How I Chose to Study Abroad in Hungary

This article discusses the author's decision to study abroad in Hungary and the factors that influenced their choice from a consumer behaviour perspective. It explores cross-cultural comparisons, social factors, personality, economic factors, and the decision-making process. The author also reflects on cognitive biases that may have influenced their decision.

FeritKarsak © Consumer Behaviour
HOW DID I CHOOSE TO STUDY ABROAD IN
HUNGARY
STUDENT’S FULL NAME: FERIT KARSAK
STUDENTS’ PROGRAM: MSc Marketing Management
MODULE: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2018/AUTUMN
SEMINAR LEADER:KINGA KONCZEY
WORD COUNT: 2195
DUE DATE: 02.12.2018
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Introduction
I went to United States for attending the student cultural exchange program after
getting the graduation Bachelor degree. This cultural exchange program involves the
working life like blue collars and at the same time, I have gained experience of living
alone in overseas countries. On the other hand, I have faced problem in carrying
forward my future education process, as I did not have enough knowledge regarding
the concept of studying abroad. Then on September 2016, after the program ended, I
came back to Turkey. I have nothing sorted regarding my future so at that time it was
essential for me to look for the job in the Master Degree program at turkey. Also at
that time there was a coup attempted and the political crisis was going on during the
time, I decided to study in Europe. Therefore, this study will reflect my choice of
studying in Europe in respect to the Customer behaviour perspective. As stated by
Nair (2012), customers basically buy products and services for satisfying their
physical demands and they can also direct other persons to purchase the products or
services by recommending them. Purchasing products or services depends mainly
upon the physiological, psychological and the sociological demands.
Cross cultural comparison
After every 4 years, the education system in Turkey is being revised with the
Education ministry. This result in the decline in the foreign language teaching
practices. I have got a degree in radio and television and during the course we needed
to watch 2 to 3 documentary movies. I have watched a Hungarian movie, Hukkle in
2014. It is a documentary which portrays the Hungarian villager’s life. In the movie
the director provides information about the culture of the villagers that resembles the
metaphor related to the Hungarian culture. This movie reflects the cross cultural
comparisons and reflects on the acculturation effect that is based on the social,
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psychological and the cultural change. It stems from balancing the two cultures during
the adaptation of the prevailing culture of the society.
Social factors
The Consumer researcher and the marketers is of the opinion that families are an
essential unit required in the decision-making process (Assael, 1987). Depending
upon cultural values, often family is seen to be the ultimate decision-maker. In
my family I had completed master’s course in education. However, most adults in a
family are often perceived as a child in the eyes of their parents. In our case we
belong to a elementary family and therefore, my decision to study in Hungary
warranted explanation to my family members about the reasons behind it. In most
families the final verdict is provided by the members of the families.
Personality
Personality can also directly affect decision-making. The socio-political culture of
Hungary helped to realise the potential that it possess for providing an adaptable
environment for foreigners. My family culture could also connect with the Hungarian
culture along with the values. This also helped me to take interest in attaining cultural
programmes that were staged in the country. It would be best for me to choose a
country where I can easily meet my personal needs such as cinema festivals, art bar so
on. Thus, I have thought that the personality factors would be the effect of the
decision-making process for my education career.
Economic Factors
According to (Solomon, 2006) the manner in which income and the social class affect
consumer behavior be addressed from the perceptive of an individual as well as
social. In the modern day, the continuous fluctuations in foreign exchange rates in
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Turkey, have ensured that most Turkish students dream about studying abroad in
areas in Europe. Initially, I was of the opinion that I could find a part-time job so that
I can continue to gain my personal needs while I was studying abroad. However, in an
economic perspective, I had made promises to my family that I would find a job in
Hungary. Failure to do so may lead to having a challenging economic situation of the
family. I ensured that my parents paid the school fees while I survived by working on
a part time basis. It can be said that the economic factor of my country played a huge
impact on my decision to choose my country and my college.
Decision Making Process
Problem Recognition
The problem recognition is the first stage of a decision-making process. It occurs
when the consumer realizes the real situation and the ideal or different situation
( Bakshi, 2012 ). When I graduated from the university, I had difficulty deciding
whether to enrol in a master program or not. My first priority was finding a job. I was
doing my job application several times each day to find the website of the local
business in Turkey. I also thought about Master Education at one end of my mind as
everyone can graduate from university easily but if you have a master's degree, it can
be easier to find a job in Turkey. Moreover, at that time the question came into my
mind, should I get Master education in Turkey or Europe? I was not able to take the
proper decision as getting the opportunity easily is not the only thing I need to look
for as I need to gain something from that program, thus it make me confused at that
point what to do and what not to do.
Information Search
Dawes and Corrigan (1974) claimed that while trying to make decisions it is
necessary to link various information with the whole trick is to decide what variables
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to look at and then know how to add’. Having planned a small amount of budget with
my family, I decided to study abroad in Europe. I conducted research from the
internet to find a consulting firm. This is mainly because consultancy companies
experience these issues more than me. I asked them to help me choose a country and
college. Because I knew that I would be studying at least 2 years in the college, which
is a long-term plan. Consumers can obtain information from various sources. These
include personal resources such as family, friends and also commercial resources;
these are advertising, packaging, images, public resources and experiential resources.
The relative impact of these sources of information depends on the product and the
receiver. Another step was to get information about the college and the country from
my close friends. In addition, I had suspicions about the advantages and disadvantages
of doing a master's education in Europe. Consulting companies take money to offer
such services. However, with the help of friends such services can be offered free of
cost. The plans made were based on the economic development of the European
countries as Euro was being as a currency along with pound. I was even aware of the
cost of renting a flat in Hungary. In this regard, I had previously made contact with
people educated by the social media existing in Hungary. I received information about
the advantages and disadvantages of renting a flat in the city center. I found the cost
to be high, however, they said that transportation is most common devices. All in all,
when I compared between Turkey and the Hungarian Economic situation, it was hard
to decide.
The student at first looks for the factor that is what they will be achieving from the
program from enrolling themselves into any new course program, therefore, they look
for the place where they are going for getting them enrolled in the program and what
are their new objectives that they will be getting from such program. The student also
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need to look for the economical condition and the cultural conditions of the place
where they need to stay during the program. The student generally looks for the
facilities they will be enjoyingand which will enhance their interest for participating
in the program. By keeping all these factors in mind I need to look and compare
where I will be staying and how I will be able to do that.
Evaluation of Alternatives
According to Jankowski (2007), Evaluation of alternatives involves the effects of each
alternative on each evaluation criterion are evaluated. Selection of alternatives:
Alternatives are desirable until the least desired and the top alternative is selected or
more groups of alternatives are maintained for further evaluation. I've visited the
consulting firm many times. I was transferring the information that I received from
consulting firm to my family, we decided together for everything. The decision-
making mechanism was my family and consultancy. There were 35 European
Countries at the beginning. We have selected 3 European Countries from the list
provide that ensures the quality of the college, the economy of the country, the
adaptation process and the advantages that the diploma would bring in the future.
These 3 countries were Britain, Poland, and Hungary. The school education fee in
England was low, but it was in London. The department of MSc education was
Business Administration. I didn't think I had a good connection with mathematics
because I have graduated from Communication Faculty, which was not really
including mathematics. The second option was to study abroad in Poland. The
university was the Warsaw Technical University. The thing, this option was about the
MSc Cinema education. After studied cinema as Bachelor in university, I was still
unsure about doing Master Degree on cinema. Because cinema is an art and earning
money is dependent on the quality of art. The third option was Hungary. The name of
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the college is International Business School. We found a section on MSc Marketing
Management. There was also an opportunity to get a British Degree at the same time.
When we checked the school fee, it was quite high but less than the UK. In addition, I
had some question in my mind about the study in Western Europe. As I mentioned,
Adaption is quite important for the student life and I have had no idea of finding a job
in Hungary because of the language problem.
Purchase
I finally decided to study abroad in Hungary as I was influenced by the additional
facilities provided during my stay and I will be also able to cope up with the economic
condition of the place and moreover I was influence by the cultural values and the
theories that I have accumulated regarding the Hungarian cultures. Moreover I was
greatly influenced by the quality of the education that will be provided in the program
and the school fee was affordable for me. Thus, based on all these factors I
determined to select Hungary for studying abroad. The most important factor in this
was the quality of education and the school fee. I also thought that the adaptation
process could be easier than that of England and Poland. Secondly, from a
sociological perspective Hungarian Society is much closer to Turkish Society than
others. To be interpreted economically, International Business School was better than
the other two schools in terms of education quality and price.
Cognitive Biases
The biases that I have faced while, deciding for places in which I can pursue my
higher studies was related to the various facilities that was being offered by the three
countries.
However, given the kind of quality education I was looking for which, but I was not
getting the best quality at the affordable school fee, thus after looking for the various
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factors I was able to chose Hungary as it provided the best quality at the affordable
school fee.
It can be assumed that a systematic deviation can result in the decisions that arise
from the application of one or more intuitions. This can be related to the time when I
first arrived at the country in order to understand the culture and adapt life as a
professional. (Lockton, 2012). When I first came to Hungary, I enrolled in the
university's Foundation program to learn Marketing Management skills as someone
with a Cinema background. Even though I have tried to evaluate all the alternative of
the Master Education, I must mention that cognitive biases influence my decision-
making. According to Lockton (2012), in most cases, people should take their
estimates from both case and distribution information. Before choosing International
Business School, the enrolment time of college was over in other countries. I would
have missed the time of enrolment of college when I was trying to decide whether I
should study or find work. I had to think twice before stepping in because planning
would be long-term. The reason for this being a cognitive bias is the fact my error or
slow reaction time in selecting a country for enrolment almost cost me a good
opportunity to establish a proper career in the future. There is another example of the
cognitive biases is the Illusion of choice. As I mentioned before, when I was about to
decide which school to choose, my family gave me their decisive ideas about this
subject. My expectation from my future was different and my family expectation was
also different. We had conflict about the choosing college and country. External
effects can affect people's decision-making process.
Conclusion
We decided more than once every day about our life. We are affected by
external/internal factors when making these decisions. We can question the accuracy
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of our decisions. But that doesn't mean the decisions are always right. There are
cognitive obstacles in the middle of the way to solve the problem, so if we were aware
of them, it would be easier to solve our problems. If we are not aware of it, we may
deviate from making the right decision about our problems. During the decision-
making process, more than one external factors and thoughts were in my mind. As I
write this article, I think I did not make a wrong decision when I examined the
decision-making mechanism step by step. But I can't always be lucky about that.
Eventually, the decision-making process is always a conscious action that needs to be
remembered in a conscious way.
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References
Nair, S. (2012). Consumer Behaviour. 1st ed. Mumbai: Meena Pandey, p.6.
Assael, H. (1987). Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Action. Melbourne: Thomas
Nelson.
Solomon, M. (2009). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being. 8th ed. New
Jersey: Pearson Education.
Kotler P. & Armstrong G. ,2011. Principle of marketing 14th ed. , Pearson Education
Inc. Prentice Hall
Jankowski, P. (1995). Integrating geographical information systems and multiple
criteria decision-making methods. International journal of geographical information
systems, 9(3), pp.251-273.
Dawes, R. M., & Corrigan, B. (1974). Linear models in decision making. Psycho-
logical Bulletin, 81, 95–106.
Lockton, D. (2012). Cognitive Biases, Heuristics and Decision-Making in Design for
Behaviour Change. SSRN Electronic Journal.
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