Analysing The Preferences Of The International Students On The Courses

Question: Discuss about the Analysing The Preferences Of The International Students On The Courses And Universities In Australia That They Have To Enrol Into. Answer: Introduction Phang, (2013) has opined that the internationalisation of Higher Equation (HE) over the past 30 years has experienced a major growth and in the year 1980s and 1990s, international education has emerged as a significant service industry. Thus, as a result of internationalisation, the flow of students across borders has increased. This is evident from the fact that in the past decades, 1.5 million students have studied outside their home countries and in the year 2000, there were 1.5 million international students across the globe in Higher Educational Institutions (OECD, 2012). As per the studies conducted by Phang, (2013), USA has been recognised as a destination country characterised with higher number of international students followed by UK and Australia. Over the past few decades, USA has been observed to have hosted more than one third of the international students across the globe. So, it can be said that education has emerged as an industry that has tremendous potential when c ompared to the other trade business. The statistics have revealed that around 2.9 million students from across the globe have been accepted by the tertiary education in the year 2006 and it is being predicted that by the end o the year 2025, around 7 million students would be accepted by the tertiary education. The increasing demand for international higher education service by the international students has created opportunities for the several destination countries like Australia especially for making significant contributions to the nations revenue (Soria Troisi, 2014). The spastics published by Australian Bureau Statistics revealed that exports from international education in Australia can be valued at $18.8 billion that has made the education service industry, the third largest export for the country in the year 2014-15 (Ministers for the Department of Education and Training, 2016). Thus, taking into consideration the above aspects, the researcher in the present study would strive towards analyzing the preference of the international students in context to the choice of Australian Universities and Courses. Project Objectives The researcher in the present study would strive towards analyzing the facts that encourages and motivate the international students to prefer Australian Universities and courses for their higher studies. Thus, the entire study would strive towards the successful achievement of the following research objectives: To investigate the factors that influence the decision making process of the international students to select higher education abroad. To analyze the factors those are considered by the international students while selecting Australian Universities and Courses. To provide recommendations with the help of Australian Universities and courses can attract more international students for enrolment. Project Scope The present study would be limited to Australian Universities and Courses and the factors of motivation for selecting the university and courses would be collected from the students who are enrolled in the Australian Universities undertaking post graduate and graduate courses. Moreover, since the study emphasizes upon analysing the factors that influence the enrolment of students to international Universities and courses, it is not possible to find relevant data from several host countries. Thus, the researcher has chosen Australian Universities and Courses and it is also because of the fact that Australia in the recent times has emerged as most preferred destination for international students for their higher education after USA. The other reason for choosing Australia as the destination mainly because international higher education for Australian Universities and courses has been successful when measured in terms of the number of international students enrolling in the Australian U niversities and the courses offered and the revenue generated by the education service industry for the country. As per Australian Bureau Statistics, exports from international education in Australia can be valued at $18.8 billion that has made the education service industry, the third largest export for the country in the year 2014-15 (Internationaleducation, 2017). On the other hand, the researcher in order to conduct the study efficiently would limit the scope to Melbourne since it considered as one of the best international centres of excellence an leadership in international education and the location for the study has also been selected taking into consideration the budget, geographical and time constraints. Moreover, the number of participants for the study can be looked upon to be dependent mainly upon the cooperation and permission from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that limited the sample size of the study. So, the study would be limited mainly to four HEIs in Victoria (Melbourne). Literature Review The studies conducted by Gonzalez et al., (2011) has revealed that while introducing a new product or service in the market, it is important for the producer to gain an enhanced understanding of the specific needs of the customers. Enhanced understanding of the specific needs proves to be beneficial in developing products and services capable of meeting the identified needs. So, in this context, James et al., (2010) proposed the fact that to gain an understanding of the specific needs of the international students while taking a decision to study abroad, there are five group of factors and include the characteristics of the Higher Education Institutions, characteristics of the host country, sources of information, the benefits and risks associated with the selection of the course and the destination. Bodycott, (2009) opined that there are various sources of information that the international students refer to in order to seek valuable information while taking the decision to study abroad and he also proposed that these sources of information not only facilitate the students with relevant information, rather it also influences the decision making process of the students for enrolling at HEIs in the destination country. The sources of information include the friends, relatives, family members, private agents, Australian Education Centres (AECs) and education exhibitions and other sources that include the magazines, internet (website of HEIs) and newspapers. In context to the second factor i.e. the characteristics of HEIs, Hasan et al., (2009) proposed the fact that students while taking the decision of studying aboard and selecting the destination tend to evaluate factors like the tution fees, the recognition of qualification, reputation of HEIs, standard of the course and programme, range of programmes and courses available, facilities provided by the HEI for international students, financial aid available for the international students, time required for completion of the courses, exemption systems and counselling services. In context to the third factor, i.e. the country characteristics, it was proposed by Eder et al., (2010) that while selecting the destination country for studying abroad, the students strive towards evaluating factors that include the cost of living, opportunity for migration, opportunity for part time jobs, safety, geographical proximity, political stability, cultural factors and issues and other facilities like public transportation available. In context to the fourth factors i.e. benefit associated, Salisbury et al., (2009) opined that consumers strive towards trading off against the price they tend to pay for the products and services and then compare the results in the perception of value. Thus, if the value received is high, the willingness on the part of the customers to adopt the new products and services is more. Thus, in context to selecting Australia for higher studies, the students from the Southeast Asian countries, Middle-east and Pacific Islands perceive that by studying in Australia, the opportunities to have good carriers in their home countries would increase and also would lead to enhanced experience. Other benefits that are perceived by the international students include the language improvement, intercultural exchange. In context to the fifth factor i.e. the risk associated, it was put forward by Salisbury et al., (2011) that perceived risk can be referred to as uncertainty on the part of the consumers due to their inability to foresee the consequence of their decision to make the purchase. Thus in case of the decision making process of the international student to study abroad in countries like Australia, the student might face challenges in terms of cultural shock, homesickness, problems in speaking and understanding English, financial constraint and racial discrimination. Thus from the above discussions, it can be said that there are various factors that tend to make a significant influence on the decision making process of the students while selecting a destination country and a university for studying abroad. Problem Statement The studies of Mpinganjira, (2009) has revealed that global mobility in higher education services has emerged as a major factor by the developed countries like USA, UK and Australia and other non-speaking countries like Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. English has been recognised as a global language for communication across the globe and thus has influenced the HEIs while offering international programmes. Moreover, in the recent times, there has been an increase in the demand for studying abroad on the part of the international students and so, it has become important for the HEIs of the countries to understand the specific needs of the international students and the factors that encourage and influence their decision of selecting the destination country and university for undertaking higher education (Phang, 2013). Thus, taking into consideration the above aspect, the researcher in the present study would emphasize upon analysing the factors that influence the decision making process of the international students while making their decision to study abroad and while selecting the destination country and HEI. Research Gap Analysing the available literature, the researcher observed that there exist several studies that has emphasised upon how the international students select their destinations for studying abroad and little focus has been upon the factors that tends to make a significant influence on their decision to select the destination country, course and the HEI (Presley et al., 2010). Moreover, studies in context to Australian Universities and Australia as a destination country are also limited. Thus, the researcher undertook the study to analyze the factors that influence their decision making process of selecting the destination country and universities especially in context to Australia. Moreover, it would prove to be beneficial in making significant contributions to the enhancement of the existing knowledge and literature that would prove to be beneficial for the HEIs to design their courses as per the specific needs of the international students and would also assist the government of the countries to make efforts in developing the country to be a country of choice for international studies by the international students. Hypothesis HEI characteristics positively influence the decision of the international students for studying abroad. Host country characteristics positively influence the decision of the international students for studying abroad. Sources of information positively influence the decision of the international students for studying abroad. Benefits associated with studying abroad positively influence the decision of the international students for studying abroad. Risks associated with studying abroad negatively influence the decision of the international students for studying abroad. Research Questions: Primary Question What is the decision making process involved in selecting the destination country and universities on the part of the student while making the decision of studying abroad? Secondary Questions What are the factors that influence the decision making process of the international students to select higher education abroad? What are the factors those are considered by the international students while selecting Australian Universities and Courses? What are the ways in which Australian Universities and courses can attract more international students for enrolment? Research Design and Methodology Quantitative Research In the present study the researcher would strive towards identifying and evaluating the factors that influences the decision making process of the international students while making the decision of studying abroad. Thus, in order to meet the purpose of the study and as per the nature of the study, the researcher has focused upon collecting both the primary and the secondary data (Brannen, 2017). The secondary data for the research would be collected from online sources that would include the peer reviewed articles and journals published online, early research studies conducted by scholars published online, government website and industry reports (Muijs, 2010). The researcher would collect the secondary data from offline sources like the research papers that would be made available in the library and the lecture notes and study materials provided by the mentors. The primary data taking into consideration the nature and the purpose of the study would be collected by the researcher by conducting a questionnaire survey targeted towards the international students enrolled in graduate and post graduate courses in four HEIs in Victoria (Melbourne). Research Instrument Sheperis et al., (2016) opined that instrument is the generic term that is used by the researcher for a measurement device including survey, test and questionnaires. Thus, instrument can broadly be classified into two braid categories that include the researcher completed and subject completed. The major difference is that the researcher completed instruments are the ones that are administered by the researcher and subject completed instruments are the ones that completed by the participants (Leech Onwuegbuzie, 2009). Thus, in context to the particular study, the researcher would use performance checklists and time and motion logs as researcher completed instruments and questionnaires as the subject completed instruments. Quantitative Data Analysis Process The researcher in the present study would make an effective use of the statistical tools and techniques and software like SPSS and MS Excel to present and analyze the collected data. The researcher with the help of statistical tools and techniques would emphasise upon testing the set hypothesis developed on the basis of the dependent and dependent variables (Boone Boone, 2012). The dependent variable include the process of selection of the destination country and HEI while make the decision of studying abroad by the international students. The independent variables would include the HEI characteristics, Host country characteristics, Sources of information, Benefits associated, Risks associated. The researcher would analyze the collected data with the help of following tools and techniques: Descriptive statistics Assist in comparing and analysing the respondents responses in demographical terms. Simple and Multiple Regression Analysis Assist the researcher in analysing the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables (Johnson Wichern, 2014). It would also assist in testing the set hypothesis. Pearson Correlation Coefficient Testing Assist the researcher to determine the strength of relationship that would exist between the variables adopted for the particular study. Sampling and Sample Size The researcher in order to collect the response of the international student would conduct a questionnaire survey targeted towards the students of four HEIs in Victoria (Melbourne). The researcher would target a sample of 200 students. However, while selecting the universities, the researcher would use non-probabilistic sampling since the selection would be based mainly upon the permission granted for conducting the survey by the HEIs (Lohr, 2009). On the other hand, the students for survey would be selected with the help of probabilistic sampling since it would prove to be beneficial in providing equal opportunity to all the participants to participate in the survey. Questionnaire Design The questionnaire would consist of closed ended questions with limited number of options to avoid confusion on the part of the students while answering (Krosnick Presser, 2010). Moreover, closed ended question would be easily to analyze and before conducting the actual survey, a pilot survey would be consulted to analyse whether the question is well understood or not and required changes would be made as per the feedback before the final survey. Reliability and Validity of Data The reliability of secondary data would be ensured by including only those articles and journals those are peer reviewed, collecting information from government websites and education industry reports and including offline sources like research papers in library made available by the mentor (Marshall et al., 2010). Validity of the secondary data would be ensured by including only those data and information those are published within the time span of 2009 to 2016. In order to ensure the validity of the primary data, the researcher would include questionnaires those would be properly filled up and conduct a pilot survey testing whether the questions and options are easily understood. To ensure the reliability of primary data, the researcher would ensure zero level manipulation. Research Limitations The researcher in the present study would face constraints in terms of budget, geographic proximity and time. So, the researcher would limit the study to only four HEIs in Victoria (Melbourne) and would target a small sample of 200 international students and would conduct the survey via mail (Marshall Rossman, G2014). Time Schedule Activities Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Introduction Objective Setting for the Research Data (Primary and Secondary) Collection Plan Reviewing the Literature Research Methodology Development Primary Data Collection Interpreting and Analyzing the Primary Data Conclusion and Recommendations Conclusion Thus it can be said that the study would be a quantitative research and would be based upon both the primary and secondary data to test the hypothesis and analyse the alignment that exist between the practical observations of the researcher gained from the survey and the theoretical knowledge gained from the critical review of the available literature. References Bodycott, P. (2009). Choosing a higher education study abroad destination: What mainland Chinese parents and students rate as important.Journal of research in International education,8(3), 349-373. Boone, H. N., Boone, D. A. (2012). Analyzing likert data.Journal of extension,50(2), 1-5. Brannen, J. 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