Challenges of Hungarian Higher Education Institutes in Meeting International Student Needs (original) (raw)

2018, Dimension, Diversity and Directions in ELT

Multinational companies expect their employees to successfully cooperate with colleagues of different nationalities. HEIs should support their students to be prepared to meet these requirements. According to Nedulcu and Ulrich, „...studying abroad is an academic, intellectual, cultural, and emotional journey...” (2014: 91). International study programs give students better opportunities both in their higher education studies as well as on the labour market. As a consequence, the number of international students is sharply increasing. Studying abroad has both advantages and disadvantages for students. HEIs should support foreign students to integrate and overcome culture shock. The research was carried out at the University of Dunaújváros, Hungary from November 2015 to March 2016, both with quantitative and qualitative methods: with a self-administered questionnaire and a semi-structured focus-group interview. The results show what students’ priorities are to study abroad, their evaluation of both the program and the host institute, and what competences they have acquired. Except for the advantage of taking a foreign degree, many students decided to study abroad because they wanted to know a foreign culture. Besides the high professional knowledge of teachers, students evaluate teachers’ friendly attitude, but there are some aspects which must be improved, such as professors’ English knowledge. After the first funny or a bit shocking experience, many students get used to living in Hungary, but they still mentioned some elements that should be developed. International study programs give students better opportunities in their higher education studies and on the labour market. The results of the research, which was carried out at the University of Dunaújváros, show what students’ priorities are to study abroad, and their evaluation of both the program and the host institute.