Outgoing study exchanges in French and Spanish business schools
Kaikkonen, Päivi (2016)
Kaikkonen, Päivi
Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
2016
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2016120218705
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2016120218705
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis was to gain knowledge of business students’ outgoing study exchanges in France and Spain. Its objective was to find out how study exchanges are organized, what kind of attitudes the schools have towards outgoing free mover students and what is their interest in sending students to Asia. It also aimed to examine schools’ study exchange policies in France and Spain compared to each other and to look for potential co-operation partners for AE.
An online survey was used to collect the research data. The survey was sent via e-mail to 59 target business schools in France and 65 in Spain. After the designated time allotted for the survey, an additional phone call round was made to 29 Spanish schools. The final numbers of responses were 17 from France and 18 from Spain. Of the Spanish respondents, half did not have any study exchanges. The data was analyzed from each country separately and the results were compared with each other.
The results indicated that study exchanges are more popular among French than Spanish students. Several French schools encouraged study exchanges by including study abroad periods to their study programmes’ curricula. French schools were also more interested in sending students to Asia. Policies regarding outgoing free mover study exchanges were dependent on schools individually and these types of exchanges were not popular among students, likely due to lack of funding possibilities.
The commissioner can use the research findings later for marketing purposes. With a rather low response rate and high variation in individual answers, generalizations of the results are recommended to be viewed critically. In each researched country, a potential school was found for the commissioner to co-operate with. It is recommended for the company to carefully work on building relationships with those two schools to expand their markets.
An online survey was used to collect the research data. The survey was sent via e-mail to 59 target business schools in France and 65 in Spain. After the designated time allotted for the survey, an additional phone call round was made to 29 Spanish schools. The final numbers of responses were 17 from France and 18 from Spain. Of the Spanish respondents, half did not have any study exchanges. The data was analyzed from each country separately and the results were compared with each other.
The results indicated that study exchanges are more popular among French than Spanish students. Several French schools encouraged study exchanges by including study abroad periods to their study programmes’ curricula. French schools were also more interested in sending students to Asia. Policies regarding outgoing free mover study exchanges were dependent on schools individually and these types of exchanges were not popular among students, likely due to lack of funding possibilities.
The commissioner can use the research findings later for marketing purposes. With a rather low response rate and high variation in individual answers, generalizations of the results are recommended to be viewed critically. In each researched country, a potential school was found for the commissioner to co-operate with. It is recommended for the company to carefully work on building relationships with those two schools to expand their markets.