Student Experience and Career Expectations: Pakistani Students in Hungary during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Internationalization is the phenomenon that is rampant around the world wherein a nation retains their own culture while exchanging best practices across the world, during which student mobility is encouraged and promoted by the local ministry of educations in addition to private endeavors. However, this massive movement of students around the world is not free from challenges, students that relocate experience culture shock while several factors influence their choice to study abroad. COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic in March, 2020, this has had extreme effects on the student mobility, student experience and future plans. This thesis is a descriptive, exploratory, sequential, mixed method research; 19 quantitative responses and five qualitative interviews, that focuses on the student experience of Pakistani students in Hungary during the pandemic. Further social, and human capital theorists claim that higher the investment in education higher the economic returns. Following this, career expectations of the Pakistani students is explored. It has been found that because of the lack of funds and poor policy implementation within the educational sector of Pakistan, the elite students aim to study abroad after having received private school educations, in English programs as it is considered the language of the literate. Within Hungary, universities have supported the international population tremendously, however, alienation from the local culture is a common feeling among the students. The pandemic has severely impacted student experience of the students as they have been taking lectures from behind a screen by professors who do not have digital pedagogical skills. Moreover, the pandemic and student experience has impacted future career trajectories; an uncertainty and new avenues have been exposed. This thesis recommends for the future to conduct a similar research with a bigger sample size to be able to further analyze the role of student mobility in enhancing student experience of international students and better influencing career paths. Further, it can be used to understand the experience of Pakistani nationals in international settings while better equipping domestic students who wish to study abroad.