Retaining international students for advanced study in Malaysia : an analysis of investment and consumption motive

The shift of intention from merely focusing on internationalisation as a source of revenue generation to a more diverse objective of talent development that promotes research and innovation is imperative. Thus, the ability of the host countries to retain quality international students for advanced study is nevertheless essential. Despite huge literature concentrating on identifying the factors that can attract potential international students to enrol in host countries, few known studies however, were carried out to identify the factors that are able to influence the choice of the currently enrolled international students to remain in Malaysia for their advanced study. A combination of different probability sampling methods was used with the first stage involving the stratified random sampling where higher education institutions were divided into five strata, followed by the quota random sampling where students were then stratified by their level of studies. Through this sampling, a total number of 1,000 international students were selected. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed but only 753 were valid to be analysed. Using the Binary Logit Model, the study identified the educational choice motive that influences the decision of international students to remain in Malaysia for their advanced study and to recommend Malaysia to their friends. The finding shows that the consumption motive dominates the investment motive, suggesting that students‟ decision to remain in Malaysia for advanced study is highly related to the consumption motive as compared to the investment motive. Moreover, this research also found that both investment and consumption motives influenced the currently enrolled international students to recommend Malaysia to their friends and families. The findings from this study lend support to the commonly held view that the quality of education matters

Factors affecting choice for education destination: A case study of international students at Universiti Utara Malaysia

The importance of higher education services as a new source of income has intensified the effort not only by the developed nations but the developing countries alike, to offer their services to the international students. Most countries recognize that maintaining quality education is crucial as to ensure the long term competitiveness. Quality education signifies a very broad definition and it is vital for each country to correctly identify the factors that really attract international students to pursue their studies in particular places. With regard to the issue, this study attempts to identify the possible factors that may influence the decision making of international student when choosing higher education destination. In order to arrive at the result, we carry out the study by determining the factors that significantly influence the international students to recommend Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) to their friends in their home country. The study is conducted using a sample of 300 international students. The factor analysis and a regression using the logit model are used. The finding suggests that excellent services, pleasant social environment, first class physical infrastructure and high quality of lecturers matter

Retaining international students for advanced degree in Malaysia: quality matters

As the world is becoming more globalised, cross border education continues to preoccupy the agenda of internationalisation of higher education with more and more countries participating as education providers. Competition for students requires the education providers to step-up in their quality assurance and governance as to ensure their sustainability in years to come. The shift of intention from merely focusing on internationalisation as a source of revenue generation to a more diverse objective of talent development that promotes research and innovation is imperative. Thus, the ability of the host countries to attract high quality students and retain them for further degree is nevertheless essential. Despite huge literature concentrating on identifying the factors that can attract potential international students to enrol in host countries, few known studies have been carried out to identify the factors that are able to influence the choice of the currently enrolled international students to remain in Malaysia for their further degrees. Using the data of 753 international students, gathered from a sample of few universities in Malaysia, this particular study employs a Logit Model in an attempt to identify the educational choice motives that influence the decision of the currently enrolled international students to remain in Malaysia for their higher level of study. The finding shows that the consumption motive dominates the investment motive, suggesting that students’ decision to remain in Malaysia for further degree is highly related to the consumption motive as compared to the investment motive. A comfortable study environment, high quality services and facilities, excellent faculty members and easy access to information regarding matters related to education in Malaysia significantly influence the students’ decision to stay to further their studies. The findings from this study lend support to a commonly held view that the quality of education matters

Going for Advanced Degrees? A Study Among the Currently Enrolled International Students in Malaysia Using a Sequential Approach

Malaysia has positioned itself to be a regional higher education hub and targeted to increase its number of international students to 250,000 by 2025, from 81,424 students in 2013. In the face of COVID-19, Malaysia is expected to experience stiff competitions with other countries in attracting international students. In essence, apart from attracting new students to come and study, pursuing the currently enrolled international students to stay on for advanced degrees is equally crucial to achieving the objective of the internationalisation agenda. Many studies have been done on factors affecting the decision of international students in choosing a host country. However, the retention and its sequential nature have been largely ignored. This paper aims to examine the probability of retention using a sequential approach. The descriptive statistics analysis found that Malaysia could expect that around 42% of its currently enrolled international students will remain in Malaysia. Results of the estimated sequential logit model reveal that university services are the significant factor that influences the probability of retention, whereas the education cost is found to be insignificant. Thus, consumption motives dominate the investment motives in terms of the probability of retention. Based on the findings, various policy implications are suggested to improve the retention rate of international students in Malaysia

Recommendation For Higher Education Destination: What Matters?

The internationalisation of higher education seems to preoccupy the agenda for globalisation with free mobilisation of students across borders. 'Student hub' is now becoming a common term to many and there are increasing numbers of emerging economies competing for international students focusing on income generation. The ability of a host country to attract the international students depends on many factors, and recommendations or reviews by friends or families who are currently study or had experience studied in a particular host country found to be an effective marketing tool. Based on the data of 753 international students, gathered from a sample of few universities in Malaysia, this particular study employs a Logit Model in an attempt to identify the factors that affect the decision of the currently enrolled international students to recommend Malaysia as a study destination to their friends and families. The result shows that the university environment, university service, academic quality and social factor affect the decision of the international students to recommend Malaysia. This outcome is consistent with other previous studies who found that the quality of services provided by the host country in general and university in particular, level of discrimination and education cost influence individuals willingness to recommend the host nation to their peers. Interestingly, while education cost matters, it however shows the positive relationship between cost and the tendency to recommend Malaysia as higher education destination, thus signifies that higher cost reflect quality

Factors affecting recommendation for higher education destination: The case of Malaysia

The ability of a host country to attract international students depends on many factors, and recommendations or reviews by friends or families who are currently study or had experience studied in a particular host country found to be an effective marketing tool. Based on the data of 753 international students, gathered from a sample of few universities in Malaysia, this study employs a Logit Model in an attempt to identify the factors that affect the decision of the currently enrolled international students to recommend Malaysia to their friends and families as a study abroad destination. The result shows that the university environment, university service, academic quality and social factor affect the decision of the international students to recommend Malaysia. Interestingly, while education cost significantly affects the decision to recommend, it however shows the positive relationship which may suggests that higher cost reflects quality

Analysing The Factors Affecting International Students to Advance to Postgraduate Studies in A Host Country

In business, the strategy of keeping your current customers to continue using your product is as fundamentally important as competing for new customers, and this strategy holds in most instances. With the internalisation of higher education and the consideration of higher education as tradable services, the focus on promoting education to attract more students from outside the country is accelerating and becoming more competitive. Similar to other services or products, retaining existing students to advance to a higher degree is equally important as searching for new students to enrol. Hence, this study investigates the factors that affect international students choice to remain in Malaysia for their postgraduate study after the completion of their undergraduate programme. Using data gathered from one of the public universities in Malaysia, this study employed a logit model to identify the educational choice motives that influence the decision of the currently enrolled international students to remain in Malaysia for their postgraduate study. An in-depth interview was also conducted to have a close view of the perception of the participants. The finding indicates that the consumption and investment motive contributed only partly in explaining their choice to remain in Malaysia. In particular, this study suggests that a good study environment at the university is the most likely factor that influences the currently enrolled international students decision to remain in Malaysia to further a degree, thus signifying the importance of consumption motives in determining their educational choice

Genome-wide association study of B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma identifies 3q27 as a susceptibility locus in the Chinese population

10.1038/ng.2666Nature Genetics457804-807NGEN

Large-Scale Whole-Genome Sequencing of Three Diverse Asian Populations in Singapore

Because of Singapore's unique history of immigration, whole-genome sequence analysis of 4,810 Singaporeans provides a snapshot of the genetic diversity across East, Southeast, and South Asia.</p