Özet:

The aim of this study was to investigate the causes of international higher education students prefer Turkey. The study is designed in a case study pattern in qualitative research techniques or methods to serve the purpose of the research. The study group of this research occurs 25 international students, studying in private and government universities in Turkey in the 2019-2020 academic year spring term. The study group is selected as to maximum diversity method from purposeful sampling methods. The research data are collected through one-to-one calls, video calls with recording capability, and phone calls, using a semi-structured interview technique. Data are analyzed by the content analysis method. The findings of the research have tried to be determined the international students’ preference reasons for universities in Turkey, expectations, and satisfaction. According to the findings, ıt is observed that international students choose Turkey because of the quality of education, religious life, cultural affinity, scholarship opportunities, and emotional closeness. International students indicated that they are satisfied with being in Turkey, their university education, and lecturers in the academic sense, and almost all the students have said they would recommend it to others to study in Turkey. It has been observed that international students encounter language learning difficulties, economic problems, biased attitudes, racist reactions, cultural adaptation, questioning of private information, and bureaucratic problems. It has been identified that students want to receive education in European countries outside of Turkey as an alternative.

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