The Expectations of International Students in Eastern Mediterranean University: A Study of Higher Education Destination Choice

Quite a lot of students decide to study abroad, seeking educational opportunities in a country other than their home country. The purpose of this study is to investigate the push and pull factors that influence students‟ decision of studying abroad. Hence, 8 Push and 23 Pull factors have been considered as significant variables inflecting international students‟ decision to study abroad. These push and pull factors were analyzed using statistical procedures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test by comparing student‟s opinion who have selected Eastern Mediterranean University as their destination university. From the population of international students who were studying at EMU and through stratified sampling method, 120 international students were selected. Seven hypotheses were developed and based on the sample, the international students were divided into Turkish and Non-Turkish groups. Results show that among different push factors for Non-Turkish students studying at EMU, the perception that: “Overseas education is better than local”, “understanding of another culture”, and “Personal issues” (mentioned as “Other” in the questionnaire) were reported as the three most important push factors. Similarly, for Turkish students, the perception that: “Difficulty to enter home university”, “limited scholarship opportunities at home universities” and “Overseas education is better than the local” were the three most important push factors. The results also indicate that the push factor: “personal issues (Others)” was considered by the participants as the most important push factor of all the push factors included in this study. Keywords: Higher education, EMU, Push factors, Pull factors, Study abroad, international students, higher education destination choice, one way ANOVA, independent sample t-test.