Motives, Expectations, Perceptions and Satisfaction of International Students Pursuing Private Higher Education in Singapore

Abstract

As education is an important sector in every national economy, it is arguable that higher education is a key area of interest of both public and private institutions. With globalization, the higher education sector is internationalized through the mobility of the institutions and students alike. International students are increasingly moving to other countries in pursuit of education and other interests such as career opportunities, cultural and social experiences, and even migration.The present study investigates international students' motives in studying abroad and the impacts of these different motives on their evaluation of service quality of the institutions where they study. This study attempts to incorporate the motives of their study with the well recognized service quality model, namely SERVQUAL.This study was empirically conducted in a private higher education institution in Singapore, gathering data from 263 international students who are studying in the business programmes. The survey method was used to gather the required data about the motives, expectations and perceptions as well as the level of satisfaction with the education service provided by the institution under study.The study found that the students held four kinds of motives: academic & education, career & migration, pleasure & experience and work. The study suggests that educational marketers should consider the role and influence of the motives in evaluating service quality by international students and to develop their education programmes accordingly so that their level of service quality will be enhanced from the perspective of international students.

Demographic Factors in the Evaluation of Service Quality in Higher Education: A Structural Equation Model (SEM) Approach

“…In this study, service quality of higher education is measured and analysed by the service quality framework proposed and applied by Min, Khoon and Tan (2012) which is basically the SERVQUAL model and applies the same five service dimensions. However, it measures the service dimensions in the setting of higher education and for the international students.…”

“…1;2014 93 Figure 1. Simplified model of service process in higher education (Min et al, 2012, p. 126) Based on the literature on international students, Min et al (2012) identified three basic motives held by international students: academic, career and experiential.…”

“…migration) -Experiential (putting high value on the experience of staying abroad, particularly the host country of study, looking for opportunities to actively participate in social and cultural events, expecting to meet with people from different countries, learning the international culture and host country's culture) Min, et al (2012) discovered from their empirical study an additional motive of students, namely 'work'.…”

“…This study attempts to investigate the role that demographic factors play in service quality evaluation in the higher education sector. The framework used in this study is adopted from Min, Khoon and Tan (2012) and consists of four key constructs, namely motivation, expectation, perception and satisfaction. Applying the Structural Equation Model (SEM) approach to data collected from a sample of 263 international students in a private higher education institution in Singapore, the present study found that motive of study has moderate relationship with expectation and perception of service quality.…”

Identifying at-risk students in higher education

“…In Europe this owes much to the 1999 Bologna Declaration and to the subsequent definition, in 2005, of guidelines for the development of institutional quality management systems (ENQA, 2005). The scientific literature presents many different examples of how quality principles can be applied to the benefit of HEIs management (Min, 2012;Nadiri, 2009;Owlia, 1996;Vauterin, 2011, Yeo, 2014; specific processes that are frequently addressed within the framework of HEIs quality management are related to administrative services (e.g., frontoffice, backoffice, library), to internationalization, and, obviously, to the teaching and learning. When it comes to the key teaching and learning macro-process several researchers have reported difficulties in implementing quality management principles (Brennan, 2000;Chen, 2014;Hoecht, 2006;Newton, 2002;Quinn, 2009).…”