International student mobility has increased worldwide in the past ten years. Among OECD countries, Germany is the non-English speaking country with the highest number of incoming international students. In 2021/22, eleven percent of all students studying at German universities were international students (DZHW & DAAD, 2022). Due to refugee flows the numbers will further increase and underline the need to explore the success of international students in non-English speaking countries in Europe.

International students tend to rely on university rankings when choosing a course of study (Koenings, Di Meo, & Uebelmesser, 2020). Individual satisfaction with different study aspects is often the basis of universities’ reputations or rankings in Germany (e.g., CHE-Ranking). Moreover, satisfaction with studies is an important indicator of study success from an individual and institutional point of view. For international students in Germany, results show that a higher satisfaction with studies or the content of studies relates to a higher socio-cultural adaptation and a lower dropout intention (Zimmermann et al., 2021) and better study grades and faster study progress (Thies, 2022). The estimated dropout rates among international bachelor’s and master’s students are substantially higher than among German students (DZHW & DAAD, 2022). Consequently, the question arises about the factors influencing international students’ satisfaction with their studies.

Many theoretical student success models have seen the course characteristics, academic performance, social integration and environmental conditions as important predictors of satisfaction (e.g., Astin, 1999; Bean & Metzner, 1985). Astin (1999) asks how policies and programs (e.g., class attendance) and non-academic issues (e.g., financial situations) relate to student success. He sees student involvement (e.g., academic study, interaction with faculty) as a mechanism leading to satisfaction, achievement, and development. Bean and Metzner (1985) see background characteristics (e.g., ethnicity) and academic and environmental variables (e.g., course availability, finances) as predictors of psychological outcomes, such as satisfaction. The psychological outcomes subsequently affect academic outcomes, such as the grade point average or student dropout.

Previous studies have explored the determinants of study satisfaction for international students. In the international context, the results show that learning experience (e.g., quality of lectures, lectures expertise) affects overall satisfaction (Alemu & Cordier, 2017). Other predictors for satisfaction are cultural distance, language skills, the universities’ communication before arrival, living arrangement and the financial situation (Alemu & Cordier, 2017). Moreover, studies highlight that academic and social integration affect study satisfaction (Merola, Coelen, & Hofman, 2019). In the German context, studies showed that feeling a sense of belonging (Yildirim, Zimmermann, & Jonkmann, 2021), specific learning strategies (Yildirim, Zimmermann, & Jonkmann, 2020) and better language skills (Yildirim et al., 2020) relate to higher levels of student satisfaction.

We build on previous research and ask how and whether perceived characteristics of the study program (e.g., the internationality of the student body, overcrowded courses, frequency of exams, performance standards, teaching quality) affect the study satisfaction of international bachelor’s and master’s students in Germany.

In doing so, our study differs from previous studies as follows: We can look at the influence of course characteristics for international students over two years using panel regression analyses. We analyse both bachelor’s and master’s students. Moreover, we are the first to investigate how the perceived internationality of the student body in the chosen study program affects student satisfaction. Consequently, implications for the design of study programs can be derived from our research findings.

We use panel data on international students that have gained their university entrance qualification abroad, have a foreign nationality and migrated to Germany to participate in a bachelor’s or master’s degree program (Falk & Thies, 2022). The online surveys were sent to students who started their studies in the winter semester of 2017/18 at over 100 higher education institutions. 14 % of all international students at German higher education institutions registered for the study (N=4,751). We analyse data of students that were collected between the second and fifth semesters (summer semester 2018 – winter semester 2019/20) and thus focus on four time points during studies. We exclude all missing waves and keep students with at least two waves. We exclude a few students with missing values in completed waves (N=23) to keep the models simple. We impute missing values in completed waves via multiple chained equations as a robustness check. A sample of N=2,500 students remains. Our sample includes students from the humanities, economics, legal and social sciences (non-STEM), natural sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). We measure student satisfaction using a scale developed by Westermann, Heise, Spies, and Trautwein (1996). The scale entails items on the satisfaction with the contents and conditions of the study program and study-related burden coping (e.g., “I really enjoy what I’m studying”) that were combined to an index measure (αt1=0.72). Concerning study characteristics, students assessed whether their study program was characterized by high performance standards, overcrowded classes, a high frequency of academic assessments and an international mix of students on a scale of one to five (NEPS, 2018). The teaching quality was evaluated with three items (e.g., “The teaching staff explain the content in a clear and understandable manner”) that were combined to an index (αt1=0.81). We run hierarchical fixed effects regression analyses with robust standard errors to evaluate whether changes in the perception of program characteristics relate to changes in the study satisfaction over time. Fixed effects regression analyses focus on variations within individuals over time only (intra-individual changes). By applying a transformation called demeaning, all time-constant observed and unobserved heterogeneity is removed from the model. A Hausmann’s test showed that the fixed effects model is preferred over the random effects model. We check for heterogeneous effects by field of study (STEM/ non-STEM) and type of degree (bachelor’s/ master’s).

We expected that overcrowded courses, a high frequency of exams and high performance standards in a program relate to lower satisfaction levels. A high internationality of the student body and teaching quality are expected to relate to higher satisfaction levels. The first results show that the internationality of the student body and high performance standards do not significantly relate to higher satisfaction. Perceiving courses to be overcrowded (ß=-0.03; p<0.001) and a high frequency of exams (ß=-0.02; p<0.05) relate to lower satisfaction levels. However, the effects are small. Increasing teaching quality has a larger and significant positive effect on student satisfaction over time (ß=0.1; p<0.001). We additionally controlled for a subject change, study-related language skills, integration with regard to students and teachers, the semester grade point average, financial difficulties and general life satisfaction, which all had significant and positive effects on study satisfaction. However, over time, the general study satisfaction declined. Between STEM and non-STEM students and bachelor’s and master’s students, we do not find differential effects by group characteristics that are robust across different model specifications. The results show that improving student satisfaction is an individual requirement and an institutional task, as the teaching quality, course size and exam density affect satisfaction. Faculty representatives have leeway to increase the satisfaction of international students. In particular, the decline in student satisfaction over time makes it necessary to develop convincing didactic teaching concepts, offer didactic training to teachers, teach in smaller groups, and offer a lower examination density or alternative examination formats, even in higher semesters. Training for improving students’ learning strategies and resilience could help them to deal better with exam stress. Increasing the number of international students in the degree program, e.g., by fostering credit mobility such as ERASMUS, does not improve the satisfaction levels of degree-mobile students.

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