This not only helps them to choose the institution which are suited on their needs, but would also help them select the host country for travel which would provide them with the best experience.

References

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Lindlof, T. R., & Taylor, B. C. (2017). Qualitative communication research methods. Sage publications.

Loberg, L. (2012). Exploring factors that lead to participation in study abroad. University of  California, Los Angeles.

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Wu, Q. (2014). Motivations and decision-making processes of mainland Chinese students for undertaking master’s programs abroad. Journal of Studies in International Education,      18(5), 426-444.