Do Student Exchanges Benefit Both Countries?

Seong-Hun Yun, a scholar at Dongguk University in Seoul, Korea, has published a new article. The piece,"Does Student Exchange Bring Symmetrical Benefits to Both Countries? An Exploration Case for China and Korea," appeared in the latest issue of the International Journal of Communication. Yun’s article is an evaluation of three perceived public diplomacy outcomes of education-based international exchanges: relationship building, changes in attitudes, and changes in beliefs towards the host country among international students. But are the benefits of such bilateral exchanges benefit both participating countries equally? The author administered a 21-question survey to exchange students in China and Korea to gauge their opinions on the host country, their likeliness to recommend future exchange programs to the host country to their peers, and their intention to remain in contact with acquaintances from the host country. The results from the survey revealed an imbalance in benefits between the two countries, casting “doubt on the long-held claim that student exchange is a symmetrical tool of public diplomacy that equally benefits the countries engaged.”  

The full article is available here.

Photo by Exchanges Photos | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0