Factors Influencing Students' Decision to Study Abroad: A Literature Review

Literature Review
The term lifestyle has its origin in sociology. The term basically signifies the factors of
character like subjects of interest, opinion regarding a matter, the general behaviour of a
person etc. This can be of an individual of a group of people. The lifestyle is strongly
impacted by the culture of the person as stated by Bodycott (2009). The experiences of a
person while growing up contribute significantly in the formation of lifestyle. These factors
involve the socio economic standards, the professions of the parents and as mentioned before
the culture of the family.
There are a large number of students that travel abroad to study each year. Some statistics
suggests that there are 3.7 million international students in the academic year 2008-09 (Li et
al. 2013). This statistics has been increasing at a rate of 12 per cent each year. The increase
has been significant from the earlier times. In the year 1975 a mere 0.8 million students have
travelled abroad which has increased about four times and is increasing at almost an
exponential rate (McKeown 2009). The popular student destinations according to studies by
Kim et al. (2007) are USA, UK, China, India and South Korea respectively.
One of the key personality factors that seems to influence their decision regarding studying
abroad is the motivation of achievement. The students who tend to choose a program abroad
are more likely to be people with higher self confidence (Pampaloni 2010). It has been
observed that the students that are more involved in their high school career and has been
very brave in opting for courses that are difficult to master has been the students who have
opted for studying abroad. Another key aspect of the behaviour of these students is the fact
that they are highly restless in character (Yang 2007). This forces them to leave a place where
the regularity becomes mechanical for them. A study conducted among 400 U.S students
have suggested that the students with high achievement motivation tend to show an
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inclination to travel abroad in comparison to those that are less achievement motivated in
nature (Pope et al. 2014).
Another personality characteristic that has been held responsible for travelling abroad
experience involves neophilia. This particular term represents the desire to experience
something new (Elena 2015). There have been tests that are capable of measuring the level of
neophilia among people. The studies have suggested that personalities with high level of
neophilia are more likely to accept changes in personal life or in the society. They are less
likely to show any orthodox tastes and are more likely to chances in life (Kasravi 2009).
There is a positive correlation between neophilia and desire of travelling abroad in a student.
There is another common terminology called the migrant personality. This is a type of
personality that shows a high level of desire to change locations. These people are more
likely to undergo even small travels just for the sake of changing locations. Even within a
country these people tend to change places (Wilkins and Huisman 2011). Even though the
purpose of studying abroad is to study but the influence of the migrant personality tend to
have a high level of influence in moving abroad.
These are the key lifestyle factors that influence the decision of the students to go abroad.
There are several other demographic factors that influence this decision as well.
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