Factors Influencing Foreign Students’ Satisfaction toward International Program in Thai Universities

Abstract

—The objectives of this study were: 1) to explore factors that influence international students on their decision making process on selecting Thai universities as their preferred institution; 2) to identify the international students' satisfaction factors towards the international programs in Thai universities; 3) to identify and compare satisfaction factors between public and private universities; 4) to propose the improvement on increasing satisfaction of the international students who are studying in the international program at Thai universities, and to attract more potential international students in the future. This study is quantitative research using satisfaction questionnaire with five-point Likert scale as a tool to measure the satisfaction level and primary data was collected from 271 foreign students studying in international programs in Thai universities. Eight key factors were incorporated and formulated in a conceptual model tested in this study. Data analysis and hypothesis testing were performed by using Pearson's product moment correlation, stepwise multiple regression, and cross tabulation. The findings indicated that only four factors had significant positive influence on overall foreign students' satisfaction toward international program in Thai higher education. These four factors were academic and education quality, financial and economic consideration, administrative and staff support, and image and prestige of the university. The multiple regression model with these four factors could predict 51.3% of the variance in the overall student satisfaction and the respondents' results' regarding overall satisfaction rating was in satisfied level.