UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY

Abstract

This paper shows the results of a research that corresponds to the field of Internationalization of Higher Education, with the aim of knowing the students' perception of this modality. The study issue is linked, especially, to the internationalization strategy called virtual student mobility. Based on the voluntary participation of students, the research shows their availability towards virtual international mobility and degree of knowledge about international programs and calls. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied in two Mexican universities in order to determine its reliability, using the SPSS statistical package, by means of Cronbach's Alpha (α) and McDonalds' Omega coefficients, which indicate good internal consistency (α = 0.862; ω = 0.860). The results of the factor analysis performed explained 66.09 % of the total variance. The study showed that the items that make up the questionnaire present factor loadings greater than 0.50 within their factor and communalities greater than 0.40. The study's conclusion indicates the validity and reliability of the technique used to determine the willingness of university students to undertake virtual international mobility and their degree of knowledge about programs in which they can participate.