factors affecting satisfaction regarding students experience in ho chi minh city

In Vietnam, a 5-dimension model was proposed and tested to evaluate the satisfaction of students with public education Dinh et al., 2021 with the 5 dimensions being access to education,

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY

HO CHI MINH CAMPUS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figure

List of Tables

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY AND DATA 5

3.1 Methodology 5

3.1.1 Independent Variable 5

3.1.2 Dependent Variable 6

3.1.3 Questionnaire design 7

3.2 Data……… 7

Chapter 4 RESULT… 8

4.1 Evaluate the reliability of the scale using Cronbach's Alpha coefficient 8

4.2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 9

4.2.1 Exploratory factor analysis EFA of the independent variable 9

4.2.2 Exploratory factor analysis EFA for the dependent variable 10

4.3 Pearson's correlation analysis 12

4.4 Multiple Linear Regression Analysis 12

4.4.1 The results of multiple linear regression analysis 13

4.4.2 Hypothesis testing 14

4.4.3 Check the fit of the model 16

4.4.4 White test for Heteroscedasticity 17

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 18

Appendix

References

List of Figures

Figure 1 - Research Model 6

Figure 2 - KMO and Bartlett's Test of the independent variable 9

Figure 3 - Rotated Component Matrix of independent variables 10

Figure 4 - KMO and Bartlett's Test of the dependent variable 11

Figure 5 - Rotated Component Matrix of dependent variables 12

Figure 6 Pearson analysis result 12 –

Figure 7 - Regression analysis result and Durbin Watson 13

Figure 8 - Coefficients regression analysis 14

Figure 9 - Evaluation of the fit of the regression model with the cross product 17

List of Tables

Table 1 - Cronbach's Alpha results 8

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

From a poor nation suffering from the aftermath of the Vietnam war to a country with one

of the fastest growing economies (GDP growth of 2.8 percent according to the World Bank), Vietnam has come a long way People’s standard of living has increased considerably: quality of food has improved, water sources became safer, crime rate diminished, many job opportunities arose, etc In other words, their living conditions have improved tremendously The perk of not having to constantly worry about their personal safety and basic needs is that people start to focus more on factors that benefit the society in general, such as education

Since the new generation is raised in a time of advanced science and technology, students grew dependent on convenience and they obviously expect the education system, specifically the schools they are attending, to provide such needs At present, universities cannot simply just provide students with knowledge alone and nothing else because if that were the case, the mentioned university would not be open for long due to the lack of students’ attendance There are many factors that a school or a university have to consider when attracting and retaining students Statistically, Vietnam has one of the lowest college students rate of 28.3% According to the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City report, there were 2252 dropouts in the first semester

of 2019-2020 In Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, 2135 students were warned due to poor grades and performance, of which 257 were expelled In Viet Nam National University, 454 students were expelled Most of the cases mentioned above were reported to be mainly because of the lack of interest in the curriculum and in the university environment Furthermore, in Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry, more than 2500 cases of late or missed payment were reported due to inability to cover the high tuition fee

It is vital to understand that students’ satisfaction plays an essential role in improving the nation's education system and this cannot be overlooked or taken lightly This research aims to determine the factors affecting students’ satisfaction in Ho Chi Minh city in order to help universities and schools adjust appropriately to appeal to more students and to provide better experiences for those already attending university Increasing students’ satisfaction can help improve the rate of students applying for universities and thereby, increase Vietnam’s education level

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

A great deal of literature has been written about factors that influence students’ satisfaction with their higher education service Research around the world has been extensively carried out in certain years However, researchers all use vastly different models and methods to evaluate the satisfaction of university students and there does not yet exist a consistent method that can evaluate students’ satisfaction in Asian countries in general and Vietnam in particular due to the many differences in approach to education and teaching methodology

In Vietnam, a 5-dimension model was proposed and tested to evaluate the satisfaction of students with public education (Dinh et al., 2021) with the 5 dimensions being access to education, facilities and teaching equipment, educational environment, educational activities, and educational outcomes This research referred to this model and attempts to suggest a model with variables more suitable to the higher education landscape in Vietnam The proposed variables are as follows:

Students’ satisfaction

Beyond careful inspection, satisfaction may seem like a simple, or intuitive, definition to grasp However, there has been a myriad of attempts at explaining and quantifying the concept, along with finding its correlation with other factors in the higher education landscape and how these variables all affect each other

Satisfaction has been defined as the consumers’ fulfilment response, a judgement that a service or product feature, or the service or the product itself, is providing fulfilment and pleasure related to consumption of goods and services The concept also encompasses the phenomenon of under-fulfilment and over-fulfilment (Tuan, 2012) Satisfaction, in the concept of education, has been also viewed as disconfirmation, or the difference between the students’ perceived satisfaction from their initial expectations (Lai et al., 2019) Student satisfaction has also been said to refer to the favorability of a student’s perceived evaluations of the outcomes and experiences in education Because of this, satisfaction is influenced by students’ overall experiences and their academic accomplishments (Letcher and Neves)

Satisfaction has also been defined as the consumers' fulfilment response, a judgement that

a service or product feature, or the service or the product itself, is providing fulfilment and pleasure related to consumption of goods and services The concept also encompasses the phenomenon of under-fulfilment and over-fulfilment (Tuan, 2012) Satisfaction, in the concept of education, has been also viewed as disconfirmation, or the difference between the students' perceived satisfaction from their initial expectations (Lai et al., 2019) Student satisfaction has also been said to refer to the favorability of a student's perceived evaluations of the outcomes and experiences in education

Satisfaction, because of this, is influenced by students' overall experiences and their academic accomplishments (Letcher and Neves, 2010)

Service quality

It is not easy to pinpoint what service quality, or just quality, actually is Some papers have stated that quality is the customers’ perception about a service’s experience, while others have reported that quality is a general assessment of goods and services (Tuan, 2012)

Although there is yet to be a shared consensus on the exact definition of quality, many researchers have attempted to adapt the SERVQUAL models or some variations of the model to measure and quantify how quality service could affect students’ satisfaction with their higher education services (Dinh et al., 2021)

Educational activities

This variable refers to extracurricular activities and knowledge that students gain outside

of classroom hours It has been proven that teachers’ assistance outside of classroom lectures and course administration had a significant impact on the satisfaction of university students (Dinh et al., 2021)

Online study services such as online portals and online management services, along with extra-curricular activities such as attending conferences, workshops, seminars, webinars, field trips, academic competitions organized by the university and university clubs These activities not only help with students’ academic achievements but also boost their satisfaction toward the education service (Khan and Yildiz, 2020)

Facilities and teaching equipments

We define ‘facilities’ in this study as the necessary equipment used by lecturers at universities, such as computer and IT services, materials, laboratories, and libraries Previous worldwide research has found conflicting outcomes regarding the relationships between university facilities and student satisfaction, attendance, discipline, and completion rate McGowen (2007), for example, showed no statistically significant association between the satisfaction of students and school facilities using multiple regression analyses; instead, students' conduct and disciplines were more indicative of their assessment outcomes In contrast, O'Neill and Oates (2001) discovered that adequate school facilities resulted in higher attendance rates and lower dropout rates Only a few studies on factors impacting teaching and learning effectiveness have been undertaken in Vietnamese institutions

According to Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan (2012) study, the factor facility has the most significant impact on student satisfaction variance The facilities are the most critical factor in

student satisfaction The physical environment must support the learning process Cleanliness and distraction-free classrooms are required Textbooks and reference materials should be adequate and current Students should have adequate access to digital repositories Libraries in Vietnam are currently open throughout the day and closed at night In order to improve student satisfaction, longer working hours in libraries should be a concern

Tuition fee

Previous research shows no correlation between cost perceptions and student satisfaction (Khan and Yildiz, 2020) Furthermore, they claimed that cost perception did not have a substantial impact on a university's reputation The research of these findings is inconclusive (Dr Nguyen, 2012) According to Nguyen's findings, perceived price fairness (tuition fees) has the second-largest impact on student satisfaction variation The study of (Khan & Yildiz, 2020) is also in conflict with (Shurden et al., 2010), which indicated that the cost of tuition is a critical aspect in a student's decision-making process when it comes to institution selection, or, in other words, overall student satisfaction with their educational experience Increasing the expense of higher education may drive students away from universities, jeopardizing their chances of survival in a competitive higher education market

Teaching curriculum

According to previous research, there is a link between student satisfaction and the quality

of the teaching curriculum Teaching methods, evaluation methods, and the emphasis on student capability development are all factors that contribute to student satisfaction with educational activities These variables have a significant impact on the teacher's function in the classroom The quality of lecturers directly impacts the quality of education (Dinh et al., 2021) Course structure, also known as topic selection and organization and sequencing of course content (Carnegie Mellon University, 2019), contributes to better learning outcomes for students throughout their academic careers, particularly first-year students Another point of contention in Sean et al.'s study (2016) is the statistically negligible link between online course format and reported learning outcomes One possible explanation for this is that what counts to students who regularly visit the class website is not so much the usability of the course site as a measure of the quality of involvement in other learning activities Furthermore, instructional quality is essential, and it appears that students enjoy both extracurricular activities and career placement aid However, as demonstrated by the low coefficient of factor 3 in the first regression model and its removal from the two following models, students do not appear to link the quality of teaching of a particular subject area to overall satisfaction with a business program (Letcher & Neves, 2010)

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY AND DATA

3.1 Methodology

3.1.1 Independent Variable

According to the determined theoretical basis and current situation of students in Ho Chi Minh city's universities, our group has been able to successfully point out five main factors that affect the students' satisfaction in the learning experience As a result, the research includes five independent variables which are Tuition fees, Facilities and teaching equipment, Teaching curriculum, Educational activities, and Service quality These factors are represented by corresponding observed variables

3.1.1.1 Facilities and teaching equipment

One of the most important elements that strongly influence students' experience is facility This factor has FTE as its representation, including five observed variables: FTE1, FTE2, FTE3, FTE4, FTE5 The variables are built in order to measure students' acceptances in some particular advantage of schools' facilities, based on their satisfaction in both online and offline learning, entertaining experience supported by available equipment

Therefore, we have hypothesis H1:

H1: The Facilities and teaching equipment factor in the survey has a positive impact

on students' satisfaction regarding studying experience in Ho Chi Minh City

Therefore, we have hypothesis H2:

H2: The Teaching curriculum factor in the survey has a positive impact on students' satisfaction regarding studying experience in Ho Chi Minh City

3.1.1.3 Tuition fees

This factor is symbolized as TF and the observed variables respectively are TF1, TF2, TF3, TF4 These four observed variables are results of students’ satisfaction with their schools' tuition fees Particularly, the variables point out the level of agreement in some current characteristics of the given factor

Therefore, we have hypothesis H3:

H3: The Tuition fees factor in the survey has a positive impact on students' satisfaction regarding studying experience in Ho Chi Minh City

3.1.1.4 Service quality

Service quality is the last factor affecting university students' experience in Ho Chi Minh city, which has SQ as its symbol Observed variables (SQ1, SQ2, SQ3 and SQ4) play their roles in determining students’ agreement in schools' services according to their satisfaction in qualities of supporting department, caring system, etc

Therefore, we have hypothesis H4:

H4: The Service quality factor in the survey has a positive impact on students' satisfaction regarding studying experience in Ho Chi Minh City

Therefore, we have hypothesis H5:

H5: The Educational activities factor in the survey has a positive impact on students' satisfaction regarding studying experience in Ho Chi Minh City

3.1.2 Dependent Variable

Dependent variables represent the satisfaction of Ho Chi Minh city's students which are influenced by independent variables The variable is symbolized as ST including five observed variables which are ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5 Observed variables respectively point out the level

of satisfaction in the total effect of the given five factors (independent variables)

Figure 1 - Research Model

3.1.3 Questionnaire design

Based on the built-in scale, the research team designed a questionnaire to conduct research on 140 subjects The questionnaire will include the following two main parts:

(1) Demographic questions: To collect data on the research sample, to help eliminate the

out-of-sample responses and serve as a basis for sample statistics and further analysis

of the characteristics of the research sample for the research problem;

(2) Main content: Includes questions that reflect the evaluation index for each observed

variable of five factors affecting the satisfaction of university students in Ho Chi Minh City: Tuition Fee, Facilities and teaching equipment, Teaching curriculum, Educational activities, Service quality Each question is measured on a 5-point Likert scale

3.1.3.1 Descriptive statistics

According to the demographic statistics table above, the sample is taken from the survey subjects, mainly from students studying in Ho Chi Minh City with a fairly equal ratio of males and females In addition, the table also clearly shows that the percentage of 2nd-year students is much larger than the rest of the group, suggesting that this group has had a period of time to get used to the new learning environment

3.2 Data

To have a better overview of the variables used in the research model, the research team has presented descriptive statistics of the variables from the collected data sample in the table Through the statistical table described, we can see that the results obtained for each variable have the smallest value of 1 and the maximum value of 5 according to the Likert scale In addition, when looking at the average column of the variable, most have values in the range of 3 - 4, showing that the number of people surveyed is strongly agreeing with the views of the observed variables

As for the standard deviation, the relatively high value, which falls in the range of 0.9 to 1.3, shows that the survey respondents have quite different perceptions of those variables, thus affecting the difference of the results score given by the respondents

so it will be removed from the model The Cronbach's Alpha coefficients of the variables Tuition

Fee, Facilities and teaching equipment, Teaching curriculum, Educational activities, Service quality are all greater than 0.6, thus meeting the requirements of reliability As a result, we continue

to use the remaining variables to test the EFA discovery factor

4.2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

4.2.1 Exploratory factor analysis EFA of the independent variable

We analyze the data based on the results of the table "KMO and Bartlett's Test" to consider the suitability of factor analysis through the KMO coefficient (Kaiser - Meyer - Olkin) and evaluate the observed variables in that factor to be correlated with each other through the Bartlett test

Figure 2 - KMO and Bartlett's Test of the independent variable From the table above, we can see that the KMO coefficient has a value of 0.5 ≤ KMO = 0.816 ≤ 1, and the Bartlett test has Sig < 0.001 < 0.05, showing that the factor analysis is acceptable and suitable with the research data set

The appropriate scales after assessing the reliability were continued to be used in the EFA exploratory factor analysis with the Principal Component factor extraction method, the Varimax rotation and had a breakpoint when extracting the Eigenvalue factor ≥ 1

Specifically, Eigenvalue = 1,228 and 5 meaningful factors are extracted, namely FTE, TC,

TF, SQ, EA (Facilities and teaching equipment, Teaching curriculum, Tuition Fee, Service quality, Educational activities) to keep in the model At the same time, the Total Variance Explained = 70,93 ≥ 50% shows that the EFA model is suitable for the extracted factors, with 70,93% variation

of observed variables and a loss of 29,07% of observed variables