AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS THAT AFFECT DECISION OF SCHOOL OF BUSINESS FRESHMEN STUDENT (YEAR OF 2012) TO STUDY AT INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Nowadays, society has changed and developed in many aspects such as technology, economy, culture, and either education. In fact, it requires a higher level of training education, and raising knowledge to adapt with world changing. Therefore, the amount of students enhance higher education is increasing rapidly, especially in big cities such as Ho Chi Minh, and Hanoi. Besides, training higher education institutes also follow up with large number of students. These institutes include variety levels, programs, and training strategies. However, they still have a mutual nature is to deliver knowledge to learners as much as possibl

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

BACHELOR OF ARTS in BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Advisor: Nguyen Huu Dang Khoa, M.As Student’s name: Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh (BAIU09112)

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

2013

AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS THAT AFFECT DECISION OF SCHOOL OF BUSINESS FRESHMEN STUDENT (YEAR OF 2012) TO STUDY AT

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

_ Nguyen Huu Dang Khoa, M.As

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THESIS COMMITTEE

ACKNOWLEDMENTS

To be honest, during university-studying time, this is the moment I learnt most valuable knowledge, and experienced much Thank to tasks of doing research, I understand clearly that each issue in daily life is not simple as we thought It is a complexity combination of many other surround things Therefore, the research for them

is extremely important for science and society In order to fulfill the research, I could not finish research if missing helps of kind people as my beloved For that reason, I really want to say thank and give gratitude to:

- At beginning, I would like to give appreciates to my advisor Mr Nguyen Huu Dang Khoa I just want him to know that although I have made some mistakes, I never forgot the moments you helped me If without the whole-hearted guidance

of Mr Khoa, I cannot fully understand the problem, and solve it easily

- Then, between the chaos of work and learning, thanks to the words of encouragement from family and friends, I can always continue to complete the study

Moreover, I would like to spend a thankful to the secret men of my life, who have always been my target and spiritual support

- Finally yet importantly, I do also appreciate to assistant of School of Business Department, and freshmen students in International University They are a momentous factor for concluding the research’s result

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, society has changed and developed in many aspects such as technology, economy, culture, and either education In fact, it requires a higher level of training education, and raising knowledge to adapt with world- changing Therefore, the amount of students enhance higher education is increasing rapidly, especially in big cities such as Ho Chi Minh, and Hanoi Besides, training higher education institutes also follow

up with large number of students These institutes include variety levels, programs, and training strategies However, they still have a mutual nature is to deliver knowledge to learners as much as possible

To students, who have a demand of learning higher education, they are still affected by many aspects such as society, schools, family, teachers, and friends In order

to decide an important entrance of their education as life, this decision becomes harder if without recommendation of family, or relatives In addition, each student’s choice is a essential information for universities to examine the own strategies to attract more students Therefore, this research is conducted to examine the influences of factors to student’s college decision

The research is implemented from January 2013 to May, 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City The target students are who come from School of Business field in International University (Ho Chi Minh City) To be more specific, they are 200 freshmen students of year 2012, and who study twinning- program will be ignored to conduct in research due to irrelevant nature

The research just only focuses on School of Business students Therefore, the result may be limited in other fields However, it may be useful for International University Administration Department to demonstrate, and adjust strategies in order to attract students to come to learn In another aspect, International University can use this consequence for “student recruitment event” every year

ABBREVIATION IU: International University

SB: School of Business

MOET: Ministry of Education Training

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Research design……… 5

Figure 2: Model adapted from David W Chapman……….17

Figure 3: Research model……… 21

Figure 4: Design of research approach……… 23

Figure 5: Percentage of age of target respondents………34

Figure 6: Percentage of gender of target respondents ……….35

Figure 7: Percentage of number of application students applied……….36

Figure 8: Percentage of last high school GPA of target respondents ……….37

Figure 9: Revised research model………55

Figure 10: Final research model……… …………60

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1: Summary of indebt-interview questions form ……… 26

Table 2: Summary of completed measurement scales……… ………29

Table 3: Descriptive statistics of fixed characteristics of university………38

Table 4: Descriptive statistics of international education environment, and diverse subjects……….39

Table 5: Descriptive statistics of future employment opportunity ……….39

Table 6: Descriptive statistics of communication effort of university …… …………40

Table 7: Descriptive statistics of individual influences with students ……….….41

Table 8: Descriptive statistics of student’s characteristics……….41

Table 9: Reliability statistics of fixed characteristics of IU……… ………42

Table 10: Reliability statistics of international education environment, and diverse subjects……… 44

Table 11: Reliability statistics of future occupation opportunity ……….45

Table 12: Reliability statistics of communication effort of IU……….46

Table 13: Reliability statistics of individual influences………47

Table 14: Reliability statistics of characteristics of students………48

Table 15: Exploratory Factor Analysis……….50

Table 16: Component matrix………51

Table 17: Rotated component matrix ……….… 53

Table 18: Correlation testing ………55

Table 19: Model summary ………57

Table 20: Coefficient………58

Table 21: Ranking of factors………59

Table 22: Table of summary final results ………62

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND 1

1.2 PURPOSE OF STUDY 2

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION 3

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 3

1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION 5

1.7 RESEARCH IMPLIMICATION 6

CHAPTER II 7

REVIEW OF LITERATURE 7

2.1 OVERVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7

2.1.1 RATIONAL OF STUDY 7

2.2 REVIEW OF RELATED THEORETICAL STUDY 9

2.3 INTRODUCTION OF CHAPMAN MODEL OF STUDENT COLLEGE CHOICE 15

2.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS 17

2.4.1Fixed Characteristic of University 18

2.4.2 International Education Environment and Diverse Subjects 18

2.4.3 Future Employment Opportunity 18

2.4.4 University’s effort to communicate with students 19

2.4.5 Influential Individuals with Student’s Decision 19

2.4.6 Student’s Characteristic 20

CHAPTER III 22

METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 RESEARCH APPROACH 22

3.2 SAMPLING 23

3.3 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE 24

CHAPTER 4 34

DATA ANALYSIS & RESEARCH RESULT 34

4.1 Final sample 34

4.2 Sample demographics 34

4.2.1 Age 34

4.2.2 Gender 35

4.2.3 Number of application that students applied 35

4.2.4 Last high school’s GPA 36

4.3 Descriptive analysis 37

4.3.1 Fixed characteristics of university 38

4.3.2 International education environment, and diverse subjects 39

4.3.3 Future employment opportunity 39

4.3.4 Communication Effort of University 40

4.3.5 Influential individuals with students 40

4.3.6 Student’s characteristics 41

4.4 Reliability Testing 42

4.4.1 Fixed characteristics of IU 42

4.4.2 International-studying environment, and diverse subjects 43

4.4.3 Future occupation opportunity 44

4.4.4 Communication effort of IU 45

4.4.5 Individual influences 46

4.4.6 Characteristic of students 47

4.5 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 48

4.6 Correlation testing 55

4.7 Regression analysis 57

CHAPTER 5 61

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 61

5.1 Conclusions 61

5.2 Recommendation 62

REFERENCE 64

APPENDIX 67

APPENDIX A 67

APPENDIX B 69

APPENDIX C 71

APPENDIX D 77

Besides economic development, Vietnam education has experienced through noteworthy changes One of particular transform, which was concerned most in education policy is implementing principle of user pays for funding of higher education in 1993 (Huong 2003) Furthermore, private sector of higher education was established and played a remarkable role in Vietnam education system (Glewwe 1999)

According to statistics of MOET as year of 2011-2012, there were total 419 universities and colleges including public and private school in Vietnam While, in the period of 1999-2000, there were only 153 schools Since, it reflects a dramatic change in Vietnam higher education Student can have many choices of place to study However, a larger number of universities are not always fit with educational quality (Vietbao News 2006) Consequently, it causes a hard decision for students Furthermore, before going to

it also reflects the students’ aspiration, and demand to get a higher education

Therefore, this research is expected to clarify the main factors influencing to decision of student Since, the university can point out the effective solution of attracting students from different areas

1.2 PURPOSE OF STUDY

International University is one of six member national universities in Ho Chi Minh City It was established in 2003 with variety major and program Specially, IU is an only public university, which follows international educational standard in Vietnam Based on school of business’s self- assessment report, number of student in school was

289 in 2009, and it rose nearly double in 2011 with 441 students Since, brand image of university has impressed to people, especial students

Nevertheless, as mentioned above, student decision comes from many factors, and number of universities will enlarge more than before Therefore, it may cause a competitive pressure among universities, which includes private, public, international school As a result, it forces a higher competitive strategy in order to attract more students Then, the purposes of this research are:

Find out and clarify the main factors that influence on decision of choosing IU

by SB freshmen students (year of 2012)

After conducting the result, it is very useful for university to keep the source and evaluate which is important issue when recruit new students

By understanding factors influencing student decision of place to study, IU may work out strategies to attract students, and investigate significance of student’s choice

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION

As being stated clearly in the background, this research will mainly focus on finding factors influencing student’s decision Kallio (1995) explores the multi-stage process is affected by several factors such as student’s characteristic, appropriate academic course, university reputation, available information According to Chunyan and Jennifer (2004), family background parents expectation also affect to decision of student Since, influence of student’s relationship plays an essential role on their choice of place

to study

However, this research aims to carry out in International University and SB freshmen as how they select IU as final decision of studying higher education Therefore,

a main question of research will be addressed as:

“What are factors that influence on SB freshmen’s decision of choosing IU?”

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

In this research, the problems need to be solved are finding factors that influence on SB freshmen’s decision of choosing IU Therefore, the research objectives are as follow:

- To identify factors that affect SB freshmen’s decision toward IU From this, draw

a survey based on research model

- To determine and measure important level of each factor on student’s decision and university’s performance

Figure 1: Research Design

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION

This research just only focuses on analyzing factors, which influence on SB

freshmen In more detail, they are from Business Administration Department, and

Financial Banking Department and year of 2012 Location is at IU campus Timeline for

this research tend to last within two months Besides, students come from many

background and be mixed with variety majors Therefore, it takes time to collect data as

well

Furthermore, throughout a research process, timeline is limited It may have a

small influence, and force of running data In a single research topic, target participant is

Research question

Research objectives Literature review Research model

Pilot study ( sample of 10 students ) Indebt-interview (sample of 5 students)

Survey questionnaires ( sample of 200 students)

Run SPSS software Results, Recommendation, and Conclusion

just only SB freshmen students Therefore, the result may be not implemented in other majors such as School of Biotechnology, School of Technology, and so on due to different perspectives

1.7 RESEARCH IMPLIMICATION

The results of research will be very helpful for School of Business Department, especially marketing field or recruitment event every year It is such as a base source for school to understand what students really need when apply universities for higher education Besides, schools can change the strategies and programs to adapt with students’ demand For example, if students go study for their career, future salary, university may base on that reason and develop the curriculum or skill training program

to attract and convince students

The research consequence also presents a fact of influences on students’ decision when apply for higher education It illustrates the frame picture of education trend as an increasing of students, and universities nowadays Therefore, the research idea is really essential, and it reflects the issue of society

hypothesis for the subject

2.1 OVERVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1.1 RATIONAL OF STUDY

Student’s higher education option and its nature

The higher education option or making decision is a long process and complicated It was expressed by different levels of students at high school time More importantly, these options were developing and improved in the continual stages, especially the final high school class According to Huyen, and et el(2006), they proved the fact that student’s higher education option involves two fundamental natures:

- Subjectivity

The process selection of students happens under the domination from complex social relationship such as between students with family, friends, schools, community, and so on These relations affect their awareness, demand, engine, and interest when being in high school However, the decision-making will be concluded by themselves or particular individual

This information is helpful for research It is a foundation of finding main factors affecting to student’s college decision

By understanding the correlation between variables, and nature of problems, the research will be examined more detail, more accuracy, and suitable with current social issue In this research, there are 6 major factors, which directly affect to student’s choice They are fixed-characteristics of university; international education environment, and diverse subjects; future employment opportunity; university’s effort to communicate with students; influential individuals with student’s decision; student’s characteristics

making of individual

“strategic university” It concerns to develop academic level, which influences many aspects in society such as economy, politics, and culture Furthermore, higher education brings more opportunities to people’s career and raise critical thinking Consequently, it causes variety issues in university environment One of them is university’s performance Students may have more choices in order to fulfill university level In addition, it creates

a competitive education between universities Thus, a research needs to clarify relative higher education’s issues, and emphasis significance of its Regarding to this key subject,

it can be used in designing research method

Rational Choice

Theory is based on the premise that people always act in a way with a specific purpose, think to choose and use resources rationally to achieve maximum results with minimum costs According to John Elster (1989, p 99), "When faced with a number of actions, people tend to do what they believe in order to achieve the best ending result"

Rational choice theory selection requires analysis of actions individuals choose in

relation to social system consisting of other individuals with their expectations, the choosing abilities and the output of each option with other features

The research subject is about student’s decision of choosing university Accordingly, the researcher will rely on theory of “rational choice” and characteristics of

the social environment, awareness of the objects to determine the affective level of the most popular factors to the best selection, the decision of the IU BA freshmen student

Fixed characteristics of university

According to D W Chapman (1981, p 495), fixed university characteristics refer to terms of tuition fees, location, campus environment, and available studying-programs These features are often stable, and less changed Each university has different fixed characteristics Therefore, they become a unique strategy or image of university For example, a university has a stable or appropriate tuition fees may attract students to apply According to Pamela and D Bruce (2007), they showed the significant influence

of tuition fee policy in higher education is that it may effect of reducing access of students who have lower financial background As a one particular reason was showed,

we can see that fixed characteristics of university also influence on student’s decision

International education environment

International education environment is not a strange term in 21st century According to G Altbach, and J Knight (2007), it is such a globalization, and is understood as “knowledge-exchange” Besides, the scale influence of international education to both students, and university has made a motivation and force of changing continuously in order to catch up with global In developing country, if a school which adopted higher international education standard can get higher attention from society In this research, this factor is analyzed as a strongest point due to IU’s nature

Diverse subjects

“Diverse subjects” term refers to what university trains students, and provides choices of subject to study In fact, nowadays, universities can provide variety subjects to students Therefore, it causes an upper demand of studying According to D W Chapman (p.495), he demonstrated the student’s choice of college also bases on diverse subjects, where they can satisfy student’s demand, interests Gary R Pike and George D Kohl

(2005) stated about students’ expectation as their aspiration to academic programs In this research, diverse subjects also similar to academic programs that IU brings to students Furthermore, it will be a supplement idea for investigating its influence to student’s decision

Employment expectation

According to Andrew J.A, besides interests, employment expectation is one of the most influential elements affecting students’ choices Students who want to engage higher education also care about their future employment In addition, real experience working while studying at school is also enjoyable to students In the case of student employment in University of Rochester, it applies student employment program that permits students to participate in non-benefit working for charity organization or in part time jobs to get real working experience that is really helpful for them in their future career Furthermore, in order to get attention from students, school must make guarantee

to students of how they can surely take real job after graduation Therefore, relationships with various numbers well know and strong companies or corporations are important to

be set up in order to introduce to students who nearly finish program The employment

is not only their career but also the different aspects such as salary, skills, position job

University’s communication effort

In a year of information explosion and the mass media present, it has a significant impact on students' education or further career choices Along with the support of books, newspapers, movies, television especially amount of giant information source such as Internet, they easily grasp and accept the diversity of all information in every aspect of social life However, although it will be more diversity as well as one-way communication type, students may not receive opportunity of understanding the appropriate decision about higher education Therefore, the raising communication between university and student should be concerned as much as many aspects As a model “student’s college choice” by Chapman (1981, p508), he strongly believed in the

as possible It can be seen that besides RMIT, IU takes competitive advantages of weight

of money by offering lower school fee with international standard In addition, IU sets up numerous major of business for students not only can select based on their own interests but also can change existing major to the new one when existing situation does not last suitably for new change Eventually, in terms of community, IU also take benefits of creating large community of Vietnamese and foreign students such as Korean, Canadian, American and Chinese for each of IU students can talk to each other, exchange culture, share ideas, information and employment opportunity to get opened mind for better and quicker development Therefore, regarding to those benefits that university offers, it can adapt with different preferences of different students

Student’s capacity

Rate of fighting with others to enter school is not only a factor, affecting student’s decision but also an element for school used to evaluate level of students’ capacity As setting grade of above average university score of three subjects, IU estimates that these students, who pass this grade, can definitely study well in any major published by IU However, a problem of requiring low or high number of this grade might lead to student turnover

Overview of related studies:

In order to illustrate an overview of the research issue, I will present a summary of research articles, books and materials related to the career selections of students

Studies around the world:

We can say the idea of career-oriented on young generation has been appeared since ancient times, but it was in a very general form of communication and expression through the distribution and decentralization of labor resource, it depended on status, resources and original background of each person in society This is evident caused by power of paramount class and leaded to inequality in the division of social labor By the nineteenth century, when the development of social production was presented with positive thoughts to free people’ minds around the world, the new career science really became independent The book "Career Guide" published in France in 1949 is considered

as the first book about careers The book mentions the development of numerous sectors

of society causing by the development of industry which have drawn conclusions as career oriented education is an important and indispensable issue to an increase in social development

In the 1940s, an American psychologist JL Holland has been researched to find out the existence of the various kinds of personality and career interests Author indicated with each type of professional behavior that matched with some of the careers individuals can choose to get the highest results of working capacity JL Holland's theory has been widely used in practical training in the world

On the basis of these arguments about the career of Karl Marx and VI Lenin, Soviet, there are many particular educators such as Kapeep, Batusep, Saporinxki, VA Poliacop In their research, which has shown the relationship between career oriented education and social activities of production, and it was really helpful when early career oriented education was set for the younger generation to choose the right career which has the right match between personal interests and the needs of society At the same time,

the author also presents the principles and working methods of professional practice for high school students in academic institutions Mei Tang, Wei Pan and Mark D.Newmeyer have applied the theory of social and professional development (SCCT, Lent, Brown and Hackett, 1994) to examine the major trends affecting career choice of high school students

The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of these factors: learning experiences, self-assessment professional capacity, benefits, and expected outcomes of the professional development when they were in high school time The relationship of these factors is dynamic, so in order to be successful in interventions, we need to consider the complex of relationship between these factors and incorporating a wide range of intervention The consultant (school) should contribute to the development and implementation of a program of comprehensive professional development to help students develop professional competence, and expectation through real learning activities

Research by H Bromley Kniveton, based on 384 radio survey young people (including 174 men and 174 women) from 14 to 18 years has been concluded that both the school and the family can provide direct information and guidance or indirectly influence the career choices of young people Consultants can identify talent and ability that encourage students to participate in such as extra-curricular activities, real experience

of theory and lives In addition, parents have a great influence to the supply appropriate level of support given to career (education) choices There are also the impact of siblings

in the family and your friends

Michael Borchert, based on the survey of 325 high school students in High School of Germantown, Wisconsin state remarked that three groups of factors affect the career choices are environment, opportunities and characteristics individual, group personal characteristics factors that affect the most important to the career choices of high school students

In the study of D W Chapman stated that the fixed element university such as tuition, location, policy support and dorm environmental costs will affect the decision of students In addition, he also emphasized the impact of efforts to decision of students D

W Chapman also said that the individual element such as “personal learning capacity” is also one of the factors affecting the decision of the school choice

MJ Burns and colleagues (extracted by You and Construction), have suggested that the popularity and prestige of the school and teachers are also known as factors affecting the student's chosen

MJ Burns and colleagues (extracted by You and Construction) stated that "the rate of fighting with others to study at school” is the benchmark of the factors affecting the decision According Cabera and La Nasa (extracted by MJBurns ), in addition, learning expectations related to the future expectations of the job in the future is one of the factors affecting the decision to choose school of students SG Washburn and colleagues have suggested that the availability own clinical work and employment opportunities after graduation is now also factors affecting the decision to choose their school

D W Chapman demonstrated that students have a strong impact by persuasion, advice from friends and family Besides that, Hossler and Gallagher (extracted by You and Construction) have suggested that individuals who are studying at school also have influence to the decision of new students

2.3 INTRODUCTION OF CHAPMAN MODEL OF STUDENT COLLEGE CHOICE

According to D W Chapman (1981, p 490), he suggested a general model of choice for university students Based on the results of basic statistics, he said that there are two largest groups affecting the choice of university students The first one is

characteristic of the family and the individual student The second group is number of external factors as other individuals have impact, the unchanged characteristics of the universities, and the university's efforts to communicate with students

In addition, many studies have used the results from the model study of D W Chapman and developed it to study with other factors that also affect the choice of student Teranishi et al and partners ( 2004) examined college’s choice by developing model of Chapman, and found that role of parents, university’s information resource, and agenda also contribute to student’s college choice In addition, Pernaet el and partners (2008) reproduced factors such as financial aid’s information and high school’s counselor are

logical causes in student’s college choice

Moreover, the research model of Ruth E Kallio (1995, p.109-124) also suggests that gender may also affect student’s decision The impacts of the direct elements are affected hugely by characteristic of the student's gender R.E.Kallio (1995,

p 119) states that the difference in gender will have different level of indirect impact on the decision to select future university of students

Conceptual Framework

Based on the results of Chapman and concerned with the nature of the IU, and the scope of the subject, there are 5 important factors that represent the most common influence on the choice of university students These factors are:

- Family’s characteristics

- Student’s characteristics

- The influential individuals

- Fixed Characteristics of University

- University’s effort to communicate with students

However, when combining the characteristics of IU universities with the main research objects are the first year students, the researcher would like to point out those above specific elements becoming a separate element in accordance with the subject

When selecting objects is the first year students in BA department, the study said that they have experienced through university entrance exam, so they can specifically indicate reasons Along with the 5 elements, the study foresee that the international program teaching model that is combined with higher employment opportunities will be the key success factors, which determine the choice of students Consequently, thanks to these factors, IU may impress potential students and their university decisions as finally

Figure 2: Adapted from: David W Chapman 1981

2.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Regarding to above factors, D W Chapman, and nature of IU, researcher suggests constructing and developing main hypothesis in order to clarify the problems and prove the applied model is feasible There are six hypotheses, which are important for the study

STUDENT’S DECISION

OF CHOOSING UNIVERSITY

TO STUDY

University’s effort to

communicate with students

Family’s characteristic

2.4.1Fixed Characteristic of University

Each university has own fixed characteristics such as tuition fees, geographical location, cost support policy, campus environment that affect student’s decision ( D W Chapman1981,p 495) Thus, based on those characteristics, the hypothesis H1 is stated as following:

Hypotheses H1: “Which university has better fixed characteristics; it has higher

enrolment selection from potential students”

2.4.2 International Education Environment and Diverse Subjects

Although a research model of D W Chapman has not considered specific factors like international education environment, or diversity in providing subjects, researcher recommends using another previous research The reason is it may implement

in this case study with IU’s nature Specifically, scholarship, university’s reputation, attractive majors are also impact on student’s decision (Marvin J Burns 2006)

Based on the elements of diversity in studying and environment, the second hypothesis is stated as following:

Hypothesis H2: “University that has better learning environment and diverse subjects

will attract more and more students choosing to study”

2.4.3 Future Employment Opportunity

Some experts (Feldman & Newcomb 1969) indicate that besides the academic expectations, expectation of future work is also one of the factors affecting the student’s decision to choose the schools Freeman’s 1975-1976 study (cited in Berger 1988)found that student’s job predications and the salaries for this job are the factors leads the student’s decision These factors lead to the hypothesis H3 is stated as:

Hypothesis H3: “ University satisfies expectations of employment, income, status of

students after graduation is higher than others, students will choose it”

2.4.4 University’s effort to communicate with students

D W Chapman indicated that his study also emphasized the impact of communication efforts to student’s attention In these efforts, the image of the school may be improved through activities such as scholarship announcement, post advertisements, magazines, and television or through cultural activities and sports to draw the attention of the students and their families

Furthermore, he also said that available document via internet, and public website may also affect the selection of students According to these elements, the

Hypothesis H4: “The more university communication’s effort, the higher rate of student’s attention”

2.4.5 Influential Individuals with Student’s Decision

According to D W Chapman (1985), family, friends, and high school teachers influence most of students The influence of these individual to students can be done in three ways:

- Their recommendation or discussion about university leads to student’s expectation

- They can also give an advice what university student should study

- In the case of a close friend, student may be affected by their friend’s intention

As a result, family, parents, siblings, friends, and high school teachers are the factors that influence students' decisions Accordingly, hypothesis H5 is stated as follows:

Hypothesis H5: “The higher orientation from relative relationship, the more possibility

of choosing university by students”

2.4.6 Student’s Characteristic

D W Chapman (1985) states that element belongs to student’s philosophy is a group of factors that influence the decision to choose their own schools Among these factors, capacity factor and personal preference of students are two factors that affect the decision to choose the university that best According to Heagey (2008), students entering universities come from different background and have variety experience and expectation when they enroll In addition, he also gave an idea of student’ interest about university is also a vital element Based on those factors capacities and preferences of students,

Hypothesis H6:“The higher suitability of the subject with the capacity, students

preference, and their personalities, the more students will tend to choose”

Following to six groups of factors that affect the decision to select university

by students, the proposed research model includes six hypotheses from H1 to H6 In particular, hypotheses from H1 to H6 are independent variables, which directly affect the dependent variable is student’s university decision making

Figure 3: Research model in this case study

Fixed Characteristic of University

International Education

Environment and Diverse Subjects

University’s Effort to

Communicate with Students

Individual Influences to student’s

decision

Student’s Characteristic

DECISION OF CHOOSING IU BY SB FRESHMEN STUDENT (YEAR OF 2012) Future Employment Opportunity

quantitative approach, and so on

3.1 RESEARCH APPROACH

In research design, it involves two main stages that release other sub-tasks

The first one is preliminary and the second is formal stage I will use both qualitative and quantitative for approaching objective Besides, they will collaborate with two

stages above consistently

After adapting model of D W Chapman and cohering IU’s nature, I found

that a problem should be conducted by qualitative technique first The purpose is to adjust appropriate of mentioned factors Besides, by using Pilot study technique at the

beginning, I may examine the validity for each factor, and then build the questionnaires

Next, a research will carry out a quantitative method in order to test the validity of each

factor The results may conclude the existence of hypotheses, and relationship between

variables Finally, quantitative approach may contribute to qualitative approach in

scope of evaluating accuracy problems

In qualitative, researcher will use primary data and secondary data as resources In order to collect information and data, researcher use in-depth interview and literature review in preliminary stage Besides that, primary data resource is also reused

in quantitative approach with questionnaire method As well as a data collection can be done effective, subjective, and feasible, pilot study is really a good technique of revealing errors and refines instruments before a final test In more detail, researcher will add some missed information; remove unnecessary items as a readjustment After collecting research requirement, SPSS software is used in order to analyze data This is a summary

Quantitative

Primary Data

Questionnaire Pilot

Study

popular sample size, which is a better idea for most research is from 30 to 500 Moreover, based on Comfrey and Lee (1992), the adequacy of same size might be evaluated very roughly on the following scale: 50-very poor, 100- poor, 200- fair, 300-good Therefore, this sample size of 200 is acceptable for this research The target participant is freshmen student from BA department, with gender both male and female However, who follow

twinning program (2 years study in nation, 2 years in foreign country) is ignored before

delivering survey The reason is that their first higher education demand is different Regarding to twinning program, their decision’s nature will be adjusted, and quite irrelevant with others

Before the survey process was implemented, I have asked SB department for finding classes of SB freshmen students (year 2012) studying Then, it was very convenient for me to survey within the short time 3 weeks The target respondents are studying in class of Intermediate English (IE) level 1 & 2, Academic English (AE) level 1&2 In addition, there was two classes where have almost SB freshmen students (year 2012) These classes are “Introduction of Business Management”, and “Calculus 1” In order to make sure they are my target participant, I have asked carefully and polite about their background first After doing that, I delivered survey to them Most of them are knowledgeable, and graduated high school, so they can reflect the involved issues of their life Finally, a research expects receive 100 % sampling respondent

Importantly, within all days of 3 weeks, I could collect enough 200 survey papers, and fully participation of SB freshmen students It was a good signal for a research when conducting in large sample size Therefore, the research process may continue smoothie

3.3 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE

Pilot study

As mentioned above, purpose of pilot study is to re-convince and adjust factors and information for developing questionnaire form and instruments scale To be more clearly, a reasonable sample of respondents from the target, the questionnaire should be piloted first at all to test the appropriation of questions in the questionnaire form (Canava et al., 2001) It has to make sure that the questions are easy to recognize, and answer, convenient and attractive to the respondents Importantly, it should not let respondents feel confuse to answer Consequently, the pilot was conducted with 10 respondents at International University, who study at School of Business, and avoid

whom from twinning-program

In fact, the pilot form was build based on research model, and literature review Therefore, after carrying out the pilot study, the reliability test with 10 samples was conducted and proved that the scale was perfect completely As a result, these scales would be used to test larger samples for research

In debt-interview

Interview is one of most popular of primary data collection technique The main purpose is to gather data in qualitative methodology (Cooper and Schindler, 2006) Moreover, an interview can be conducted individually or in groups with limited number

of respondents In this research, it was done individually

In this research, because of looking for efficient interaction between interviewer and each individual participant, I implement individual in-depth interview to test the survey by shaping the main factors toward decision of choosing IU, and their satisfaction of this choice There are five selected SB freshmen students, who are invited

to give their idea, and decision of choosing IU

The In-depth interview was completed in the design of face-to-face discussion To be more detail, the locations were chosen that follow the convenient of interviewees Therefore, I invited them to have an open-communication at IU’s coffee shop Moreover, the time for interviewing lasted generally within 10-15 minutes, and no pressure

This is a summary of indebt-interview questions form for respondents

Table 1: Summary of indebt-interview questions form

Fixed Characteristics of University What are the significant fixed

characteristics of a university that you can realize?

How do you think about these natures?

Educational Environment, and Diverse

Subjects

What do you expect about educational environment of a university before applying entrance exam form?

Do you agree that an International Education can bring a better training? Why

or why not?

Future Employment Opportunity  To be honest, we study higher

education to earn money in the future, so what aspects of future employment opportunity really impress you?

 Do you believe that a university can help you to get higher employment’s expectation, and wishes after graduation?

Communication Effort of University Nowadays, technology is developing

rapidly, how could you know and realize a

university’s brand?

Base on your previous answer, what are the important aspects of communication between university and students that you think important?

Individual Influences Before applying entrance exam form, are

you often influenced by your relative relations such as parents, siblings, teachers,

or friends?

What do you think about their advices and its influences to your decision?

Student’s Characteristics As was being in high school, have you ever

thought that your expected university should satisfy your characteristic such as capacity and interest?

Questionnaire Design

A well-structured questionnaire form was given to each respondent to answer and was collected the responses personally by researcher The form was designed, which was based on previous studies, literature review and model of research in the previous chapter It is the fact that questionnaire is used to collect information from target participants by series of question It is one of the most relevant, and regular research methods for collecting data in the social science field (Whiteley, 2003) Moreover, Zigmund (2003) also declared that throughout the questionnaire form, survey work is a research tool with the aim of collecting responses, and it must follow the right target

group of people, which refers to research objectives

In addition, after corresponding adjustment from the result of Qualitative Approach, it is necessary to conduct the next stage that collecting data from students by designing the questionnaire As a fulfilled questionnaire form, the statements must be clear and short Moreover, it should avoid bias to the respondents, and follow standard of simple language, evident, and easy to understand

There are sections in questionnaire form

Part1: The first part is about demographic information from SB freshmen students

The questions follow nominal scale type They are about gender, age, the number of application form that students used to applied and last high school GPA

Part2: As the most central part in this study, it consists of all six dimensions in the

research model, and one last question about their satisfaction of decision-making Question to evaluate SB’s decision of choosing IU and state about factors mentioned in research model

Moreover, it is true that “The Likert scale, developed by Rensis Likert, is the most regularly used variation of the summated rating scale” (Cooper et al (2006)) Besides, Bradley (2007) specified that because five rating “Likert scales” are unbiased and easy to answer Therefore, one again, “Likert scales” was applied to this

This is a summary of completed measurement scales

Table 2: A summary of completed measurement scales