Motivators and Influences on Norwegian Students Studying Abroad: An exploratory study on the motivations behind Norwegian students’ decision to study abroad on shorter sojourns.

Internationalization has become a priority for many governments, institutions, and organizations. The drive to increase partnerships and build an internationally educated society has been on the Norwegian government’s agenda with prominence for at least 10 years (St. meld. 14, 2009). One way to help accomplish these goals is to increase participation within the study abroad sector. Sending Norwegian students abroad helps to create international partnerships and upon their return, contributes to the internationally educated society. The literature regarding Norwegian students that decide to study abroad tends to group all of the students together, regardless of the amount of time spent abroad. This study aims to explore the motivations and influences exerted on students that are studying abroad for a year or less, as opposed to those that study abroad for a whole degree program. This time frame was used to differentiate between students seeking credit mobility and those that are seeking degree mobility, in aims of understanding a specific subset of international students. This study was created by using the 2017 report entitled ‘Norske gradsstudenter I utlandet: Hvorfor reiser de ut, og hvor søker de informasjon?’ as a backdrop to what is currently understood about internationally mobile Norwegian students regarding their decision to study abroad and their choice of country (Hovdhaugen & Wiers-Jenssen). Building upon the 2017 report, with additions from the Association for Norwegian Students Abroad focus group, this study used quantitative methods to understand the influences and motivations felt by those students on a shorter sojourn abroad. Using push and pull rationales concerning student migration and supplementary background information, a theoretical framework was created and univariate and bivariate analysis was used to understand the results from the online questionnaire (Caruso & de Wit, 2015; Mazzarol & Soutar, 2002; Brooks & Waters, 2011). The results showed that this particular group of students find cultural and social motivations the most influential in their decision to study abroad, with the desire for adventure being overwhelmingly influential. When it came to choosing a country to study in, the results were mixed. Surprisingly, educational factors were ranked quite high however, within this decision there was less of a trend and the rationales were mixed, arguing that the decision regarding where to study may have more of a combination of factors as opposed to the initial decision to study abroad. The results also show that these students felt that the same motivations were influential when comparing to the Norwegian graduate students however, their influences on where to study differ. Ultimately, as this study was exploratory in nature, the results can be valuable for those aiming in attracting students for shorter sojourns abroad and those that was to increase satisfaction by understanding the motivations of their students