Research Summary
The international student mobility is a field that has attracted much interest in recent decades, especially in the past fourteen years. As such, universities in the UK, among them the University of Bristol, have developed programs and resources to facilitate an easy transition for international students. The University of Bristol has approximately 30,000 international undergraduate and postgraduate students, which makes it about 28% of the school’s population (University of Bristol, 2023). The number of post-graduate students has increased significantly since 2016. However, not much is known about what motivates international students to stud at the University of Bristol and what contributes to the higher rate of mobility, a gap that this research aimed to fill.
This research was shaped by earlier work in the field that has shown that there are several theoretical models that could explain what motivated foreign students to enroll for studies at the University of Bristol. These include the push and pull factors, whereas pull factors could include the attractiveness of foreign culture, opportunities, and the perception of the degree value. Some push factors are reasons at home country forcing the students to pursue education abroad. Self-determination theory could explain the intrinsic motivation of some students. Further social networks theory explains some extrinsic motivations.
To fill this gap in research, we opted for a mixed-methods survey where questionnaires were administered through social media to collect qualitative and quantitative data that informs the study. The mixed methods were selected because the research question could not be answered by either qualitative or quantitative data alone. Open-ended questions were critical in understanding the motivations, while the frequency of a particular motivation or its magnitude could only be explained through quantitative data. Qualitative data analysis involved data cleaning, transcribing, coding, identification of themes, review, definition, and then write-up. On the other hand, quantitative data analysis included the use of descriptive analysis, where nine themes at three levels of research, i.e., UK, Bristol City, and the University of Bristol, were tabulated.
While the qualitative data was insufficient for the qualitative analysis, the quantitative data generated some findings. It was observed that program availability, reputation with employers, the reputation of the university, and the quality of research generated from the university were the major factors motivating students. This highlights the strength of pull factors where the institution's reputation and the degree's marketability influenced motivation. The least motivating factors include social pressure, graduate support, and society and community. The findings, therefore, emphasize the role of pull factors than the intrinsic factors.
This research had some strengths, including the use of mixed methods that enhanced an understanding of the topic and the partitioning of the research context into three areas enhancing a more nuanced analysis. However, there are limitations, including a lack of demographic data and data failure to establish significance. Ethical guidelines were adhered to during the research. The findings of the research as implications for the University, which can use them to attract more international students.
Reflection
Developing Research Questions
I have gained invaluable lessons from this experience. The process of formulating a good research question is often challenging and frustrating. This research has allowed me to understand the significance of a research question on the direction a study takes. A well-defined and narrowly focused research question is the foundation of a research study. I learned that the research question can be an asset. Indeed, Farrugia (2010) establishes that a well-crafted research question is likely to guide one in determining the appropriate research design, the population in question, and the data to be collected for the research. Trying out research myself has exposed me to the challenge of formulating an appropriate research question, and overcoming them gave me the confidence and the knowledge to go about them.
Initially, the biggest challenge was the broadness of the research question, which I struggled with even in the research. Initially, the research question “What are the motivational factors behind international students’ decisions to study at the University of Bristol, School of Education?” Initially, the research question I had thought of was, “What motivates international students to study at the University of Bristol?" The modification helped me and the group focus on international students in the education school, helping identify the population. The second challenge I faced was determining the appropriate research context and scope. Initially, I had not considered the significance of partitioning the research context into multiple levels, such as the UK, Bristol City, and the University of Bristol. I later realized that understanding motivations in specific contexts could lead to more nuanced insights. To address this, I restructured my research questions to consider how different factors influenced motivations at each level, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis. In hindsight, I feel like we should have focused on extrinsic/ intrinsic distinctions as the key frameworks, which could have been more specific. I could have also included the term impact to reflect the quantitative part of the research. Nonetheless, I learned the importance of literature review and understanding the theoretical models to identify the gap and determine research design.
Coherence Between Research Questions and Research Perspective
This was the most challenging part of the research for me. In the research, we utilized a combination of critical realist and pragmatic positions as the philosophical stance. However, as shown in the instructor’s comments, we may not have fully grasped the coherence between these perspectives, pointing out the lack of understanding of the concepts in depth. Since then, I have done more research on the concepts, and I am aware of how we could have approached this section better.
I now understand that critical realism envisions three layers of social reality, including reality, actual and empirical domains (Anderson, 2020). The empirical involves observable events and experiences; the actual includes events and experiences as they occur, while the real includes the underlying structures and mechanisms influencing observable phenomena. On the other hand, pragmatism focuses on the practical consequences of ideas and actions and encourages a flexible and adaptive approach to research methods (Kaushik & Walsh, 2019).
I now understand that we focused more on pragmatic justification rather than exploring how the positions complement one another in this research design, results, discussion, and conclusion. To show that both perspectives were critical for research and to achieve coherence, I should have incorporated the participants' perspectives (subjective experiences) along with the impact or identifying significant patterns and generalizable insights. This approach would have shown how both perspectives were relevant in addressing different aspects of the research questions, ultimately leading to a more cohesive and comprehensive study.
Lessons from Research Methods
Conducting this research came with valuable insights into how to design, plan and conduct research. Through this process, I acquired a deeper understanding of the intricacies involved in conducting research. As already established, I learned that a well-written research question is an asset because it helps shape the research design. A well-planned research design ensures that the methods employed in research match the research aim and that high-quality data is collected (Sileyew, 2020). This experience allowed me to study different research designs and determine how appropriate each would have been for the study. For research to have beneficial results, the methods and materials used must be reliable, produce consistent results, and be valid, pointing to accuracy (Sürücü & Maslakçı, 2020).
This experience taught me the importance of a literature review to determine the methods employed by other researchers on the same topic and where there were any fatal methodological flaws that could affect the research. It also taught me the importance of establishing the rationale for each decision made in research design. In the research, we failed to provide a rationale for using a three-part structure questionnaire. I should have established that this structure would help with a more nuanced analysis because the motivations for international students to join the University of Bristol might be specific to the university’s pull factors in addition to the city and the nation. However, the motivations for the international students to be based in Bristol city might not be specific to the University of Bristol. Likewise, motivations for international students to join a University in the UK might not be specific to Bristol City or the University of Bristol. To separate the destination of choice, the questionnaire was worded such that they were specific to the area of concern. For example, on the University of Bristol level, this question was asked: “Did employment prospects and the University of Bristol’s reputation with employers influence your decision-making process?” This is an example of a question asked at the UK level: “What aspects of the foreign culture and opportunities attracted you to study in the UK?” According to Kukull and Ganguli (2012), research can be made more generalizable by representing the entire population, in this case, the international students. This is why the scope of the study could not be limited to the University of Bristol.
By reviewing the literature, we gathered that a mixed method methodology would combine students’ specific, detailed insights with generalizable and replicable data, thereby expanding the evidence and enhancing problem understanding (Emerald Publishers, 2023; Wasti et al., 2022). However, the qualitative part was not fully utilized due to insufficient data. This data could have provided valuable information on the students' perceptions vis-à-vis pull factors in the UK, Bristol, and the University of Bristol because qualitative data provides the participants' specific experiences, feelings, and opinions (Rahman, 2016). This cannot be established from quantitative data.
Reflecting on the sample and analysis, I feel some things could have been done better. First, the sample should have been calculated, and a sample representative of the entire population should have been drawn. As researchers, we could have sought better methods to reach international students. For example, a survey platform such as SurveyMonkey could have been used, and the link shared to international students’ social platforms. This could have helped overcome the challenge of the small sample size and data collected. Second, regarding the quantitative data analysis, I think it would have been more appropriate to use pie charts or a frequency to represent the percentage of international students’ responses to each category would have been more ideal. As In and Lee (2017) establishes, inappropriately presented data fail to convey information to readers and reviewers. The author further emphasizes that the data presentation method must match the data type. To show the trends in the popularity of each motivation source, the response frequency could have been converted into percentages and be used to create a pie chart or be represented in a frequency table. Both of these methods could have conveyed the targeted information more appropriately.
Finally, the research failed to include a demographic data collection tool, as pointed out by the instructor. This was a major flaw in the methodology used because the demographic data could have been critical in this research for two reasons. First, it would have helped determine whether the sample used represents the international students’ profile based on their collected data (Question Pro, 2023). This establishes whether the results we obtain can be generalized to all international students based in the UK. Second, it could have been vital in finding other patterns with different demographic groups. For example, age might influence the motivation of an international student to study abroad.
Identifying and Mitigating Ethical Issues
Lessons from reading research had the most significant impact on enhancing my ability to identify and mitigate ethical issues. From these readings, the first principle is minimizing the risk of harm (Bos, 2020). The research inherently has no risk of harm to the participants. The only risk of harm could have been the leaking of sensitive data, which was mitigated by ensuring that the data collected did not have identifying information. This ensured that the principle of anonymity and confidentiality was met. To comply with the GDPR rules and regulations, the participants were advised on why the data was collected and how it would be used. They were also advised that the data would be available to them on request. Further, the data was stored in encrypted folders, and access was limited to the research team only.
The second principle was seeking informed consent (Bos, 2020; Protections, 2022). Before the research commenced, the participants were given an informed consent form that advised them on the type of research being done, the purpose, methods, and the kind of outcome that was expected. None of the participants declined to sign it, but if they could have, they could have been eliminated from the study. Further, all the participants were informed they had the right not to continue with the survey if, at any point, they were dissatisfied.
I was also informed of the potential ethical implications derived from researchers. Specifically, I was more concerned with researcher bias which can occur in research design, data collection, and data analysis (Pannucci & Wilkins, 2010). To overcome this risk, we used a design that other esteemed researchers have used in a similar field with no flaws; peers reviewed the data collection tools to ensure the questions incorporated were objective and appropriate. Finally, the data was objective and analyzed by multiple parties. There was no risk for the researcher to influence the participants’ answers because the questionnaire was administered over social media, and the parties did not meet. At all points, the participants were treated with dignity.
Tensions Between Ethical Issues and Decisions about Research Methods
To enhance the quality of the study and overcome ethical implications, it was necessary for me to make changes to the research methods, but at points, there were conflicts. For example, it is imperative to consider the appropriate sample size to answer the research question, collect sufficient data and enhance representation while avowing unnecessary disruption of participants’ lives, ensuring fair representation, and collecting only the necessary data (Bos, 2020). My response to this could be improved by applying power analysis to determine the ideal representative sample number and then randomly selecting participants. Further, given that the research design used a social media platform, there was a conflict because it is bound to the terms and conditions of the forum that might affect the use of data in research. However, this was the most appropriate and less disrupting channel. I responded to this by adhering to the platform’s terms and conditions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this has been an illuminating experience that has boosted my research skills and collaboration skills. Experiences from this research have helped me understand the challenges in research, especially the formulation of a research design and the identification of an appropriate design. This has made it apparent that a poorly formulated research question is likely to affect the scope, research design, and the data collected hence reducing the quality of the research. The experience has emphasized the role of previous research as a source of guidelines and method justification. My most informative concept was establishing coherence between critical realism and pragmatism in developing the research question. While I have much to learn, this assessment has given me the challenge to prompt more research engagement to improve my research skills. Engagement with research has also demystified the process and given me the confidence to approach more research topics. I have also learned that collaboration can be important in research. When working in a group, I found that brainstorming and engaging in rigorous discussions, especially about the research design and question, helped establish the paper’s direction and avoid bias. I look forward to applying these skills to solve problems in the community and progress knowledge by filling research gaps.
References
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