Students’ readiness for international academic mobility programs: Evidence from Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNUHCM

Abstract

As a major aspect of internationalization, international academic mobility has been among the most discussed issues in higher education worldwide in recent years. However, while more and more institutions in many countries show a substantial interestin implementing international academic mobility programs, the practices seem to be surprisingly in slow progress in Vietnam higher education. The current study, therefore, aims to fill up the gap by exploring the reality of implementing international academic mobility programs and surveying students’ readiness as well as expectations for international academic mobility programs in the setting of the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University-HCM city. Using data from archived documents in the faculty, a semi-structured interview with the faculty dean, a semi-structured interview with 5 students having just comeback from an international academic mobility program to the Philippines in early 2020 and a questionnaire among 78 students coming from 4 continuous cohorts, the findings evidence that (1) Intra-national mobility programs outperform the international ones, (2) Students expect more orientational activities and support from the faculty, (3) Students show a high level of readiness for international academic mobility programs, (4) Students are more open-minded in choosing where to go and what to do during international academic mobility programs. Recommendations are well elaborated atthe latter part of the study as references for institutions that are considering internationalizing their curricular. The study hopefully sheds light on the feasibility of implementing international academic mobility programs in the setting of Vietnam higher education.