Abstract
In the last three years, in terms of the presence of international students in higher education, Turkey has become one of the top 10 countries in the world. This study aims at finding the reasons that make Turkey attractive for international students. With this aim, (1) reasons for country choice, (2) reasons for city choice, (3) Turkish learning experiences and (4) advantages and disadvantages of social and educational life experienced by alumni were investigated comparatively in the context of a big city and a small city. Data were obtained by conducting interviews with 42 international alumni who had completed their studies in Turkey and went back to their countries. The results indicated that scholarships supported by the Turkish state had the highest popularity in attracting international student mobility. The other reasons for selecting Turkey were educational opportunities, religious affinity, cultural affinity, and inexpensiveness. Istanbul was perceived as a crowded city that provides space for individual freedom and plenty of personal development, while Edirne was perceived as an inexpensive and calm city, and this calmness made internationals stand out. The alumni who studied in Turkish-medium departments stated negative opinions about the quality of Turkish language teaching and teachers at language preparation classes, while the alumni who studied in English-medium departments found Turkish teaching sufficient. While learning the Turkish language, the alumni had problems with Turkish suffixes, vocalizing letters like ü and ö, diffidence, inability to develop ideas because of thinking about how to say things, and limited mobile application material support. The advantages and disadvantages of social and educational life and other results of the study were discussed in the context of the international literature.
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