Abstract:

The main goal of our research was to examine the relationship between the perception of a country’s culture and attitudes for the country as an ideal study destination by international students in higher education.

In our study a quantitative research was performed using a large sample of full-time and part-time international students studying in Hungary. 1566 international students from 72 countries and studying at 27 Hungarian higher education institutions answered the questionnaire. The majority of respondents in the sample (81 percent) are Stipendium Hungaricum students, while 12 percent are Erasmus students.

Firstly, the general perceptions of Hungary and Hungarian people were measured with open-ended questions. Then opinions about the culture were explored, based on the culture personality scale that measures the construct with twenty personality traits. Regression analysis was performed to observe the relationships between the concepts.

Our results show that the more positive evaluation of the following characteristics correspond to the respondents perceiving Hungary ideal as a place for education: reliable, industrious, ambitious, moral, honest, well-organized, unique. In line with our expectations, naturally a high correlation is observable between whether a student perceives the country as an ideal educational destination or not, and whether he/she selected the country again as a place of his/her place of study. There is a connection between the evaluation of culture personality and whether students would choose the country again if they had a choice. The more moral and honest a student perceives Hungary, the more likely he/she is to choose Hungary again as a place for his/her studies.

Keywords:

culture personality, ideal study destination, international students.