Abstract: | The article refers to the factors that motivate students when making
a decision to travel abroad within the framework of the European Union exchange
Program Erasmus+. The article theoretically considers the factors some cognitive,
such as the desire to learn the culture of the host country, improving the language
competence of participants, improving professional competence, as well as those
related to economy, for example, factors related to the cost of living the country
of departure. The study group consisted of Polish students travelling within
the Erasmus+ Program to Czech universities and Czech students coming to the
universities located in Poland. The research covered students of pedagogical and
philological specialties studying in Czech and Polish universities. The subject of
the research were the factors of motivation of students to travel abroad in the
framework of the Erasmus+ program, as well as those that can create barriers and
difficulties during their stay abroad. The results of the research allow for noticing
that when choosing the country of the guest students the largest share does not
consist of cognitive factors, but economic factors, such as, for example, maintenance
costs – this aspect is indicated by the biggest groupe as the most significant
when choosing the place of departure. It can be concluded that students who
travel for partial foreign studies under the Erasmus+ program are guided by the
most common factors of the economic basis, and therefore the stay is for them,
first of all, a time of some financial independence, and the factors of cognitive basis
represent the added value of mobility. It is encouraging that the students in the
group were open to study the culture of the host country. |