Factors affecting satisfaction from students in higher education

Based on the previous related research and study, the research try to exam the affect from five factors - students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people, the career oppor

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Phan Thi Kim Thoa

FACTORS AFFECTING SATISFACTION FROM STUDENTS’ CHOICES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

ID: 22120074

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

SUPERVISOR: Dr TRAN HA MINH QUAN

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2015

Table of contents

Table of contents i

List of figure iii

List of table iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v

ABSTRACT 1

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 2

1.1 Research background 2

1.2 Statement of the problem 3

1.3 Research objectives 4

1.4 Research significance 5

1.5 Research scope 5

1.6 Research structure 5

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW, HYPOTHESE AND CONCEPTUAL MODEL 7

2.1 The concept of Higher education 7

2.2 Overview of students‟ choice 8

2.3 Satisfaction from Students‟ choice 10

2.4 Hypotheses 11

2.4.1 Students’ characteristic 11

2.4.2 Influence of significant people 12

2.4.3 Career opportunities after graduation 13

2.4.4 Higher education universities’ characteristics 13

2.4.5 Higher education universities’ efforts to communicate with prospect students 14

2.5 Research model 15

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17

3.1 Research process 17

3.2 Research design 18

3.3 Sample selection 18

3.4 Data source 19

3.4.1 Primary data 19

3.4.2 Secondary data 20

3.5 Measurement scales 20

3.6 Data analysis method 22

Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 25

4.1 Sample descriptive statistics 25

4.2 Assessment and Refinement of measurement scale 26

4.2.1 Cronbach’s alpha test 26

4.2.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 29

4.2.3 Revised conceptual model 38

4.3 Hypotheses Testing 40

4.3.1 Regression assumptions 40

4.3.2 Regression analysis 43

4.3.3 Hypotheses testing 45

4.4 Research findings 48

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, LITMITATION AND DIRECTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 50

5.1 Conclusion 50

5.2 Managerial implication 51

5.3 Limitation and direction for future research 52

References 54

APPRENDIX 59

APPRENDIX 1: INTERVIEW QUESTION 59

APPRENDIX 2: SURVEY 60

APPRENDIX II: BẢNG CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT 64

List of figure Figure 2.1: The conceptual research model 15

Figure 3.1: Research process 17

Figure 4.1: The revised research model 39

Figure 4.2: Test for homoscedasticity 40

Figure 4.3: Normality test 42

Figure 4.3: Normal P-Plot 43

List of table

Table 3.1: Measurement scales 21

Table 4.1: Genders of respondents 25

Table 4.2: Kind of higher education universities (HEUs) 26

Table 4.3: Gender, Kind of higher education universities (HEUs) 26

Table 4.4: Reliability Statistic 27

Table 4.5: Reliability testing results 27

Table 4.6: KMO and Barlett‟s Test 29

Table 4.7: Total Variance Explained 30

Table 4.8: Component Matrix 30

Table 4.9: KMO and Barlett‟s Test 31

Table 4.10: Total Variance Explained 31

Table 4.11: Rotated Component Matrixa 32

Table 4.12: Regroup measurement scale 33

Table 4.13: Reliability testing results 34

Table 4.14: KMO and Barlett‟s Test 36

Table 4.15: Total Variance Explained 36

Table 4.16: Rotated Component Matrix 37

Table 4.17: Correlation 41

Table 4.18: Coefficients 42

Table 4.19: Model summary 44

Table 4.20: ANOVA 44

Table 4.21: Coefficients 45

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I firstly would like to express my sincere gratitude to the ISB – International School of Business, ISB Research Committee and all the professors who help and support me during the course of this Master program

With respect and deep gratitude, I would like to thank my advisor Dr.Tran Ha Minh Quan for the continuous support for my research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm and immense knowledge

I also would like to give thank the ISB staff, for their warmth and support over the period of my study, research and writing this thesis

I thank all the participants, students from higher education universities in Ho Chi Minh City This study would not have possible without their cooperation I also acknowledge the universities that allowed me to conduct the survey

Lastly, I would like to thank my family and my friends who always encourage and support me during the time of my research

ABSTRACT

There are more and more higher education universities in Viet Nam Therefore, the graduated high school students have more opportunities to continue their study in higher level However, there are many students do not satisfy with their choice The central problem investigated in this research is the factors affecting satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education Based on the previous related research and study, the research try to exam the affect from five factors - students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people, the career opportunities, the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities and efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students - to satisfaction of students‟ choice

In doing this, the study has collected data from 257 students in Ho Chi Minh City The research results show that there are six factors affecting satisfaction from students‟ choice (the career opportunities factor is divided into two factors: social occupational structure and career expectation) However, the data just supports five the hypotheses and confirm that five factors contribute significant meaning to the satisfaction from students‟ choice (except the efforts of the universities to communicate with prospect students)

Keywords: higher education, satisfaction, students‟ choice, students‟ characteristics, influence of significant people, career expectation

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

The first chapter introduces the background of Vietnamese higher education as well as the status of satisfaction from students‟ choice After that, this chapter also raises the management problem and the research objectives to explore the factors affecting satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education Finally, the scope is proposed and the research structure is presented

1.1 Research background

The Vietnamese higher education sector has growth rapidly as the results of the efforts from the Ministry of Education and Training This is the long-term goal of the government to make Vietnam as an excellent education center in Southeast-Asia The growth of the higher education sector can be seen in many aspects, such as: the increase in higher education organizations, the increase in students‟ enrollment, the increase in the government‟s efforts and the increase in the output quality

With many policies of liberalization and democratization in the higher education sector introduced by the government, there are more and more higher education universities operating

in Vietnam According the statistic results from Ministry of Education and Training (2013), in recent years, the number of universities and colleges in Vietnam has increased continually: 403

in 2010, 414 in 2011, 419 in 2012 and 421 in 2013 So, these universities are facing with a very difficult task to compete the other universities to attract students to choose their programs

The increase in the number of higher education organizations can help the high school students have more choice to select the university where they continue their study However, a research from Supporting and Psychological Counseling Center of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Hanoi shows that 75.6 percent of students did not satisfy with their choice in higher education universities (Duy Anh, 2013)

Moreover, the research also presents that there were 32.4 percent of students wanted to choose higher education universities

re-The satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education is very important If the students satisfy with their choice in higher education, they will have more motivation in their study as well as their career in the future This will help students can promote their full ability

in work, improve their productivity and labor efficiency In the other hand, if the students do not satisfy with their choice, they must spend more time and cost to re-study Therefore, it is very necessary to determine the factors affecting satisfaction from students‟ choice

1.2 Statement of the problem

Nowadays, as the requirement of higher education has been increasing rapidly, there are more and more universities with many promotion schemes to increase brand awareness as well

as attract more student to choose their programs Therefore, these universities are facing with the fierce competition To be successful in higher education sector, the most important task for these universities is to identify the factors that affect satisfaction from students‟ choice and have right strategies to take advantages from these factors to provide the best solution in education for students as well as increase the universities‟ reputations

Besides that, in the reality, there are many students who do not determine exactly their choice in higher education According an investigation result from Nguoi lao dong Newspaper (2005), more than 64 percent of students cannot identify their career objects when they choose higher education universities From this article, there are more than 60 percent of students admit that they do not receive career orientation when registering to the university Another research from Vietnam National University Hanoi also pointed that 65.4 percent of students cannot know about career objectives (Thanh Ha, 2013) So that, there are 75.6 percent of students do not satisfy with their choice in higher education universities

Therefore, the aim of this research will determine the factors affect to satisfaction from students‟ choice From this, it will help families, high schools and other education

organizations have the right methods to orientate career as well as create the best conditions for the high school students to choose higher education universities

With the potential growth of education sector and the competition from higher education universities to increase the satisfaction from students‟ choice and attract more students, the question raised by marketers is that what are key factors affect to satisfaction from students‟ choice From many related theories and research from other nations and some investigation in Vietnamese context, they are five factors: students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people, the career opportunities, the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities and efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students in satisfaction of students‟ choice Based on these studies, this research aims to exam these factors by measuring the relationship between them with the satisfaction from students‟ choice

1.3 Research objectives

This research aims to give scholars as well as the managers of the higher education universities in Ho Chi Minh City an answer to the question: What factors affect satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education? This will find out the effect of students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people, the career opportunities, the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities and efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students in satisfaction of students‟ choice on satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education

To archive the objective, this research will try to investigate:

- Whether there is a relationship between students‟ characteristics and satisfaction from students‟ choice or not? If yes, this is the positive or negative correlation

- Whether there is a relationship between the influences of significant people and satisfaction from students‟ choice or not? If yes, this is the positive or negative correlation

- Whether there is a relationship between the career opportunities after graduation and satisfaction from students‟ choice or not? If yes, this is the positive or negative correlation

- Whether there is a relationship between higher education universities‟ fixed characteristics and satisfaction from students‟ choice or not? If yes, this is the positive or negative correlation

- Whether there is a relationship between higher education universities‟ efforts to communicate with prospect students and satisfaction from students‟ choice or not? If yes, this is the positive or negative correlation

1.4 Research significance

The purpose of this research is to gain a better understanding of satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education universities This will investigate the importance of students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people, the career opportunities, the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities and efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students in satisfaction of students‟ choice, thus it will help managers of the higher education universities‟ to further understand on how to improve the education services as well as attract more students and increase their reputations

- Chapter I: Introduction This chapter gives an overview about the introduction of the research It mentions the research background, statement of the problem, research objectives, research significance, research scope as well as research structure

- Chapter II: Literature review, Hypotheses and Conceptual model This chapter reviews previous related theories and research, as well as offers the hypotheses and proposes the conceptual research model

- Chapter III: Research methodology This chapter provides general method how the research is designed and implemented, data collection and data analysis method, as well as measurement scales

- Chapter IV: Data analysis and Findings This chapter translates primary data collected from surveys, analyzes data as well as discusses the result findings in connection with literature review

- Chapter V: Conclusion, Implication, Limitation and Direction for future research This chapter will conclude the research finding, provide research implication and give the further suggestion as well as research limitation

In conclusion, this chapter gives an introduction about the background of the chosen research subject, along with problem background and the research objective, research scope Finally, research structure is presented to get overview about what were in the research Following it, next chapter will show literature review and propose hypotheses and conceptual research model

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW, HYPOTHESE AND CONCEPTUAL

MODEL

After having an overview about the research, this chapter presents the literature review, builds the hypotheses and proposes the research model for the factors influencing satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education Firstly, it reviews the key concepts of this research through previous theories and studies related to higher education, students‟ choice and satisfaction from students‟ choice After that, this chapter builds the hypotheses to explore the relationship between satisfaction from students‟ choice and these factors: students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people, the career expectation, the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities and efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students Finally, this chapter shows the proposed research model

2.1 The concept of Higher education

Nowadays, when the world is changing continuously and rapidly, it is very difficult to definite the concept of higher education In the declaration of Unesco (1998), higher education includes “all types of studies, training or training for research at the post-secondary level, provided by universities or other educational establishments that are approved as institutions of higher education by the competent State authorities”

From this declaration, it can be inferred that higher education consists of all types of education, such as: academic, professional, economic, technical, medical, artistic, pedagogical, etc…Higher education also is provided by universities, technical institutes, teacher training colleges, etc…which are normally intended for students having completed secondary education

According the Education Law 2005 of Vietnamese National Assembly, higher education includes four forms of training, those are: college education, university education, master education and doctoral education Because of the limitation of this research, higher education mostly focuses on the university education

“University education is conducted, depending on the discipline, from four to six years

of study for persons with upper secondary education diplomas or professional secondary education diplomas; and from two and a half to four years of study for persons with professional secondary education diplomas in the same discipline; from one and a half to two years of study for persons with college diplomas in the same discipline” (Education Law 2005, p.15)

2.2 Overview of students’ choice

Fisher (1993) in his study points that the metaphor of student as a consumer become more and more common in the higher education sector, especially in North America and Europe Furthermore, in the research by Vrontis et al (2007), it is found that if higher education is considered as a process, the customer in this process will be the student On the other hand, the higher education universities in this situation, just like any providers in other industry, have a primary purpose to satisfy the customer‟s needs

Therefore, if student is considered as a consumer, the student‟s choice for higher education will be the consumer making decision There were many researchers who try to investigate and explain this student behavior

A lot of models use the idea of economic effectiveness With this explanation, students give their decisions based on the value of each university offered to them The students compare the costs for particular institutions with the benefits they perceived and then give the rough calculation, taking into account the individual's personal tastes and preferences (Hossler

et al., 1999; Manski and Wise, 1983)

In Chapman‟s students‟ choice model (1981), there are four factors affected to student‟s choice, they are: students‟ characteristics, significant persons, fixed universities‟ characteristics and universities‟ efforts to communicate with prospect students

Another model also investigates about students‟ choice is belongs to Jackson in his

education university The first one is the preference stage where, academic achievement had an important role It is the strongest correlation with student‟s educational espiration Another factors also affects to these espiration were family background and student‟s social context During the second stage, the student may pay attention on the higher education university‟s charactistics, such as: tutor fee, location, ranking or academic quality After having made these exclusion, the student can limit his or her choice list, evaluate and give the final decision

In the other hand, Chapman has a little bit different idea from Jackson He finds that there are only two stage in students‟ choice: pre-search stage and search stage (1984) In the first stage, it seems that family income had a direction effect to the choice of students Besides that, students may consider the universities that enroll academic ability samiliar to their own And in the second stage, the students would gather the information about the specific universities

One of the models which contributes the most to the literature of students‟ choice is of Hanson and Litten This model is a cross between Jackson‟s student-based model and the more institution-based model Chapman model (Hanson and Litten, 1989) It consists of three stage

In the first stage, students initially decides to participate in post secondary education After that, they would investigate universities and created a set of candidates The process of applying to a higher education university and erolling is the last stage Within these three stages, there are many factors that affected to the students‟ choice, for example, race and family culture, quality and social composition of high school, parents and counselors, self image and personality, economic conditions of the environment, financial aid available, recruitment activities of colleges, size and programs of colleges

Vrontis et al (2007) also develops from these model into his model about higher education students‟ choice According to this study, there are four main factors that affected to students‟ choice, they are: individual determinants, environment determinants, higher education universities‟ characteristics and high-school characteristics

2.3 Satisfaction from Students’ choice

According to Kotler (as cited in Dinh, 2012), the satisfaction is a person‟s feelings of pleasure or disappointment that result from comparing a product‟s perceived performance (or outcome) to expectations If the performance feels short of expectations, the customer will be dissatisfied If performance matches expectations, the customer will be satisfied; if it exceeds expectations, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted

Wilson (1995) also points that expectations of services played a role in how they were rated Clearly people with low expectations are likely to be less critical of the same service than those with high expectations Indeed, ratings of services in surveys such as this could be thought of as the difference between actual experience of service delivery and expectations of the service

Students‟ choice process is a complex series of activities, with different ingredients according to the research of Chapman (1981), Jackson (1982) and Hanson and Litten (1989) as mentioned above Another model is from Hossler and Gallagher in their research in 1987, this concept is similar to the other models This model has three stages: predisposition, search and choice

In the first stage (predisposition), students determine what they would like to continue their education beyond their high school In the second stage (search), they may gather the information they investigated for later use And in the last stage (choice), they evaluate the sets

of considered universities and then, they would give the final decision

In the students‟ choice decisions, consumers – students rely heavily on psychological inputs such as expectations or influence from important person, which plays a critical role in framing satisfaction evaluations (Arambewela and Hall, 2001) They also state that the evaluation of the quality and performance of the choice of a service, like university education, takes place only after experiencing it This evaluation could be rated via satisfaction perceptions of the customers – students

After enrolling in an institution and experiencing the service, a student usually assess whether the service or its provider live up to their expectations which are raised in the earlier stages of the process (Brassington, 2006, 109) In other words, there is a kind of comparison with their standards, judgment and opinion about the experience (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2004, 44)

A student may pose some questions; for example, is it value for money, time and effort? And have they made the right decision by enrolling at that specific university?

The measurement scale for students‟ satisfaction is adapted from the customer satisfaction scales from Taylor and Baker (1994)

2.4 Hypotheses

2.4.1 Students’ characteristic

Students‟ characteristics have an important role in decision process of students to participate in post secondary education Chapman (1981) finds that there are three main factors affected to students‟ choice of which higher education university they would like to attend They are the current characteristics of the student, the student‟s family background and the characteristics of the higher education university

Besides that the Hanson and Litten model also points that some factors from students‟ characteristics like race or personality were one of the factors the students considered when giving decision to choose university in higher education (Hanson and Litten, 1989)

Vrontis et al (2007) also says that students‟ characteristics affects to the students‟ choice The students‟ characteristics are formed from the students‟ abilities and interests Some aspects in this factor would be class, self-image, personality or lifestyle

Therefore, it can be inferred that the individual determinants and the students‟ choice in higher eduation universities have a close relationship If the student‟s characteristics are suitable with the higher education university, the probability that the student choose this university is high If the student has a good aptitude in education, he or she might get good performance in high school result, therefore he or she has a wide range to choose the university

for post secondary education Besides that, the family income also affected to the students‟ choice

Based on the above discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: There is a positive correlation between students’ characteristics and satisfaction from students’ choice in higher education universities

2.4.2 Influence of significant people

In the research in 1981, beside students‟ characteristics, Chapman also states that students are strongly persuaded by the comments and advice of their friend and family In the previous research with Johnson in 1979, Chapman also points that first year students reported that the comments and universities choice of their friends are most important in their own decision Jackson (1982) also says that family is one of factors students considered in three stages to give decision to select the higher education universities

In addition, there are some related studies reporting that, in Asian culture, the influence

of family and friends also has important role on students' choice of higher education Joseph & Joseph (1998, 2000) has combined the factors of institutional information and the influences of family and considered it as an independent variable and named as general Pimpa (2004) also points that the influence from family is one of the most important factors affecting to the Thai students‟ choice in higher education Yusof et al (2008) also says that the prospect from family contributes to the selection of students

Besides, in another study of Chen and Zimitat in 2006, the influence of family and friends is shaping intention of Taiwanese to study abroad This idea is repeated in the study of Wagner and Fard (2009) With the same opinion, Joseph in his study in 2010 also points that family members, teachers, guidance counselors and admission counselors could influence on the students‟ choice to select the higher education universities

Therefore, the advisory from significant people is very important to students to select the higher education universities The students tend to choose the universities that have positive recommendation from their family members, teachers, friends or other relatives

Based on the above discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: There is a positive correlation between influence of significant people and satisfaction from students’ choice in higher education universities

2.4.3 Career opportunities after graduation

Hanson and Litten (1989) states that the environment factors like occupational structure and culture conditions might affect to the students‟ choice process The Cabrera and La Nasa model (2000) includes the occupational aspirations of student as an important factor that contributes to the students‟ choice (as cited in Marvin, 2006)

Kandiko (2013) also gives out the primary purpose of students when they choose higher education universities He says that purpose is to improve students‟ prospects and as a pathway

to for career enhancement Students expect higher education universities to offer advice and guidance to support them to increase their knowledge as well as their skills for future career

Therefore, the students have trend to choose the higher education universities that bring

to them good opportunities in the future career and help them have widen choice in the career path

Based on the above discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H3: There is a positive correlation between career opportunities after graduation and satisfaction from students’ choice in higher education universities

2.4.4 Higher education universities’ characteristics

Chapman (1981) in his model reports that the higher education universities‟ characteristics has important role on students‟ choice He says that location, costs, campus environment, and the available of desired programs are relatively fixed college characteristic

Maringe (2006) also states that introducing fees into higher education universities has resulted in greater „consumerist behaviour‟ by applicants, because value for money would then begin to become a substantial issue in the decision making process She pointes that price related information (tuition fees, cost of living and scholarships) is also important as the program‟s characteristics in potential students‟ choice

Marvin (2006) considers the higher education universities‟ characteristics as an important factor affecting to the students‟ choice Besides the location and costs, he also gives another two aspects, which are the universities‟ reputation and the support services

In conclusion, it can be inferred that students have a trend to choose the higher education universities that have suitable characteristics with themselves, and support them most

to study in

Based on the above discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H4: There is a positive correlation between higher education universities’ characteristics and satisfaction from students’ choice in higher education universities

2.4.5 Higher education universities’ efforts to communicate with prospect students

Chapman (1981) points the marketing activities of higher education universities could attract students He identifies that higher education universities‟ efforts to communicate with prospect students can help to increase the students‟ probability to choose that universities The more information students get about the higher education universities, the higher probability students‟ selection is

The marketing application also helps to offer promise to students if they have worried about the enrollment The marketing advertisement can be at high school or via media and newspaper, magazine Moreover, with the technological development, the higher education universities also can public information via social network like Facebook or Twitter Hossler and Gallagher suggest that campus tour can motivate the students and help them have a positive

attitude about the universities (1987) Another way to bring information to students is by recruitment activities (Vrontis et al., 2007)

So, the efforts from higher education universities to communicate with prospect students are very important These help to encourage the students choose the universities to continue their study

Based on the above discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H5: There is a positive correlation between higher education universities’ efforts to communicate with prospect students and satisfaction from students’ choice in higher education universities

2.5 Research model

Based on the above literature review, the purposed model is presented in Figure 1

Figure 2.1: The conceptual research model

Students‟ characteristic (SC)

Higher education universities‟

characteristics (HEUC)

Influence of significant people (ISP)

Career opportunities after

H1 (+)

H2 (+)

H3 (+)

H4 (+)

Higher education universities‟

efforts to communicate with

prospect students (HEUE)

H5 (+)

H1: There is a positive correlation between students‟ characteristics and satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education universities

H2: There is a positive correlation between the influences of significant persons and satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education universities

H3: There is a positive correlation between career opportunities after graduation and satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education universities

H4: There is a positive correlation between higher education universities‟ characteristics and satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education universities

H5: There is a positive correlation between higher education universities‟ efforts to communicate with prospect students and satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education universities

This chapter has summarized the previous related theories and research, as well as has offered the hypotheses and proposes the conceptual model The research model have five hypotheses, it means that there are five factors affecting satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education: students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people, the career expectation, the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities and efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students After that, Chapter 3 will present the research methodology – how to do the research

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Chapter 2 has presented the literature review and proposed the conceptual model as well

as hypotheses for the factors influencing satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education The next chapter gives a brief description of the research methodology used for this research

At the beginning, the research process is presented to get an overview about how to exam the hypotheses and the conceptual model Followed up the process, this chapter discussed other parts: research design, sample selection, data source, data analysis method and measurement scales

3.1 Research process

This research is described in the figure 2:

Figure 3.1: Research process

Research Objectives

Draft measurement scale

 Cronbach alpha test

 Item- correlation test

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

 Exploratory factor analysis test

 Factor loading and total variance extracted test

 Assumption test

 Regression analysis

 Hypotheses testing

Hypotheses testing

Literature Review

3.2 Research design

In order to archive the research objective, both qualitative and quantitative data collection was used to collect primary data in this study

Qualitative research: According to Kirk and Miler (1986), qualitative research could

access in-depth phenomenon which is not yet explored or pointed out the novel ideas for which are already known Therefore, in this research, the qualitative research was used to explore the respondents‟ satisfaction from their choice in higher education universities From that, the modification could be done if necessary And it was also expected to prove strong evidence to confirm the research hypotheses and model

Quantitative research: This research collected quantitative data collection in the form of

a question survey Neville (2007) said that quantitative approach was highly detailed and structured and its result can be easily presented statistical According to Creswell (2003), the quantitative is the best method to test a theory or explanation In this research, the questionnaire conducted from the literature review aims to test factors that influences on students‟ choice in higher education It also is used scales of measurement to evaluate the influence of these factors: individual determinants, environment determinants, higher education university‟s and high-school characteristics on students‟ choice

a minimum of 100 observations regardless of the subjects-to-variables ratio Another study

should be equal to or greater than five times of the number of independent variables, but not less than 100 Thus, the total number of sample must satisfy:

N >= 100 and N >= 5k (where k is the number of variables)

This research has 23 observation variables, as the results, the minimum sample size required is:

N = 5 x 23 = 115 (this value is satisfied N >100)

Therefore, the sample size of this research - 300 students –was acceptable The data was selected using simple random sampling techniques

3.4 Data source

3.4.1 Primary data

Based on the research process, primary data was collected from interviewing opened questions (qualitative research) and questionare survey (quantitative research)

Interviewing opened questions: the predetermined question was given to respondents by

face-to-face interview The interviewees had chances to show their deep thinking about the factors affect to students‟ satisfaction from their choice in higher education universities Then, researchers asked them to explain more about the reason for their answer The detail of interview question was attached in appendix 1 Finally, the decision were made if there were at least 2/3 the interviewees had the same thinking

Out of tens, seven participants had the same thinking about satisfaction All of them concerned about some factors such as the effect of students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people and the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities when answering the factors effect to satisfaction from their choice in higher education universities Some of them also showed the uncertain thinking about the career opportunities and universities‟ efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students Finally, most of them confirmed the students‟ characteristic was the most important criteria to effect

their satisfaction As the result, this first investigation provided strong evidence to confirm the research hypotheses and model

Questionnaire survey: The questionnaire survey was design as a structured interview

The same questions were asked of everybody in the same manner (Sekaran & Bougie, 2011) The questionnaires were delivered personally to the respondents participating in the study so as

to ensure an acceptable response rate for the study (Kothari et al., 2005) The questionare was

collected by sending emails and handing out hard copies

The collected data was analyzed by SPSS software

3.4.2 Secondary data

Secondary data played an important role in this research Firstly, it helped to find out the problem statement and research objective Moreover, most of part in the literature review is contributed from secondary data It helped to have clear and full understanding about the topic with the advantages of saving time and budget The research used related information from many sources, such as: existing literature, books, international business journals, articles and professional newspapers The research also used the internet information from business or expertise website to collect relevant information

3.5 Measurement scales

According to the literature review has been mentioned before, there were five variables for this research These factors affected to students‟ choice in higher education are: students‟ characteristics, the influence of significant people, the career expectation, the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities and efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students in satisfaction of students‟ choice The variables was measured based on Five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5: 5 – strongly agree, 4 – agree, 3 – neutral, 2 – disagree and 1 – strongly disagree

The following table – table 1 - shows the measurement scales for this research model:

Table 3.1: Measurement scales

Satisfaction of Students’ choice

SSC01 Overall, this university service matches my

(1994) SSC02 I feel being satisfied with this university

Variables Questions: Whether did these factors affect to

your choice in higher education universities or not?

SC04 Students‟ performance in high school

The influences of significant persons

ISP01 The advise from teachers

Adapted from Chapman (1981)

ISP02 The advise from parents

ISP03 The advise from older brothers/ other sisters

ISP04 The advise from friends

ISP05 The advise from high school admission officers

Career opportunities after graduation

CO01 The occupational structure

Adapted from Hanson and Litten (1989)

CO02 The probability to have good job

CO03 The probability to have high income

CO04 The probability to reach high position in society

Higher education universities’ characteristics

3.6 Data analysis method

This study was used SPSS software version 20 for windows to analyze the collected data Firstly, to describe the sample profile, the Descriptive Statistic was applied This method could help to have an overview about the basis feature in the research

Secondly, to access the internal consistency of the constructs, this study was examined

by Cronbach‟s alpha test

According to Yu (2001), Cronbach‟s alpha is a measure of squared correlation between observed scores and true scores In another way, the reliability is measured in terms of the ratio

of true score variance to observed score variance Cronbach‟s alpha reliability coefficient normally ranges between 0 and 1 Normally, if the Cronbach‟s alpha value is greater than 0.7, the result will be acceptable in this method (Nunnaly, 1978; George and Mallery, 2003)

Thirdly, to determine the number of the factors affecting the measures and the strength

of the relationship between each factor and each observed measure, this study applied

HEUC01 Tution fee

Adapted from Chapman (1981) HEUC02 Scholarship

HEUC03 Location

HEUC04 The universities‟ reputation

Adapted from Marvin (2006) HEUC05 The student support services

Higher education universities’ efforts to communicate with prospect students

HEUE01 Advertisement via newspapers, magazines

Adapted from Chapman (1981) HEUE02 Advertisement via media

HEUE03 Advertisement at the high school

Gallagher (1987)

(2007)

Factor analysis is a multivariate statistical technique which defines the underlying structure among a large number of variables It aims to summarize the information contained in

a large number of variables and reduce them into a smaller number of factors (Hair et al 1998)

In EFA testing, the Kaiser-Myer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy is the value to test the validity of the measurement scales The KMO value is in range 0 to 1 According to Hair et al (2010), here are the requirements of items which are kept: Highest factor loading of an item must be greater than 0.5, Eigenvalues is greater than 1, cumulative of explained variance must be greater than 50% and KMO is greater than 0.5, the Bartlett test must be significant (Sig < 0.05)

Finally, Multiple Linear Regression method was used to test the research model and hypotheses

Hair et al (2010, p 156) claims that there is the difference between the actual and predicted values of dependent variable That means the random error will occur when predicting sample data It is called the residual (e)

Based on these studies, the multiple regression formula was:

Here is the formula to estimate the satisfaction of students‟ choice (SSC) from the

Y (SSC) = B0 + B1*(SC) + B2*(ISP) + B3*(SOS) + B4*(CE) + B5*(HEUC) + B6*(HEUE)

Where in: Y (SSC): is the dependent variable, it is the satisfaction from students‟ choice

B0: is constant B1,B2,…,Bn: is called beta weight, standardized regression coefficient, or beta coefficient

SC, ISP, CE, HEUC, HEUE: independent factors: students‟ characteristics (SC), the influence of significant persons (ISP), the career expectation (CE), the fixed characteristics of the higher education universities (HEUC) and efforts of the own universities to communicate with prospect students (HEUE)

e: is the residual

Moreover, Meyers, Gamst, and Guarino (2006, p 161) introduce the value of R2indicating how much variance of the dependent variable is accounted for by the full regression model Therefore, the higher the value of R2, the greater the explanatory power of the regression equation (Hair et al., 2010)

This chapter gives brief description of research methodology: research process, research design, sample selection, data source, data analysis method and measurement scales Next chapter will analyze the collected data and give some findings from this

Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

The chapter 3 has shown an overview about the research process and the research methodology to do the research and to gain the results The following chapter presents the assessment of measurement and result of hypotheses testing about the factors affecting satisfaction from students‟ choice in higher education Firstly, this chapter shows some analysis about sample descriptive statistics After that, the research gives assessment and refinement of measurement scales as well as the results of hypotheses testing Lastly, the research summarizes some findings

4.1 Sample descriptive statistics

300 questionnaires were sent to respondents who are students in Ho Chi Minh City There were total 257 replies, in which 12 of them were invalid because of missing information Thus, the number of valid questionnaires was 245

Table 4 1: Genders of respondents

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Table 4.2: Kind of higher education universities (HEUs)

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

4.2 Assessment and Refinement of measurement scale

4.2.1 Cronbach’s alpha test

In statistic, Cronbach‟s alpha is the most commonly used reliability measure This survey applies Cronbach‟s alpha method to test the reliability of the factors Cronbach„s alpha reliability coefficient normally ranges between 0 and 1

George and Mallery (2003) provide the following rules of thumb: _ > 0.9 – Excellent, _

> 0.8 – Good, _ > 0.7 – Acceptable, _ > 0.6 – Questionable, _ > 0.5 – Poor, and _ < 0.5 – Unacceptable

An alpha coefficient of 0.7 and higher indicates that there is an acceptable level of internal consistency among the items making up the factor If corrected item-total correlation is lower than 0.3, it will be deleted from the questionnaire

The results of Cronbach„s Alpha coefficients for each scale are given as following tables:

Table 4 4: Reliability Statistic

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

Table 4 5: Reliability testing results

Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance

if Item Deleted

Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

Satisfaction of Students’ choice – Cronbach‟s alpha 0.756

Besides that, as well as the corrected item – total correlation above the requirement (0.3) And all the Cronbach‟s alpha values if item deleted were lower the the Cronbach‟s apha values including item (except the item HEUE04) However, this exception was not high and significant So, there was no need to delete this item

From these above analysis, it can be deduced that all scale has satisfied the requirement for reliability test

4.2.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

4.2.2.1 Dependent Variables

After testing the reliability of the scale measurement, the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) method was used to test the validity of the measurement of scale Factor analysis is a multivariate statistical technique which defines the underlying structure among a large number

of variables It aims to summarize the information contained in a large number of variables and reduce them into a smaller number of factors (Hair et al., 2010)

In EFA testing, the Kaiser-Myer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy is the value to test the validity of the measurement scales The KMO value is in range 0 to 1 Here are the requirements of items which are kept: Highest factor loading of an item must be greater than 0.5, Eigenvalues is greater than 1, cumulative of explained variance must be greater than 50% and KMO is greater than 0.5, the Bartlett test must be significant (Sig < 0.05)

According to the table 6 and table 7, the result has met all the requirements from this test: KMO was 0.500, significant was 0.000, cumulative percentage was 80.384%

Table 4.6: KMO and Barlett‟s Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy .500 Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx Chi-Square 111.765

Table 4.7: Total Variance Explained

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis

Table 4.8: Component Matrix