Motivations of UK students to study abroad: a survey of school-leavers

Abstract

This paper examines the attitudes and plans of Year 13 (final-year secondary school or ‘upper sixth form’) pupils towards studying at university abroad. Our main empirical base is a questionnaire survey of more than 1400 Year 13 pupils in a stratified sample of schools and sixth-form colleges, both state and independent sector, in two parts of England (Brighton and Sussex, and Leicester and Leicestershire). In addition, 15 face-to-face interviews were taken with teachers and HE advisers in the schools surveyed, and follow-up telephone interviews were made with 20 pupils from the questionnaire survey. The objectives of the research were, firstly, to discover the proportions of school-leavers who are applying to study at a non-UK university, or who had considered doing so but not actually gone ahead with the application, and which countries and universities they were attracted to. Against this orientation to (think about) studying abroad as the key dependent variable, the paper analyses several independent variables, based on quantitative data drawn from the questionnaire results and informed by insights from the qualitative interviews. These include pupils’ academic profile, type of school, gender and ethnic heritage, parental socio-economic class, and family and personal links (prior residence abroad, travel experiences, friends or relatives who had studied abroad etc.). Results show that students applying abroad, or who considered this option, are academic high-achievers and high-aspirers, more likely to come from independent schools, have parents who are in the higher socio-occupational classes (managers, directors, professionals, teachers etc.) and who are themselves graduates, and have family links and extensive travel experience abroad. Females are slightly more likely to consider the study-abroad option. The relationship with ethnicity is not clear, except that foreign-domiciled non-UK nationals have a greater propensity to apply to non-UK universities, as do UK-nationals studying at international schools. Overall, however, and for all groups surveyed and interviewed, the study-abroad strategy appears to be supplementary to the dominance of what are widely perceived as the best UK universities, above all Oxford, Cambridge, and the other Russell Group research-intensive universities.