Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 10 | Page 60

60 | JADE
ARTICLE #4 | 61
TIANTIAN LIU, KEITH WALLEY,
PAUL ADKINS, GEOFF PUGH, SANDRA TURNER, & FENG TAN
problem-solving skills are an important personal quality, which will
improve productivity and give a competitive edge in the job market.
The findings of this study also concur with Anderson’s (2007)
research on study abroad choice, expectations and experiences,
which suggests that educational achievement, social environment,
personal growth, cultural exposure and language development are
what students expect when studying abroad. In particular, students
deciding to study abroad largely expect to improve their career
prospects. Consequently, university administrators should not
forget that students expect TNE programmes to improve their job
prospects and so it is important to both the students and the future
success of TNE programmes themselves that these student priorities
are included within the design of such programmes.
Conclusion
The fact that this study was based on just one TNE programme
operated by a UK university and a Chinese partner means that the
findings cannot be generalized to all TNE programmes. However,
the TNE programme at the centre of this study is not untypical,
especially in terms of undergraduate TNE programmes with Chinese
partners, and so the findings do appear useful.
The goal of this study was to explore Chinese students’ motivations
and expectations of study abroad. The respondents in this study
expressed clear expectations regarding personal development with
respect to educational, social, and professional matters as well as
a desire to better understand culture. The findings from this study
also suggest that students prioritize factors with cross-cultural
experience the most important factor and destination country the
least important factor.
These findings have clear implications for UK HE institutions. It is
readily apparent that universities do need to understand international
students’ motivations and expectations. This is imperative if they
are to design, promote and manage effective TNE programmes
that will deliver genuine value to the students. Learning outcomes
should concentrate on personal development and gaining advanced
knowledge and skills and promotion of the TNE programmes should
also focus on these factors.
While these findings clearly confirm that non-academic factors are
very important motivators for study abroad, the fact that quality
of education and institutional reputation are lower in the list is
somewhat unexpected given the efforts that UK universities put
into promoting these factors and the actual recruitment of overseas
students. While the discrepancy might be explained in terms of
quality of education and institutional reputation being promoted to
MOTIVATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS OF STUDY ABROAD:
EVIDENCE FROM A STUDY OF CHINESE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ON A
HIGHER EDUCATION TRANS-NATIONAL EDUCATION (TNE) PROGRAMME
a different audience (e.g. other Vice Chancellors or researchers) or
possibly that these factors will mean more to students when they
become alumni, there is also the possibility that their importance is
underestimated because of the communicative research techniques
used in this study, Subsequently, it would seem appropriate that
further research be undertaken into students’ motivations and
expectations regarding study abroad and that these studies use
a different methodology to that used here as well as embracing a
larger sample of TNE programmes.
Acknowledgement
The author gratefully acknowledges the help provided by the
students registered on the TNE course delivered jointly by Harper
Adams University (HAU) and Beijing University of Agriculture (BUA)
who gave up their time to take part in the survey underpinning this
paper.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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