title: Perceptions of dental students in Japanese national universities about studying abroad.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dental faculties in Japan have organised many short-term international exchange programs to enable their undergraduates to study abroad. However, not many students apply for those programs. In this present study, we attempted to clarify the factors that discourage undergraduate dental students from studying abroad.
  
  
  METHODS
  We administered a questionnaire survey to 512 undergraduate dental students in three national universities located in different areas in Japan.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although 61.7% of the participants expressed interest in studying abroad, only 19.1% of them had prior experiences of study abroad or plans to do so. Their main worries were about lack of sufficient language ability in academic fields. Comparing those who were interested in studying abroad with those who were not revealed significant differences regarding their concern about lack of language ability and lack of specialised knowledge in dentistry. Participants who did not want to study abroad indicated that they did not perceive a purpose in doing so and cited not having foreign friends as a problem. Household income was significantly correlated with concerns about overall expenses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, language ability and academic knowledge appeared to be the two strongest factors affecting dental students' consideration of studying abroad. Dental schools in Japan can use the findings of this study to improve their undergraduate exchange programs in such a way as to stimulate greater interest amongst their students.
authors.affiliation: Department of International Collaboration Development for Dentistry, Institute of Biomedical & Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oka
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.affiliation: Liaison Center for Innovative Dentistry, Graduate School of Dentistry, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Department of International Collaboration Development for Dentistry, Institute of Biomedical & Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
authors.forename: P T T
authors.initials: PTT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D004497:Education, Dental; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007393:International Educational Exchange; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D057566:Self Report; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: dental education; exchange programs; studying abroad