This study aims to find out the dynamics attracting foreign students choosing Turkey for higher education study. Internationalization in higher education has been a topic of interest for many educational researchers. Scholars elaborated on internationalization as a policy issue for the countries (Enders, 2004; Teichler, 2004), stated the rationales of internationalization (e.g., Knight, 1999), documented the impact of internationalization on institutions (Kondakci, 2009), documented the main premises of international curriculum (Leask, 1999; Schmied and Shiba, 2007) and stated problems of subjects of international higher education mobility (viz., students and academicians) (Arambewela and Hall, 2008; Kondakci, Van den Broeck, and Yildirim, 2008; Tamaoka, Ninomiya, and Nakaya, 2003). A significant body of literature focused on the dynamics behind student mobility (Aupetit, 2006; Chen, 2006; Chen and Barnett, 2000; Li and Bray, 2007). These studies intended to find out the economic, political, academic, and social dynamics directing the students to particular countries while avoiding others. In general these studies used pull-push terminology to explain student mobility. In other words, this perspective suggest that there are factors in the host countries pulling the students to choose particular destinations and/or there are push factors in home country pushing the students to choose a particular host country. For example, Chen (2007) has recently document why East Asian students choose Canada for a graduate study. Li and Bray (2007) adopted the same thinking; however, they adapted a two-dimensional perspective into their analysis of pull-push factors. Pull-push understanding was derived from neo-classical economic theories of international migration (Massey et al., 1993). These theories in general assert that people tend to migrate from lower wage settings to higher wage settings. Since previous analyses have focused on student mobility from economically less developed countries to economically developed ones, the pull-push thinking has proved to be effective in explaining why students move from particular setting for higher education study into another. However, whether the pull-push think is applicable to explain student mobility from a developing country (low wage) into another developing one (low wage) needs to be investigated. In other words, what attracts students from developing or developed countries to choose a developing country for higher education study remained less investigated.

This study aims to contribute answering this question by analyzing the dynamics pulling (or pushing) students to choose Turkey for higher education study. A survey with 361 foreign students, coming from 61 countries and studying in different universities in Turkey was conducted. The survey covers parts social, cultural, and academic experiences of foreign students. In this report only the reasons of choosing Turkey for a higher education study were included.

The results suggest that foreign students chose Turkey because of high quality of academic practices in Turkey (41,6%), the desire to learn/experience a different culture (37%), liking Turkish people and Turkish culture (27,7), physical proximity of Turkey (22,5), scholarship providers’ demand (18,6), the possibility of finding a job after study (12,1%), and family related reason (8,5%). The results of this study suggest that their choices are determined by country related dynamics. However, economic reasons are not prominent in the choices of students. Rather, country related cultural and social reasons are prominent underlying reasons in choice of Turkey as a destination for a higher education study. Based on the findings, this study suggests that accommodating other approaches explaining triggering dynamics as well as the perpetuating dynamics of international migration will contribute to develop a full explanation of the dynamics of international student mobility.