This chapter sums up and discusses the PLS findings for this study. Recommendations are also proposed. There are three sections in this chapter. First, the conclusion from the study is proposed. Secondly, implications of this study are explained. Third, recommendations for future research are proposed.
Conclusions
The goal of this study was to examine the relationships between cultural orientations universities’ culture, academic motivation and how they reflect on the academic satisfaction among international students in Taiwan. Organizational culture is a widely-researched topic with a plethora of studies; furthermore, the area of higher education culture is still new and relatively unexplored. Therefore, this study demonstrates it is an area worth exploring as the relationship between the variables is positive and they indicate a strong relationship as well. There are 5 findings we need to consider from the results of the data analysis, which are the following.
First, the strongest relationship was found between how students perceive their university culture and their academic satisfaction which demonstrates the importance of the perceived environment for a student’s satisfaction and success. Hence, we can assume that it is important for universities to generate efforts into creating a suitable environment to attract and retain more international students. This would benefit the universities as we are now in a globalization era where everything and everyone is trying to connect with other cultures.
Second, there is also a moderate positive influence from the students’ cultural orientations and their academic motivation. We can therefore assume that some degree of their motivation comes from their cultural background and is not determined by other external factors. In the case of this study, the cultural orientations explain 19% of their academic motivation which includes extrinsic and intrinsic. Thus, the remaining 81% can be studied and analyzed in further research to investigate other factors that can affect their motivation, possibly their personality, cultural intelligence among others.
Third, we can also observe a moderate positive relationship of the students’ cultural orientation, more specifically their uncertainty avoidance trait and how they perceive their university culture. The majority of students come from public universities which indicate that these would benefit more from this study and its implications. Even though it is a strong and positive
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relationship the percentage that is explained by it is very low, only a 4% of the university culture is explained by the international students’ cultural orientation, which seems as a logic result since the population from international students in universities is low compared to the locals.
Fourth, again we can observe a positive and moderate relationship between the variables of cultural orientations and the international students’ academic satisfaction. This indicates again the importance of their cultural background for their academic satisfaction, as mentioned previously there is a higher percentage of students from public universities and culturally the majority come from central and South America. There is no significant difference among male and female in the number of participants and the total of these 3 variables explain 65% of the academic satisfaction of students, which is to say it is an important part of it. As the means data analysis demonstrated most of the international students are satisfied with their university. Creating a cooperative, organized, and positive learning environment has both a positive social and educational impact on each participating student, among many other characteristics that could benefit the motivation if considered carefully to successfully create an ideal campus environment.
Fifth, the lowest yet still significant relationship is between the international students’
academic motivation and their academic satisfaction, which proves the support from teachers, friends and family can enhance the students’ satisfaction in the university setting. As Deci and Ryan (1991) have explained that some situational factors may provoke a change from intrinsic to extrinsic causes of motivation, therefore, correlations with the intrinsic and extrinsic dimension of academic motivation indicating some uncertainty among the respondents which might be due to economic uncertainty. The lowest factor remains from academic motivation, the external motivation, but not with a significantly high difference.
Recommendations
In general terms, the international students who take courses in English in public and private universities in Taiwan are satisfied with their service, yet some areas are still considered they can improve. The universities should align the culture of the university with their values. It is important that the staff as well as professors, and other authority take enough time to develop a culture that is in sync with the values and beliefs of the university. In addition, it is recommended that values in the university should be clear for students, professors and staff. This environment should focus in encouraging cooperation not only between international students but also to foster a cultural community that enhances cultural intelligence and adaptation for all. In this era where
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Taiwan as well as many other countries are moving towards globalization it is important for universities to consider the satisfaction motivation and adaptation of their students.
In a collectivist society as Taiwan, collaboration should be promoted not only among locals, but also among all cultures and it should be rewarded over competitiveness and individualism. The learning experience should be transformed from a passive knowledge growth to one that highlights more active, reflective and collaborative knowledge exploration among all students. More university and faculty orientations should be designed specifically for international students especially for newcomers and should include information about services available on campus and explanation of benefits of using them. More student services should be administered in English as the population of the study the majority has poor Chinese level, library services, dormitory, and other school facilities could improve this aspect. Tangibles had the lowest score for academic satisfaction hence some of the educational facilities could be improved as well.
In the academic area, some program curriculum should be adjusted to incorporate cultural differences among the students learning capabilities. Students confirm faculty among the different universities has a high level of education and were rated as excellent; there is always space for improvement or changes.
Recommendations for Future Research
In concluding, the evaluation of the link between cultural orientations, university culture, academic satisfaction and motivation in the academic context of international students in Taiwan is unique and adds to this stream of research.
Based on the limitations of this research, here are the recommendations for future research.
In first place, since this study was done with international students from different universities, nationalities, financial support, and future research could make a comparison study among those demographic data to see the effect among these different groups. Due to time constraints, this study does not analyze the relationship between demographic variables. For this reason, a multilevel empirical analysis of different groups to determine whether there is relationship between variables and different groups is recommended. Another suggestion could be to conduct a study by only focusing on participants from one nationality or ethnic origin, language, gender, age group, career choice, among many other demographic variables that could be used.
Second, future research could explore and test the relationship of other variables and
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dimensions that were not taken into consideration in this study, as noted previously the remaining 35% of explanation for academic satisfaction for international students can be explored.
Third, a future researcher could make use of other research approach instead of quantitative approach, or a combination of quantitative and qualitative would help to explore deeper into some variables and clarify many areas.
Finally, future research could also attempt to determine whether the CMUA model could be utilized as a measurement in other industries such as secondary education or expatriate population among organizations in Taiwan.
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