Students' attitudes towards internationalization of higher education

• Published in: Inovacije u nastavi : časopis za savremenu nastavu Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 86 - 96
• Main Authors: Milovanović, Radmila, Stojanović, Biljana, Ćirković-Miladinović, Ivana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Belgrade, Teacher Education Faculty 01-07-2020
• Subjects: higher education; internationalization; student mobility
• ISSN: 0352-2334; 2335-0806
• DOI: 10.5937/inovacije2002086M

The internationalization of higher education as an important aspect of a country’s development potential is manifested through the mobility of students and university staff through joint research, international projects, the development of new curricula and the implementation of new approaches to teaching and learning. The paper presents the results of examining students’ attitudes towards the internationalization of higher education. The aim of the research is to examine students’ general attitude as well as to examine differences in attitudes between medical students and students of education. The research was conducted on a sample of 325 students, of which 168 (51.69%) are future class teachers and preschool teachers students and 157 (48.30%) students, future medical doctors and medical technicians. The sample included students from 2 faculties of teacher education, one medical faculty and one high medical school in Serbia. An attitude scale constructed for the purposes of this research was used to collect data. The results show that there are more students who have positive attitudes towards the internationalization of higher education. There were significant differences in attitudes towards the internationalization of higher education between students of education and students of medical sciences (p <0.01). Medical students have a more positive attitude towards the internationalization of higher education than their colleagues, future class teachers and preschool teachers, which can be explained with the fact that medical professionals have a much greater opportunity to find employment in foreign countries, which also means that they are more informed. Given that the number of students who have negative attitudes towards the internationalization of higher education is not negligible, it is necessary to undertake planning activities to inform and motivate students to participate in mobility programs and to contribute to the promotion of internationalization as an important precondition for ensuring openness, quality and competitiveness of higher education.