Students tend to opt for studies outside Europe

‘Studies abroad seem to be attractive for students because of two reasons. First of all, they are eager to get to know faraway, exotic countries, and, second, they want to attain a competitive education. Most of the students opt to study outside Europe, that is in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the USA and Canada. Exchange programmes offer an opportunity to both travel and gain experience while studying at the greatest economic, business and political centres, i.e. Asian countries and North America. We believe that the opportunity to spend some time as an exchange student at a foreign university is an incentive for our students to stay in Lithuania, as international exchange and active cooperation with the best universities in the world is one of the key criteria to measure the competitiveness of establishments of higher education,’ Dr Rūta Kazlauskaitė, head of the International Relations Unit at ISM, said.

 

Exchange students are eager to choose studies in the old European countries, too, among which the most popular are France, Austria, Norway, Spain and Germany. 'Double degree programmes are gaining in popularity among our students since they offer an opportunity to attain two international diplomas: that of ISM and of a chosen foreign university. This year the majority (i.e. 10) of the students that opted for the double degree programme went to study at the BI Norwegian Business School in Norway. The remaining 8 students went to Euromed Management in France, INSEEC Business School located in Paris and Bordeaux, and HEC Management School in Belgium’, Ms Kazlauskaitė said.

 

The students that left for studies abroad were replaced by 72 bachelor’s and master’s students from 15 foreign countries. One-third of them came from France, 16 from Spain and Portugal, 5 from Germany, 6 from South Korea, and 4 from Singapore.

 

ISM University of Management and Economics cooperates with over 100 academic exchange partners from all over the world: Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia and Africa. The students in their final years of studies have an opportunity to go for practice placements abroad.

 

The Education Exchanges Support Foundation reviewed the participation of the establishments of higher education in the Erasmus exchange programme in the academic year 2010–2011 by taking into consideration the overall number of students and concluded that ISM students are offered the best opportunities to study abroad under the Erasmus exchange programme.