Study abroad scholarships

December 30, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized |

The primary information sources students used to gain knowledge about other countries were television and domestic newspapers and magazines. In fact, about two-thirds of all respondents relied primarily on these media for their knowledge of other countries. Less than one-third of the students reported that their main sources of information were books published in the United States. Only 8 percent of the study abroad scholarships students indicated that foreign newspapers or books published in foreign countries were used as sources of information about those countries. This is similar to the comparison group, of which only about 3 percent reported using such materials.

Attitudes toward Other Countries and the United States

Attitudes toward other countries were assessed by asking the students to indicate their opinions concerning certain aspects of the country in which they were going to study abroad scholarships (study abroad scholarships group) or the country that they knew best (comparison group–the most-often-named countries were Western European countries). In parallel fashion, the students were asked to express their opinions toward the United States on the same dimensions. The areas queried ranged from attitudes toward postsecondary education, to government foreign policy, to customs and traditions, to social structure. The scale employed was a 5point scale, with 5 being highly negative and 1 being highly positive.

For example, while the postsecondary education system of foreign countries was viewed equally highly by both groups, the comparison group valued the U.S. system of postsecondary education more highly than did the study abroad scholarships group. Interestingly, and related perhaps to their somewhat more critical attitude, the study abroad scholarships students seemed to be more critical of U.S. governmental foreign policy than they were of the foreign policy of the government of the country in which they were to study.

While the cultural life of the foreign country was ranked highly by both the study abroad scholarships and comparison group students, the prospective sojourners were significantly less positive than the comparison group students when asked about cultural life in the United States. In contrast, the students from both groups were about the same in their opinion concerning the customs and traditions of United States and the customs and traditions of the foreign country. Similarly, students from both groups were more favorably disposed to the customs and traditions of the foreign country that they knew best than to the customs and traditions of the United States. No significant differences were detected between the groups in views about any of the other areas queried: recent immigrant groups, the media, social structure, and the family.