International students’ rationales for choice of host country

​This paper examines students’ motivations for choice of host country, by analysing data from a survey among Norwegian students undertaking a full degree abroad. Results show that students rate prior knowledge of the language of instruction, and an interest to attend a particular institution as the most important criteria for choice of host country. However, some rationales for choice of host country vary substantially with host country, e.g.  geographical and cultural proximity are considered important by students in Nordic countries, while students in Australia are motivated by climate, students in Eastern Europe by low costs.