Abstract:

Academic mobility in a modern university is an indicator of the quality of its activities. However, difficulties in expanding academic mobility programs may lie in the field of students' internal beliefs and perceptions of their limitations and capabilities. The purpose of this study is to identify personal resources and barriers in students regarding academic mobility.

The article presents the results of an empirical study of students' assessment of their own personal competencies that determine the effectiveness of academic mobility. The empirical base of the study was the data obtained as a result of a survey of full-time and part-time students with mean age of 21.5 years old from universities in Russia (N=162) and Latvia (N=160). The questionnaire was developed and adapted by the authors of the study. Statistical data analysis and presentation of the results were carried out using the SPSS software package.

The results of the study have shown that Russian and Latvian students demonstrate a similar picture in the ratio of assessments of the real and current level of personal competencies that determine the success of academic mobility. The members of both groups understand that in order to participate in academic mobility programmes, they need to develop a number of skills and abilities. At the same time, in the sample of students from Latvia, the difference between the real and current levels is more pronounced, which can serve as a psychological barrier: “I am not capable enough to achieve what I want; there are too many obstacles”.

The factor analysis of personal competency indicators determining success in academic mobility in students, has made it possible to state that the structure of competencies includes personal, activity, and communicative factors. As a result of a two-stage cluster analysis, we distinguished three homogeneous groups of subjects with differences in the ratio of the real and current level of personal competencies. The first group of subjects includes the students who demonstrate uniform pronouncedness of indicators for all factors: they believe that they have all the necessary opportunities to participate in academic mobility programmes, they assess the real level of their abilities even slightly higher than the actual ones, which can interfere with decision-making process. The second group shows rather a large gap between the real assessment of their abilities and the required level of their development for academic mobility. The threat for successful academic mobility in this group might lie both in the lack of confidence in abilities and personal resources, as well as a wary attitude towards communication with other cultures, and the presence of language barriers. Those subjects who have been referred to the third group have a more favourable correlation between the real and current personal competencies. They realize that there is a discrepancy between what they can do and what is needed for academic mobility. At the same time, the gap is insignificant, which allows developing the ability to make specific decisions and actions, to work out the ability of self-presentation, to communicate with different people, to find friends in a new environment and culture.

Keywords:

Academic mobility, university, students, personal competencies.