Evaluation of students' engagement with PROMES2015 as a university mobility experience

Abstract

Student mobility is among the most important internationalization initiatives for higher education institutions. This article describes the influence that student academic mobility has on the training of future professionals at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACH, Mexico) and its students’ perceptions toward UACH’s Student Mobility Program (PROMES). Under such aim, the research objectives were to determine the opinion of participating students regarding the exchange process, the academic quality of the destination universities, the academic cooperation offices of the destination universities, and toward PROMES’ management. This research was quantitative, non- experimental, and transversal. The methodology used was a case study conducted only within UACH using simple random sampling, which was selected from the 170 undergraduate students that participated in PROMES during 2015 (confidence level of 90 %, margin of error of 7.5 %). The survey consisted in four main sections, which were intended for students to evaluate four factors related to PROMES: a) exchange process; b) academic quality of the destination university; c) support of the academic cooperation offices; and d) PROMES’ management at UACH. Results are presented according to four dimensions that the survey evaluated, which include: the exchange process, academic quality of the destination university, support of the academic cooperation offices, and PROMES’ management at UACH. These results point toward important statistical correlations regarding the relationship between how students value their academic development and the quality of the facilities in the destination universities, as well as with the quality of the educational programs. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54167/tch.v13i1.305