CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE LEARNING FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

This paper aims to investigate the impact of Erasmus students' beliefs, social habits and cultural values on the learning process, the interrelationships between the "soft" and "hard" side of the learning process as well as the role of the lecturer to moderate these interrelationships. The conceptual model of the learning process tries to identify the main interrelationships between the "soft" and "hard" side of the learning process. It reflects the interdependence and hierarchy between the values, skills and knowledge in developing professional competence as an outcome of the transformative process of education and learning as stated above. It has been tested three consequtive years with Erasmus students at Varna University of Economics. The investigated quality dimensions were three, namely service quality perceptions, quality, of education and perceptions of integration.