The Importance of Higher Education Quality for Mobility Intentions. Evidence from a Western Balkan Country

The Western Balkan region confronts a pronounced brain drain phenomenon, as its highly educated youth seek enhanced opportunities abroad. Grounded in the Social Cognitive Theory, this paper explores the decision-making process of Macedonian youngsters and scrutinizes how personal, social, and educational factors shape their mobility intentions. The findings driven from a survey encompassing 1150 university students, obtained through descriptive analysis using Python 3.7 and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling via a high-level SEM tool for R, reveal valuable insights that describe the complex interplay of students' expectations, subjective norms, higher education quality, and professors' availability, crucial elements in mitigating brain drain trends. The implications delineate explicit obstacles to developing higher education quality, accentuating the importance of tailoring university services to students' needs in terms of a better understanding of the higher education system's potential. The conclusions identify indicators that can assist in describing the youngsters' mobility intentions, contribute to monitoring the brain drain process through higher education attributes, and highlight strategies for facilitating the system's competitiveness.