Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Eva Eckenh<strong>of</strong>er
The positive changes <strong>of</strong> this relation <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>essional talk (4) towards heterophily and better integration
<strong>of</strong> foreign students is visible in Figure 3:
Figure 3: Relation 4 (Discussing Topic) in 2010 (left) and 2011 (right)
The nodes in figure 3 are arranged by spring embedder and <strong>the</strong> colour <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> node and its shape
indicates <strong>the</strong> country <strong>of</strong> origin <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> PhD student (red and round – Czech; grey and squared – Slovak;
green and triangle-shaped - Foreigner). In <strong>the</strong> year 2010 <strong>the</strong> foreign students built a clique in which
<strong>the</strong>y discussed <strong>the</strong>ir dissertations between each o<strong>the</strong>r, while during <strong>the</strong> year 2011 this clique opened
up and more Czech and Slovak students discuss <strong>the</strong>ir topics with foreign students. Related to <strong>the</strong>
discussion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> topic is also <strong>the</strong> next relation <strong>of</strong> asking for pr<strong>of</strong>essional advice which is displayed in
figure 4.
Figure 4: Relation 5 (Pr<strong>of</strong>essional Advice) in 2010 (left) and 2011 (right)
While in figure 4 on <strong>the</strong> left side (2010) foreign students build a cluster for giving pr<strong>of</strong>essional advice
this is changed and opened on <strong>the</strong> right side for <strong>the</strong> year 2011. Several foreign students (green
nodes) are located in <strong>the</strong> centre <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> network, surrounded by red and grey nodes (Czech and
Slovak students). In both <strong>the</strong> years Slovak students are mixed with Czech students. In 2011 (right
side), additionally we find a separated component consisting <strong>of</strong> Czech and foreign students.
Beside <strong>the</strong> relational questions, students were also asked a question concerning trust, which is used
by <strong>the</strong> European Value Studies (Beugelsdijk et al. 2004): “Generally speaking, would you say that
most people can be trusted or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?”
Table 3: Trust Values
2010 2011
Most people can be trusted 44.00% 42.22%
Can't be too careful 28.00% 24.44%
Don't know 28.00% 17.78%
O<strong>the</strong>r 15.56%
Table 3 shows that on a general level trust has sunk, but also <strong>the</strong> attitude that one can’t be too careful
when dealing with people, this share was moved to o<strong>the</strong>r answers, which were for instance: “I don't
trust people until we have a personal relationship”, “I set different level <strong>of</strong> trust based on information
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