A KÜLHONI EGYETEMISTÁK MOTIVÁCIÓJÁNAK VIZSGÁLATA AZ EGYETEMVÁLASZTÁS KAPCSÁN EXAMINATION OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE CHOICE OF UNIVERSITY MADE BY ETHNIC HUNGARIAN STUDENTS LIVING OUTSIDE HUNGARY

Abstract

In our study, we examine the choice of university made by ethnic Hungarian students living outside Hungary. Based on our analysis of current literature, we are aiming to find the factors that had the most influence on J. Selye University (the only Hungarian higher education institution in Slovakia) students’ staying in their homeland. We have chosen written questionnaire as our research method for the empirical study because it is very suitable for the purpose of the assessment of the opinions, habits and attitudes of individuals or groups. Our questionnaire was completed by 274 people, which is 15,82% of the total student population. We were careful to make sure that at least 10% of students participate for each individual faculty.

We would like to emphasise the three most valued motivational factors when it comes to choosing a university: these are the possibility to study in one’s native language, the chance of successful graduation and the geographical proximity of the university. On the other hand, it was found that the choice of the students was not influenced by their high school academic results, they are not overly concerned about the choice of university of their friends/acquaintances, and the level of their Slovak language skills does not influence them either. The latter figure needs to be interpreted with restraint, though, because the highest degree of variance that has been observed is for this question (we got a value of 3.27 on a ten-point interval scale).