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Daniel James, Hiroshima Shudo University, JapanAbstract
This paper looks at the differences in study abroad preferences of two cohorts of Japanese university first year students (2024: n99, 2025: n113). The reasoning for the research was to determine whether study abroad preferences were affected by the changes in underlying principles for scholarship awards, i.e. pre 2024: destination and time-period and 2024 onwards: destination, time-period and internationally or domestically recognised tests that assessed foreign language proficiency or the number of foreign language credits attained. The research shows three main areas; first, the ‘weak yen’ in 2024 led to a drop in a numbers of students going abroad; second, destination choice- (English speaking countries of Australia, Canada New Zealand, the USA, the UK) as well as South Korea and China remain popular as do some European countries and consequently, the language choice follows suit (English, Korean, Chinese and French); third, students are more likely to go on short-term or medium-term programmes on either of their first two years at university but there is also a greater interest in exchange programmes due to the possibility of gaining greater funding. This consolidates findings in earlier research but there is a need for more longitudinal studies over a three-to-four-year period that investigates not only actual students who went abroad but also those didn’t as well also incorporating other influencing factors such as self-perceived language ability, recruitment and employment prospects and familial ties.
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Conference: ECE2025Stream: International Education
This paper is part of the ECE2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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