On the link between the Estonian language needs and the future plans of the international students of the University of Tartu

To compensate for the decrease in the local population and contribute to Estonia's economic development, the government's migration policy as well as the language policies of the state and the University of Tartu are aimed at the inclusion of international students in the Estonian society and labour market, creating opportunities for those students through learning the Estonian language. For language policies to be successful, it is important to understand the experiences and needs of the participants involved. This paper focuses on the perspectives of international master's students at the University of Tartu, to map their language learning experiences and needs, including their interest in acquiring Estonian to stay working in Estonia. The study draws on a survey conducted among the international students enrolled in an English -medium master's programmes at the University of Tartu in 2023 with 175 participants. The paper shows that international students take an interest in acquiring Estonian at the university as well as beyond it. They do not oppose the obligation to take an introductory Estonian course; moreover, their interest in taking Estonian courses is greater than is expected from them for obtaining their mandatory credits. They mostly learn Estonian out of interest in Estonia and language acquisition in general. However, among the respondents, there are those who learn Estonian with the desire to find employment in the local labour market. The students are mostly satisfied with the offer, availability, and quality of the Estonian courses. Nevertheless, they would need more opportunities to communicate in Estonian and with Estonians, as they are interested in becoming involved in local social networks and wish that the university would create more opportunities like this for them. Furthermore, those students who aim to stay in Estonia after graduation are interested in learning Estonian more intensively than it is currently possible.