International student mobility and labour market outcomes: the role of personality dimensions

Abstract

International student mobility (ISM) is often perceived to enhance career prospects. Surprisingly, the role of personality traits in explaining why students go abroad and relationships between ISM and labour market outcomes have received scant scholarly attention. Based on survey data from Norwegian graduates, we found that degree and credit mobility graduates were significantly more extraverted and open than non-mobile peers and that degree mobiles were more agreeable than both credit and non-mobiles. Furthermore, results revealed that whereas degree mobility is related to both wage and Occupational self-efficiacy (OSE), this was not the case for credit mobility. However, personality did affect the associations between degree mobility and labour market outcomes. In sum, our study suggests that the distinction between degree and credit mobility is important when considering the labour market outcomes of ISM and that personality does play a role in the links between degree mobility and labour market outcomes.