Czynniki motywujące studentów do podjęcia studiów zagranicznych w ramach programu Erasmus+ oraz czynniki stanowiące dla nich bariery podczas pobytu za granicą na przykładzie studentów z Polski i Republiki Czeskiej

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.