Abstract
This article summarizes a vast literature tracing the plethora of motivations of international students to study abroad. We detail the push factors (i.e., personal goals) and pull factors (i.e., attracting elements) for this decision to pursue higher education overseas. To elaborate, the push factors are around the attainment and/or increase of three main capitals: human, financial and psychological. Pull factors are around the attracting capacity of three main entities: the destination country, the hosting city and the academic institution. Furthermore, the paper highlights the conditions that may enhance or inhibit student mobility for higher education abroad (for example, social networks, transportation accessibility, legal requirements and more). Special reference is given to the mobility of international students in the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 25403-25416 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Current Psychology |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 29 |
| Early online date | 23 Aug 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2023 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Funding
We would like to express our profound gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful comments which considerably contributed to improving the quality of this paper.
Keywords
- COVID-19
- Higher education
- International students
- Motivation
- Push–pull model
- Student mobility
