A PRELIMINARY FINDING ON INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS CHOICE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITI PENDIDIKAN SULTAN IDRIS

Authors

  • Suriani Abdul Hamid Faculty of Management & Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
  • Suzyanty Mohd Shokory Faculty of Management & Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
  • Khalip Musa Faculty of Management & Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
  • Marinah Awang Faculty of Management & Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia

Keywords:

international student, Malaysia, internationalization of education, higher learning

Abstract

The Malaysia government has announced to make Malaysia as an education hub in Asia. The aim is to have 150,000 international students by 2015 and 200,000 by year 2020. Thus, the role of marketing which previously were non-existent in most universities, has grown drastically. In order to attract more international students to the country and achieve the nation’s goal to become a regional education hub, a comprehensive marketing strategy should be considered. Therefore, it is important for Malaysian higher institutions to identify the factors that attract international students to choose Malaysia as a place to study. Thus, this study identifies the factors crucial for attracting international students to study in Malaysia by using Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) as sample. This study also aims to indentify the best approach to attract students to study at this university. Results of the study show the top five important factors are English usage, courses offered, accommodation cost, course duration and information from internet. The findings reveal that recommendations from friends and family members are the two most important approaches to attract more students to study in Malaysia, which clearly reflects the importance of word of mouth as a promotional tool. It is hoped that the finding of this study can provide some insights to higher education institutions in Malaysia and UPSI especially to understand the determinants of student choice to study in Malaysia.



Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2013-10-23

How to Cite

Abdul Hamid, S., Mohd Shokory, S., Musa, K., & Awang, M. (2013). A PRELIMINARY FINDING ON INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS CHOICE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITI PENDIDIKAN SULTAN IDRIS. Management Research Journal, 2, 122–129. Retrieved from https://ejournal.upsi.edu.my/index.php/MRJ/article/view/1444

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 > >>