Transformations  in
Business & Economics

FOREIGN STUDENTS AT MEDICAL SCHOOLS IN ROMANIA: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ABOUT MOTIVATIONS, PERCEPTIONS AND INTENTION AFTER GRADUATION
Ana-Maria Marinoiu, Laura Wahed, Razvan Zaharia, Rodica Milena Zaharia

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the medical higher education provided to foreign students in a Romanian university. The study focuses on the reasons why foreign students choose to study medicine in Romania, what the image of the medical education provided by the Romanian universities is and what their intentions to practice medicine in Romania are after graduation. This study adds to the literature as an empirical investigation on a sample of 233 foreign students who study medicine in a university of Romania. Although the results are not valid for the entire number of foreign medical students in Romania, and although they have been interpreted in a qualitative way, they are consistent with the results of other studies. The findings of this study may be relevant not only for the university where investigation has carried out. The outcome can be very helpful for other medical faculties, which train foreign students or intend to internationalize their teaching process, in order to address better to the specificity of teaching medicine to foreigners and to develop a strategy that does not concentrate only on low tuition fees, but also on the quality of education provided. In addition, the results of this study may be useful to the authorities in identifying the barriers perceived by foreign graduates in continuing their practice as doctors in Romania.

KEYWORDS: medical higher education, foreign students, study abroad, doctors' migration.

JEL classification: I21, I23, F22.