台灣高等教育國際化的產品策略研究-以越南市場為例

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(1)國立中山大學企業管理學系碩士班碩士論文. 台灣高等教育國際化的產品策略研究-以越南市場為例 A Study on the Product Strategy for Internationalization of Taiwan Higher Education towards Vietnamese Market. 研究生：陽明心 (Duong Minh Tam) 撰指導教授：趙平宜 (Professor Ping-Yi Chao). 中華民國 97 年 8 月.

(2) CONTENT. Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 1. CHINESE ABSTRACT. 2. ENGLISH ABSTRACT. 3. INTRODUCTION. 5. I.. Higher Education and Globalization. 5. II.. Demand for Overseas Higher Education in Vietnam. 6. 1. Environmental Changes. 6. 2. Local Market’s Capacity. 6. 3. Demand for Better Education. 7. Taiwan Higher Education. 8. 1. History of Taiwan Higher Education. 8. 2. Why Taiwan?. 9. 3. Taiwan Education Motivation. 10. III.. LITERATURE REVIEWS. 12. I.. Educational Marketing. 12. II.. Educational Product. 14. III.. What Students Look For in Overseas Higher Education?. 17.

(3) METHODOLOGY. 22. I.. Samples. 22. II.. Measurement/ Five-point Scale. 24. III.. Survey Procedures. 24. IV.. The Questionnaire. 25. V.. Data Collection. 27. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION. 29. I.. Demographics Parameters. 29. II.. Potential Levels. 31. III.. Core Need for Overseas Study. 34. IV.. Importance vs. Satisfaction. 35. DISCUSSION. 43. I.. Findings. 43. II.. Uniqueness of The Research. 44. III.. Recommendations. 45. IV.. Limitations and Future Research Directions. 47. REFERENCES. 48.

(4) APPENDIXES. Appendix A. English Questionnaire Form 1. 51. Appendix B. English Questionnaire Form 2. 56. Appendix C. Vietnamese Questionnaire. 61. Appendix D. Tables D1, D2, D3 – Importance Levels. 72. CONTENTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES. Table 1. Response Rate. 28. Table 2. Potential Levels Divisions. 32. Table 3. Potential Levels Distributions. 33. Table 4. Core Need for Overseas Study. 34. Table 5. PL1-Importance vs. Satisfaction. 36. Table 6. PL2-Importance vs. Satisfaction. 39. Table 7. PL3-Importance vs. Satisfaction. 40. Table 8. Preferred Language of Study Medium vs. Satisfaction. 41. Figure 1. Age Ranges. 29. Figure 2. Gender. 30. Figure 3. Qualifications Pursuing (Obtained). 31.

(5) 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Chao Ping-yi for being my supervisor and sparing me his precious time to advise me on my thesis. I would also like to acknowledge the thoughtfulness of Professor Louis P. White and Professor Greenberg during my hectic schoolwork. Lastly, I would like to thank my family members for their continuous mental support when I was away from home..

(6) 2 ABSTRACT 這篇論文著重在有關教育產量的構成要素討論在高等教育之下學生的需求;並且單就教育輸出方面探索，企圖找出在台灣教育體制與越南學生之間的相互關連。這篇論文最終的目的是為提供在台外國學生在全球化的今日一個入學台灣高等教育的應徵對策。問卷調查研究對象主要是由台灣留學生人數最多的越南學生（包括已有在地學習經驗的舊學生和較少經驗的新學生）。 1. 根據這篇論文發現：越南學生常見主要追求國外高等學歷需要是為往後職業有更好的前景而追求外國學歷。 2. 在這篇論文中總共有 14 個重要的影響原因，分別是當適相關設備的提供，教授的素質，教學方式的品質與內容，資格證書在越南的鑒定，學校的課程，生活費，學費，研究結果指出學術研究能力與財務援助是最前面兩名重要因素，往返台灣與越南的交通費排第三，再來是學習語言需求，學生素質，校園環境與宗教場所依次緊追其後。 3. 在這所有 14 個重要的影響原因之中，只有其中三項是被評估為強烈滿意（被已有在台高等教育經驗的在台越南學生）。這些依次是：學術研究能力，教授的素質與校園環境。有 7 項是被已有在台高等教育經驗的在台越南學生列入介於滿意和無意見的：學習語言需求，當適相關設備的提供，學校的課程，生活費，財務援助和學費。其他 4 項依次原因是：資格證書在越南的鑒定，學生素質，宗教場所，往返台灣與越南的交通費等被列為介於無意見與不滿意中間。 4. 在台灣，相較使用英文做為溝通工具之學生，使用中文之學生較為滿意。.

(7) 3 ABSTRACT This study drew light on educational product constituents, discussed students’ needs in higher education and attempted to find out the connection between Taiwan’s educational supply and Vietnamese demands in terms of products in education. The final purpose of this research is to contribute to Taiwan’s foreign student recruitment strategy in the midst of globalization. A questionnaire survey was conducted on Vietnamese students (experienced and inexperienced) who are the most dominant group of foreign students in Taiwan. The study produced four major findings: 1. The common core need of Vietnamese students in the pursuit of overseas higher education was to gain foreign degree for a better career prospects. 2. Fourteen factors were ranked in importance in which Availability of appropriate faculty, Quality of lecturers, Quality of teaching methods, Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam, Curriculum, Cost of living, Tuition fee, Quality of academic facilities and Financial aids were on top of the list, followed by Cost of transportation between Taiwan and Vietnam, Required language for study medium, Quality of students, Campus environment and Religious facilities. 3. Among the fourteen factors above, only three of them were assessed as strongly satisfactory by experienced students (students who have experienced Taiwan higher education). They were Quality of academic facilities, Quality of lecturers and Campus environment. Seven of them were rated between satisfactory and neutral: Required language for study medium, Quality of teaching methods, Availability of appropriate faculty, Curriculum, Cost of living, Financial aids and Tuition fee. The remaining four factors which were Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam,.

(8) 4 Quality of students, Religious facilities and Cost of transportation between Taiwan and Vietnam, were evaluated to be between neutral and dissatisfactory. 4. Students who were using Chinese as language medium in Taiwan were found to be more satisfied than those using English as the medium..

(9) 5 INTRODUCTION I. Higher Education and Globalization. Higher education refers to the education provided by universities and colleges. It is not compulsory unlike primary and secondary educations which are mandatory in many countries in the world. Higher education provides the supply of highly-qualified workers to a nation (Hough, 1982) and plays roles in social development of a country. It also stimulates economic development by improving skills and knowledge of managerial and technical professionals (Woodhall, 1992). Globalization has also contributed to the increase in students pursuing higher education overseas. As mentioned in 1985 by Cumming and So, “overseas degrees are viewed as a means to superior employment opportunities in modern firms and government”. It was directed at Asian perspectives on having degrees from the USA. There are several reasons behind this like improving Asian-American political links, increasing economic Asian-American ties, increasing Asian immigration to the US, high absorptive capacity of American higher education, and provision of part-time work to cover living cost. Cummings and So also stated that “the particular country which students choose for their overseas study would be influenced by the relative dominance of that country in the local economy”. In another words, the choice of destination country is influenced by presence of foreign companies in the country, creating a perspective that having a particular overseas education would be advantageous in securing a job in a foreign firm of that particular country. Therefore.

(10) 6 it seems that without socio-economic and linguistic connections, a country can hardly become competitive in attracting foreign students.. II. Demand for Overseas Higher Education in Vietnam 1. Environmental Changes. With a dramatic economic growth rate of 7.8 % in 2006 as reported by the Asian Development Bank, Vietnam is now a spotlight in South East Asia. Since the implementation of the open-door policy (Doi moi policy) of Vietnam in 1986, many foreign companies have come to Vietnam to invest, run business or do market research. The hundreds of new foreign companies which have arisen inevitably caused changes in the Vietnamese markets, especially the labor market. Those companies are not only looking for local low-skilled workers but also high-skilled employees or even management staffs. It is better for them to do so because local managers have advantages over foreign managers in terms of costs, language, and behaviors. The changes in labor markets led to changes in education market as well. Demand for higher education in Vietnam has since been increasing rapidly, becoming a social trend.. 2. Local Market’s Capacity. According to the Vietnam General Statistics Office, the number of college and university students rose from 1,319,754 in year 2004 to 1,666,239 in year 2006 and.

(11) 7 the increment is accelerating in recent years. Although 69 new universities had been set up, bringing the total number of higher education institutes to 299, it is still unable to cope with the increasing demand for higher education. This insufficiency in the capacity of domestic market has caused many Vietnamese to turn to overseas alternatives. In 2004, the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Department of International Affairs estimated an approximate number of 38,500 students to be studying overseas.. 3. Demand for Better Education. Vietnamese parents have been trying to pave a future path of high prospect for their children by sending them abroad to study. They have the thinking that studying abroad will equip their children with greater knowledge. In fact, it is also true that the quality of those graduates from overseas is really higher in terms of independence, flexibility, competitiveness, innovation and knowledge. The list of countries that Vietnamese students chose to study in 2006 are China (included Hong Kong) with 7,500 students, the UK with 4,000 students, the US with 3,670 students, Australia with 2,800 students, Germany with 2,500 students, and followed by New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia… (Source: Chinese Embassy in Hanoi, British Council, US General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnamese Embassy in Australia, Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst). In a study by Tran et al. in 1995, there is an urgent need to train businessmen, managers, lawyers and technology specialist in various areas to prepare Vietnam for the twenty-first century. It includes higher education for state-of-the-art technologies.

(12) 8 and upgrading of knowledge of qualified human resource in handling the modernizing areas such as agriculture, transportation and industrial work. Constraints in financial and human resources of higher institutions in Vietnamese have also led to very limited range of curriculum with out-dated teaching methods (Dai ngo Doan, personal communication, September, 2000), resulting in local students seeking overseas institutions.. III. Taiwan Higher Education 1. History of Taiwan Higher Education. There was no institute of higher education in Taiwan until the Japanese Occupation from 1894 to 1945 when there was only one university, Taipei Imperial University (Wang, 2003). However, it was set up to provide research material and train human resources which were required in Japanese colonial policy and not to raise the quality of local Taiwanese (Wu et al., 1989). After the surrender of the Japanese, higher education was replaced and became based on the American prototype. The number of higher education institutes in Taiwan then increased from fifteen in 1960 to twenty-eight in 1986 (Ministry of Education, 1987), increasing the number of students by four-folds (Directorate-general of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, Statistical Yearbook of the ROC, Taipei, 1987, p. 249). The number of higher education institutes went on to increase from twenty-eight to one hundred and twenty-seven from 1986 to 2000, increasing the number of students from 184,729 to 564,059 (Ministry of Education 2001, pp. 4–5; 20–23). Wang (2003).

(13) 9 discovered that in the past, the development of educational institutions aimed to supply the trained human resources to the society but recently the rapid increase in number of institutions and students due to the demands of people which could be due to demographic changes such as lower birthrates.. 2. Why Taiwan?. The number of Vietnamese students heading to Asian countries like China, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia is increasing more rapidly because of the similarity in culture, educational environment, relatively lower cost of expenses, convenient transportation, and simplicity in applying for visa. Among those countries, Taiwan appears to be a good choice nowadays because its quality in education and qualification were more recognized compared to those of China and Malaysia. In comparison to Singapore, Taiwan’s school fees and costs of living are cheaper and on top of that, Taiwan also provides international study environment in English language, with international standard classrooms and students from diverse national backgrounds. Additionally, Taiwan is a multi-language speaking country which is sometimes a criterion for foreigners in their selection. Currently, higher education in Taiwan adopts a system that is based on the course design of western university, in particular American ones. English textbooks are used but lessons are often conducted in Chinese. The courses are usually revised every four to six year to keep up with the changes and the Ministry of Education also conducts.

(14) 10 evaluations regularly to maintain the quality of the education system (Wu, 1989). The government also provides scholarships to attract foreign students.. 3. Taiwan Education Motivation. According to Taiwan Ministry of Education, foreign students are the bridges of a nation to the international society. Therefore the number of students studying in Taiwan indicates the level of internationalization and international competitiveness of the nation's education, as well as representing the nation's power and ability to attract foreigners. In 2006, Taiwan attracted 14,479 students from 117 countries all over the world and it increased to 17,742 students in 2007, in which Vietnam was the top country with 806 students. It has proven Taiwan’s effort and success in globalizing its education in general speaking and in the relationship with Vietnam in particular. Due to the differences in socio-culture, Taiwan hopes that Vietnamese students would bring in some typical lifestyles, cuisine, traditional practices, allowing Taiwanese people and students to learn more about Vietnam. From the economic point of view, recruiting students from Vietnam is a basic step for Taiwanese to invest in Vietnam and can be considered as an investment in human resource. Taiwanese investors are going to Vietnam to do business more and more and the Vietnamese graduates from Taiwan will be the best human resource. In addition, political differences also make Taiwan Government in favor of taking in students from Vietnam. As students belong to an educated class of people who would have an understanding in the nation’s ideology. Students from the two countries will have.

(15) 11 chance to learn more about each other’s political systems. From a technological point of view, recruiting Vietnamese students is good for Taiwan in terms of technology transfer and technology export as Taiwanese graduates familiar with those technologies would be able to apply them in Vietnam. The last and very important reason in selecting higher education in Taiwan is the language. It is one thing that every student wants to learn when they come to Taiwan..

(16) 12 LITERATURE REVIEWS I. Educational Marketing. In the globalizing world, marketing has become increasingly important and essential to an entity. The effectiveness of right marketing strategy has been proved by success of the companies such as Heineken, Google, Louis Vuitton and 7-11 etc. Marketing is no longer just for companies that make profits but also has been practiced by nonprofit organizations like educational institutions. The term educational marketing strategy has become familiar word with educators, governors, sponsors and recruiters who are all affected by the result of education marketing. They each have to recognize the effects of educational marketing strategy for their own benefits. Educators, for instance, get high enrollments, as a result of a well-designed marketing plan, which sustain the institutions’ operations and allow improvements in their service quality. Governors need to understand educational marketing strategies in order to maintain or modify educational policies so as to strengthen the country’s competitiveness in the education market. Sponsors are anxious about educational marketing strategy because they expect to reap returns from their investments. Recruiters are very often the end-users of the results from education. They recruit employees who in turn contribute to the success of their companies. The group of people who are most affected by educational marketing strategy are students and their relatives as they are the direct receivers of education service. Therefore they are often the decisive factor for implementation of marketing plans by institutions..

(17) 13 Undoubtedly, the core of marketing strategy of an institution is marketing-mix which is made up of the traditional four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Among these, issues of Place, Promotion and Price are less applicable in education. Promotion, Pricing strategy and price wars are more for commercial products and an institution cannot possibly change its location in order to get closer or assessable to its targeted customers. That leaves Product to be manipulated in educational marketing strategy. Many authors such as David Pardey (1985), Kotler and Fox (1985), Lynton Gray (1991), Smith, Lois R. and Cavusgil, S. Tarnev (1984) have been trying to define the constituents of educational product and as Smith and Cavusgil said in 1984, ‘A college’s product is so complex as to be impossible to pin down entirely objectively’. This study draws on educational product constituents, discuss students’ needs in higher education and try to find out the connection between Taiwan educational supply and Vietnamese demands in terms of products in education. The final purpose of this research is to build on some contribution to Taiwan foreign student recruitment strategy in its globalizing progress..

(18) 14 II. Educational Product. The very first question for any scholar in Educational Marketing is that what the first “P”- Product in marketing-mix consists of. Roberts and Allen (1997) stated that what is being offered to prospective students such as University course is not a tangible product, but a service. Non-pretest is the nature of a service. You will know neither how the service is going to be nor the quality of it until you consume it. What customers need to do in their decision-making process is to collect information from their related trustful sources, followed by a risk-bearing decision (Moogan, Baron and Harris, 1999). Being intangible, educational product has raised a lot of challenges for educators in communicating with potential customers to instill confidence in their product quality, creating a buying desire in them and assuring their satisfaction after consuming. Therefore when considering products in education, there is also a need to take tangible products into account. Pardey (1985) divided educational products into two parts: core product and augmented product. He also mentioned that core product refers to the learning experiences while Kotler and Fox in 1985 defined core product as what customers really seek, for example marketability or peaceful life before working (Kotler and Fox, 1985, pp.278). Pardey then defined augmented product as curriculum, premium offers/ promotion, and brand name while Kotler and Fox (1985) mentioned augmented product as additional services & benefits in the form of packaging, services, advertising, financing, delivery arrangement, other things that people value..

(19) 15 He also added tangible products into the constitution of educational product. The tangible product of education was divided into features, quality level, packaging and brand name. Features are individual components, that an educational institution can offer, which could be easily added or removed without changing the service style or quality. (Kotler and Fox, 1985). A specific customer segment can be served by one or a few special features which could help the institution differentiate themselves from others and in some cases, special features become decisive factors in customers’ choices. For example: National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences is offering a special course for Vietnamese students. The teaching and studying medium is Chinese and is only offered to Vietnamese students. The feature creates a Vietnamese environment amongst a Taiwanese society. This strategy has been quite successful in attracting Vietnamese students to enroll in the school but the only drawback is that it is currently only limited to undergraduate and not post-graduate level. Other products besides curriculum includes supplementary & non-educational services like student support services (career advice, academic & personal counseling , religion facilities), library services, facilities for food and drink, provision for recreation and materials given out as part of the curriculum provision (stationery such as ring-binders, exercise books & writing material) (Gray, L. ,1991) Quality level includes the personal qualities and teaching methods of teachers (Sanders et al., 2000). Qualities of teacher have been defined by students as approachableness, teaching skills, enthusiasm, knowledge, organization in teaching. Lectures with interactive participations by students and group works have also been viewed of, by students, as teaching methods of higher quality. Quality, as defined in a.

(20) 16 study by Marilyn Russel in 2005, also includes the provision of academic support, pastoral support and recognition level of the obtained degree. Provision of academic support refers to the dedication of the institute in helping students with their poor schoolwork while pastoral support includes counseling services offered. Worldwide recognition of the obtained degree, which is closely linked to brand name, has also been included as one of the criteria of quality. Kotler and Fox, in 1985, also mentioned that packaging in the context of education product refer to the campus’s environment which consists of building architecture, topography and landscaping. The environment sets the backdrop for a conducive learning place that is important in educational institutes. Brand name essentially includes the marketability (Kotler and Fox, 1985) and recognition of degrees obtained (Russel, 2005). Many educational institutions also develop niche areas in certain fields. Such public impressions would be advantageous to a graduate when applying for a job in that niche field. According to Smith and Cavusgil, a college’s products are so complex and overlapping that it is difficult to pin down and separate into clear-cut categories. Product includes more than courses and appropriate faculty. It also encompasses living conditions, both in the community and on campus, cultural activities both on and off campus, recreation and job placement services. According to the studies conducted by different authors as mentioned above, there is an extensive list of the constituents, some of which are overlapping and ambiguous. Therefore, there is a need to categorize these constituents of products into several subsets of educational products, so as to facilitate our study to achieve.

(21) 17 significant results. However, we will first take a look at what students look for in overseas higher education and incorporate some educational products constituents, which are highlighted in these studies, into our categorization.. III. What Students Look For in Overseas Higher Education?. In a study by Joseph and Joseph in 1997, seven factors relating to higher education service were analyzed, using the importance/performance paradigm, for their importance in students’ perspectives. The first factor mentioned was program issues which consisted of the range of curriculums available, the practicality of the modules in the course and the flexibility of the entry requirement. Secondly, academic reputation was mentioned. It consisted of the reputation of the degree and faculty, and quality of the academic facilities. Accommodation facilities, sports and recreational facilities, and cost of accommodation and education make up the physical factor. Other factors include career opportunities, time taken to complete the degree, location of campus and social influence. The result of the study showed that academic reputation was the most important factor, followed by career opportunities, program issues, time taken to complete degree, physical aspects, location and social influence. Joseph and Joseph conducted the research on New Zealand Business students and the local educational institution while the current research aimed at Vietnamese overseas students in Taiwan’s institutions. Asian orientation and international education would be a new touch on the field in this study..

(22) 18 A similar study has also been done by Mazzarol and Soutar in 2002. He grouped the reasons people seek overseas higher education into “push” and “pull” factors. The basic “push” factor was the lack of or limited accessibility to higher education in home countries due to unavailability of the desired courses or inability to gain entry into local institutions. The major “pull” factors were the pursuit to raise economic and social status due to the belief that overseas degrees are better than local ones and the chances to learn about foreign cultures. The study also analyzed several factors which could influence the choice of the destination for higher education. The factors include the availability of desired course, the level of technology used and the level of resources in the institution. There were also financial factors like the cost of living and education, and the availability of scholarships and financial aids. Environmental factors like climate, safety, distance of the country from home and language factors were also in the list. Mazzarol also discussed quality factors like the reputation of the institution, staff expertise and recommendations by friends and relatives. The results showed that reputation of the institution, presence of high-quality staffs and recommendation by friends and relatives were the most important factors. Recognition of their previous qualifications for entry into higher education institute and presence of large number of international students also positively influenced the choice. Distance of the host destination from home and level of technology used were the least important factors. This study drew conclusions that quality was the main factor influencing the selection of higher education, in consistence with the study done by Joseph and Joseph in 1997..

(23) 19 The constituents of quality have also been previously discussed by Sanders in 2000 and Russel in 2005. Sanders mentioned quality of teachers and quality of teaching methods from the perspectives of students. Quality of teachers was attributed to several personal qualities like knowledge and teaching skills, organization of lessons, enthusiasm and approachableness. The quality of teaching methods was based on the interactive level of the lessons, with group works and active student participations being the preferred teaching methods. According to Mazzarol and Russel, students have also started to look for destination institutes that use English as the main medium so as to increase their international competitiveness and learn more about foreign culture. In a study by Yang in 2001, as English is the current global language, it is beneficial to learn English as countries globalize and internationalize. The widespread of the use of English worldwide was contributed by British colonial powers in the 19th century and American economical dominance in the 20th century. English is now the language of international communications as it is the only or one of the official languages in all world organizations. It is also the main language in publications like books and academic journals and 80% of all information in electronic retrieval systems are stored in English. Therefore, it is more convenient and beneficial to scholars who have good commands of the English language. The few studies mentioned above essentially highlighted several main criteria that students look for in overseas higher education with the academic reputation topping the list. These studies, which are done on the expectations of overseas higher education by students, indeed revealed several factors that coincide with the.

(24) 20 educational product constituents identified in the educational product studies. They also provided several other factors that can be considered as educational products and they will be incorporated into our current study. All the literatures reviewed above mentioned about educational products which can be summarized into four groups: core needs, academic offerings, nonacademic offerings and environmental factors. Giving an analogy for customers’ core needs, a man who is hungry is going to find something to eat. He faces a lot of choices, like hamburger, hotdog or spaghetti, but his core needs are to fill up his stomach and satisfy his hunger. Similarly for educational consumers, they have a lot of choices in pursuing higher education but the core needs may vary from one customer to another. Core needs are the real reasons students choose to further study overseas such as limited accessibility to higher education in home country, upgrade of academic qualifications, reputation of qualification and etc. Academic offerings basically refer to the provision and quality of curriculum, features and researches by the institution. The quality levels of the academic offerings are defined by the qualifications, personal qualities and teaching methods of the teachers. The provision of academic support, to students who need help in their schoolwork, academic facilities and institution’s resources also contributes to academic offerings. Nonacademic offerings refer to campus environment, recreation and religious facilities, and library services. It also includes support services like financial aids in the form of scholarship and work-study programs, and pastoral support like counseling and career advice. Lastly, other environmental factors outside of campus are the host country’s environment and culture, the country’s main language, its costs of living, its.

(25) 21 transportation within and outside of the country and so on. Among factors belonging to those categories, academic reputation plays the most important role in students’ decision making. Those factors concerning with career opportunities and staff expertise are the second most decisive factors. Some others factors like recommendations from relatives and friends, recognition of qualifications in the home country, time taken to complete the degree are also affect the decision of students. According to Zeithaml et al. in 1993, most education marketing strategy adopts the “inside out” approach in which marketers think of what expectations of students and market their educational service based on their concepts. However, many successful service industries operate on the basis of “outside in”, in which they find out customers’ expectations and work towards them. The survey in this “outside in” study will be established based on these constituents to find out the importance of them from the perspective of potential customers in Vietnam and to evaluate them based on opinions of current Vietnamese consumers of the Taiwanese higher education system. The information from the analyses of the expectations of overseas higher education from students also provided an insight on a few criteria which are important, helping to construct questions in the study survey. Finally, the comparisons between two survey results, from potential Vietnamese students and current Vietnamese students in Taiwan, could form the basis for improvement in Taiwan’s educational marketing strategies..

(26) 22 METHODOLOGY. The objective of this research is to contribute to Taiwan’s foreign student recruitment strategies for its globalizing process. Therefore, a questionnaire survey was undertaken among Vietnamese students, who are the dominant group of foreign students in Taiwan, to find out what they are looking for in Taiwanese Higher Education.. I. Samples. Firstly, the survey population should be defined clearly. According to Burns (2000), Population is an entire group of people, objects or events, which all have at least one characteristic in common. In this research, two populations are involved. The first population is an experienced group which consisted of all Vietnamese students who have studied or are currently studying in Taiwan. The other population is an inexperienced group which consisted of all Vietnamese students who have not studied in Taiwan. Since the whole populations can not be covered due to the size, sampling is essential. Cluster sampling method is described as randomly chosen subgroups or clusters from defined population and samples randomly selected from each subgroup (Burns, 2000). Naming of the groups of samples was carried out as follows. Group I represents the population of inexperienced Vietnamese students, who have not had any experience in Taiwan overseas education. On the other hand, Group E stands for.

(27) 23 the experienced population who has studied or has been studying in Taiwan for their higher education purposes. In this research, the cluster sampling method was modified so as to fit the scenario of accessibility and representativeness as the followings: Group E was accessed by the list of email addresses which was provided by TECO (Taipei Economics & Culture Office in Vietnam). This list consisted of 202 Vietnamese students studying in Taiwan in 2008. On the other hand, group I was approached through selected clusters (universities), followed by random selection of classes in each university. The total number of handout questionnaires was 400. In order to reach representativeness in sampling, the group I was controlled so as to include subjects from all over the country and from both private and government universities. Two universities in the North of Vietnam (Hanoi University of Business and Technology, a private university and Military Technical Academy, a public university), one university in the Middle of Vietnam (Hong Duc University, a public university) and one university in the South of Vietnam (Van Lang Private University) were chosen. In these universities, two classes of about 50 students each were asked to answer the questionnaire survey in handout form. The responses of group I reflected their expectations on overseas studies in terms of higher education constituents like the program issues, quality issues, nonacademic offerings, environmental offerings and etc. They also reflected the perceptions they have, on qualifications recognition, service quality and future career prospects. Group E consisted of undergraduate and graduate level students who have experienced Taiwan higher education. They also answered the questions, based on.

(28) 24 their own experiences, to evaluate the programs provided, academic quality, and quality of supporting services and etc. The survey was conducted on the basis that Group I represents Taiwan higher education’s potential customers while Group E stands for its current customers. The comparisons between the two results formed the foundation for recommendations for future educational product strategy of Taiwan.. II. Measurement/ Five Point Scale. Different from psychological researches, educational ones require less complicated differentiations from respondents so that a five point scale seems to be enough. This study used Likert five-point scale to measure importance/ satisfaction levels instead of seven-point scale which has been using widely in psychological researches. In the survey form 1 (for group I), the five-point scale of importance levels was used gauge the importance of those factors to the respondents. One to five represents very important, important, neutral, unimportant and very unimportant respectively. Meanwhile, form 2 (for group E) used the five-point scale of satisfaction levels by which the respondents assessed Taiwan educational products through their satisfaction. One to five represents very satisfied, satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied and very dissatisfied respectively.. III. Survey Procedures.

(29) 25 The survey included two steps. The first step, which was a pre-test, was taken during January and February 2008. In order to have some basic ideas for a formal and structured questionnaire survey, this step was conducted among a number of subjects which belong to Group E. The second step was taken during May 2008. The questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese and delivered to two groups at the same time by email and hard-copy versions. It took the respondents approximately five minutes to answer all the questions. The delivery and collection of data took a total of ten days.. IV. The Questionnaire. The survey came with a cover letter in which the purpose and content of the research were stated. It also contained an email address for any enquiry and a preferred deadline for return of the surveys. All answers were kept confidential and solely for academic purpose. The survey consisted of two forms, one for students without any experience in Taiwan overseas study (Group I) and the other one for students with experiences (Group E). After the cover letter, the first question sorted the respondents into the two populations and led them to their appropriate survey. Both forms were divided into five sections. The interviewees started with Background Information (demographic questions) in which they gave information on ages, genders and educational levels. It is followed by questions about their core needs of overseas study and their plan for higher education in the future. These.

(30) 26 questions helped in defining potential level of the samples in overseas higher education market. The next sections are Factors of Academic Offerings, Factors of Non-academic offerings and Off-campus environmental factors in which the interviewees were asked to evaluate their satisfaction level or weigh the importance levels of those factors. Form one uses a 1 to 5 scale of measurement to gauge the importance of those factors to the respondents in their decisions of overseas higher education. In form two, respondents’ satisfaction level in all the factors were also quantified through a 1 to5 scale. Section one consisted of three questions regarding year of birth, gender and educational level. As mentioned above, section two had two questions on the interviewees’ core need and future plan to study abroad. Section three included two questions to evaluate importance or satisfaction level in seven factors belonging to academic offerings such as availability of appropriate faculty (major), attractive curriculum (courses, number of credits, passing score), specially-designed courses for Vietnamese students, researches in one’s preferred faculty or in the institution, time taken to complete the course, required language for study medium and the language preferred. Five factors belonging to quality issues such as quality of lecturers (qualifications, experiences…), quality of students (required entrance scores, background…), quality of teaching methods, quality of academic facilities (equipment in classroom…), quality of other resources (study materials, technology…) were also evaluated. Section four covered ten factors belonging to nonacademic offerings such as campus environment (architecture, landscaping,.

(31) 27 accessibility), accommodation service & facilities supporting services (counseling, career advice…), library services & facilities recreational facilities, religious facilities, tuition fee, financial aids (scholarship, allowances, on-campus-work…), administration and faculty staff and number of international students in school. The last section was all about environmental factors like the country’s culture (cuisines, people, rituals, etc.), environmental facts (climate, social crime rate, traffics…), the country’s main language, language(s) of interest, cost of transportation between that country and Vietnam, availability of transportation between that country and Vietnam, distance between that country and Vietnam, cost of living, recognition of that country’s qualifications in Vietnam. See appendixes for the actual questionnaire survey in English and in Vietnamese.. V. Data Collection. The questionnaire surveys were delivered on 20th of May and were collected by the end of May. The number of surveys sent out to Group E by emails was 202, the number of forms returned was 89 and the number of fully-completed forms was 61, which made up a response rate of 30.2%. Three local interviewers were recruited in order to help in the delivering and collecting data from Group I. 400 handout surveys were sent out in Vietnam and the return rate was 100% thanks to the interviewers’ efforts. However, only 73% of those were fully-completed, which made up 73% response rate of group I. Table 1 summarized the survey response rate of the two groups..

(32) 28 Table 1. Response Rate. Group I Group E North. Middle. South. Total. No. of surveys. 202. 200. 100. 100. 400. No. of returned. 89. 200. 100. 100. 400. No. of fully-completed. 61. 190. 65. 37. 292. Response rate. 30.2%. 73%. Note. Response rate = No. of fully-completed surveys/No. of surveys * 100% As mentioned above, the sample size of group E (n = 61) was much smaller than the other group (n = 292). This difference was resulted from their original populations’ sizes difference and means of collecting data. Group E’s population (experienced students) was defined by all Vietnamese students who have studied (are studying) in Taiwan, while group I’s one (inexperienced students) was defined by all Vietnamese students who has no experiences in Taiwan overseas education. Group E was reached by e-mail without any face-to-face interactions while group I’s responses were collected under instructions of three local interviewers..

(33) 29 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION. This research is not a hypothesis-based study and therefore only basic descriptive statistics such as means, modes and percentages were used to analyze the data collected and to compare the two sample’s results.. I.. Demographics Parameters. See figure 1 for age ranges comparison between group E and group I. Figure 1 showed that majority of group I (Inexperienced students) was at the age ranging from 20 to 25 while group E (Experienced students) ranged from 25 to 30. This difference in age range was caused by accessibility of samples. Although the populations were defined as above, samples that were reachable were limited to undergraduate level (group I) and students studying in Taiwan at the time of survey (group E). However, it reflected the maturity of respondents in the survey results or in other words the reliability of the responses was higher. Figure 1. Age Ranges Age ranges 40 35 30 age. 25. Group E Group I. 20 15 10 5 0 1. 16. 31. 46. 61. 76. 91 106 121 136 151 166 181 196 211 226 241 256 271 286 No. of students.

(34) 30 Figure 2 showed the distributions of gender in the two groups of samples. It was similar for both group I (n = 292) and group E (n = 61) in terms of number of male and female respondents, which may reduce sampling error if any concerning with gender distribution. Each gender contributed approximately 50% to each group of respondents.. Figure 2. Gender. 50.8%. 50.7% male female. 49.2%. 49.3%. Group E. Group I. Figure 3 gave the whole picture of distributions in qualifications which may reflect maturity and responsibility levels in the responses collected. Majority of Group I (Inexperienced students) were pursuing Bachelor degree and it made up 95.2% of the whole sample size. Students pursuing Masters and Ph.D in Group I in all made up a small proportion of 4.8%. This is due to the accessibility and time constraints during the data collection process. On the other hand, Group E (Experienced students) included 50.8% who were pursuing Bachelor degree, 45.9% who were pursuing Masters and only 3.3% who were pursuing Ph.D. See figure 3 for more in detail..

(35) 31 Figure 3. Qualifications Pursuing (Obtained) Group E. Group I Ph.D 0.3%. Ph.D 3.3%. Masters 4.5%. Masters 45.9%. Bachelor 50.8%. Bachelor 95.2%. Differences in the two groups’ characteristics may cause bias in the results. 95.2% of group I was Bachelor degrees whose responses reflected their purposes and valuations in different levels compared with those Masters degrees of group E. Group E’s constituents covered more exhaustedly so that gained more representativeness of the defined population than group I. It may produce more maturity, consideration and diversification in the responses than group I.. II.. Potential Levels. One of the main variables in the study was Future plan which referred to potential levels of the respondents in studying abroad (for respondents group I) and in continuing studying in Taiwan (for respondents group E). Potentiality was divided into three levels as shown in table 2 as following:.

(36) 32 Table 2. Potential Levels Divisions. Future plan. Potential level 1. Potential level 2. Potential level 3. Yes/ Possibly yes*. Do not know*/. No*. Possibly no* Note. *Answers to the question (for group E): “Would you plan to continue further study in Taiwan in the future?” or the question (for group I): “Are you planning to pursue overseas higher education in the future?” Potential level 1 (PL1) included those whose response was Yes or Possible Yes to the question of their future plan in overseas higher education and/ or Taiwan higher education term. PL1 showed that for those belonging to this level, the possibility of them going overseas to study and/ or to continue studying in Taiwan was the highest. In other words, they are the most potential customers for Taiwan higher education. It is the reason why in this study, PL1 was chosen to be the heart of comparisons and analysis. The entire analysis was conducted on the basis that Group I’s PL1 are the top inexperienced or naïve potential customers while Group E’s PL1 are the top knowledgeable or wise potential customers. An analogy could be that Group E’s PL1 are customers who have already used a certain product for a long time and have decided to buy the product again for another long period of time. This could be used to assess attractiveness of Taiwan educational products. Table 3 summarized distributions of three levels of potentiality of the two groups. The number of Yes/ Possibly Yes responses (PL1) of Group I was 170, which accounted for 58.2% of the whole group. It meant that 58.2% of Vietnamese students.

(37) 33 who have no experiences in Taiwan education intended to go abroad to study. 33.6 % of students had no idea or possibly would not go abroad for their higher education (Group I-PL2). PL 3 of that group was 8.2%, which meant that 24 responses of the sample group I did not have any plan to study overseas.. Table 3. Potential Levels Distribution Group E. Group I. Potential levels N. %. N. %. Potential level 1. 47. 77.0 %. 170. 58.2 %. Potential level 2. 9. 14.8 %. 98. 33.6 %. Potential level 3. 5. 8.2 %. 24. 8.2 %. Total. 61. 100%. 292. 100%. In Table 3 above, 77% of students who are studying in Taiwan intended to continue pursuing their higher education in Taiwan. It is a dominant group that could be used to assess the attractiveness of Taiwan higher education towards Vietnamese students..

(38) 34 III.. Core Need for Overseas Study. 32.4% (the largest proportion) of inexperienced students, who had plan to study overseas (PL1), stated that their main reason to study abroad was to gain a foreign degree in order to have better career prospects. This reason coincided with the PL1 of experienced students (Group E). Table 4 showed that the core need of each group was similar which meant that regardless of different destinations, Vietnamese students shared the same purpose when pursuing overseas education.. Table 4. Core Need for Overseas Study Potential levels. PL 1. PL 2. Group I Core need. Group E %. Core need. Gain (a) foreign degree(s) 32.4*. Gain (a) foreign degree(s) 38.8*. for better career prospects. for better career prospects. Upgrade qualification. 27.6*. Gain (a) foreign degree(s). Upgrade qualification. for better career prospects. 66.7*. Gain (a) foreign degree(s) 29.2*. PL 3. %. 40.0* for better career prospects. Note. * The largest subgroup that produced the answer of core need as shown in the table..

(39) 35 IV.. Importance vs. Satisfaction. The survey main body included 29 variables which referred to academic offerings, non-academic offerings and environmental factors. In the survey form 1 (for students without any Taiwan overseas experiences), the 1 to 5 scale of importance level was used in order to form a group of factors which are important to those respondents. The list of factors was arranged in an order of descending importance levels in Table D1, D2, D3. (See Appendix D for whole detail). In Table D1, importance was divided into three ranges, such as range 1 with mean values ≤ 2.0, range 2 with mean values > 2.0 and ≤ 3.0, range 3 with mean values > 3.0. Mean values ≤ 2.0 referred to the factors which were marked as “very important” or “important” to the respondents. These factors would later become the heart of the analysis in this study. The second range with mean values > 2.0 and ≤ 3.0 implied that those factors were ranged from “important” to “neutral” in the respondents’ answers. The last was the range of mean values > 3.0 which meant that those factors were least important in the respondents’ decision making. This study only compared the most important factors (means ≤ 2.0) in Group I (inexperienced students)’ survey, with the satisfaction level of Group E (experienced students). Table 5 listed the most important factors (means ≤ 2.0) in Group I’s ranking and satisfaction levels in Group E’s assessment correspondingly..

(40) 36 Table 5. PL1- Importance vs. Satisfaction. Potential Level 1. Group I. Group E. Most important factors (means ≤ 2.0). Satisfaction (Mean). Availability of appropriate faculty (major) Quality of lecturers (qualifications and experiences) Quality of teaching methods Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam. 1.5. 2.1. 1.6. 1.9. 1.7. 2.1. 1.7. 3. 1.8. 2.5. 1.8. 2.7. 1.9. 2.9. 2.0. 1.7. 2.0. 2.8. 2.0. 3.2. Curriculum (courses, number of credits, passing score) Cost of living Tuition fee Quality of academic facilities (equipments in classroom) Financial aids (scholarship, allowances, on-campuswork) Cost of transportation between Taiwan and Vietnam. The reasons why only the PL1 of Group E was taken into account to assess the attractiveness of Taiwan educational products were because they are experienced.

(41) 37 customers who are using the products currently and they have the highest probability of continuing to consume those products in the future. In the survey form 2 (for experienced students), the 1 to 5 scale was used to let the respondents self-assess their satisfaction levels on the products they are currently using. In Table 5 above, the left column listed factors that group I’s PL1 stated as the most important when they considered studying abroad. The right column showed satisfaction levels of group E’s PL1 on those factors. Availability of appropriate faculty (major) was ranked top. However, its satisfaction level was not as high as Quality of academic facilities (equipments in classroom) (satisfaction mean = 1.7) or Quality of teaching methods (satisfaction mean = 1.9). This implied that some experienced students were not very satisfied with their faculty because the majoring subject of their choice was not available. Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam and Cost of transportation between Taiwan and Vietnam were two of the most importance factors in students’ decision making process. However, They were ranked quite low in experienced students’ satisfaction levels (mean ≥ 3.0). This meant that some experienced students thought it was quite expensive to travel between Vietnam and Taiwan; and Taiwan’s degrees were not recognized in Vietnam. Other factors like Costs of living, Tuition fee and Financial aids, which were also very important in choosing overseas schools, were stated as not very satisfactory to the experienced Vietnamese students in Taiwan. It could refer to the fact that it was quite expensive for Vietnamese students to live in Taiwan, and so are the Taiwan.

(42) 38 school fees. Moreover, Taiwan education’s financial aids were not enough to cover all the expenses. Table 6 and 7 listed the most important factors and satisfaction levels according to PL2 (students who had not have any plan to go abroad to study and students who possibly not go) and PL3 (students who would not go overseas to study) of the two groups. This study considered PL2 because it was a neutral group of students who would probably be influenced by a strong marketing strategy or any changes to demographics, economic, social or cultural issues. Meanwhile, PL3 would still play an important role, like PL1 and PL2, in word-of-mouth marketing effect even though they would not go abroad to study..

(43) 39 Table 6. PL2- Importance vs. Satisfaction. Potential Level 2. Group I. Group E. Most important factors (means ≤ 2.0). Satisfaction (Mean). Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam. 1.8. 3. 1.8. 1.9. 1.9. 2.1. 1.9. 2.7. 2.0. 2.1. 2.0. 3.2. Quality of lecturers (qualifications and experiences) Availability of appropriate faculty (major) Cost of living Quality of teaching methods Cost of transportation between Taiwan and Vietnam. In Table 6, this group of students did not think that Curriculum, Tuition fee, Financial aids and Quality of academic facilities are important in overseas study. Instead, the most important thing was that the foreign degree must be recognized in Vietnam, Quality of lecturers and teaching methods. In contrast to PL1 and PL2, PL3 added four factors which should be taken into consideration when choosing an overseas institution. They were Required.

(44) 40 language for study medium, Quality of students (required entrance scores and background), Campus environment (architecture, landscaping, accessibility), and Religious facilities. (See Table 7 for more detail). Their opinions may affect their surrounding people if they were asked for opinions, also known as word-of-mouth effect. Table 7. PL3- Importance vs. Satisfaction Potential Level 3 Group I. Group E. Important factors (means ≤ 2.0). Satisfaction (Mean). Quality of lecturers (qualifications and experiences) Quality of teaching methods Cost of living. 1.5. 1.9. 1.5. 2.1. 1.7. 2.7. 1.8. 2.5. 1.8. 3. 1.9. 2.9. 2.0. 2.1. 2.0. 3. 2.0. 1.9. 2.0. 3.0. Curriculum (courses, number of credits, passing score) Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam Tuition fee Required language for study medium Quality of students (required entrance scores and background) Campus environment (architecture, landscaping, accessibility) Religious facilities.

(45) 41 Table 7 also showed that the four additional factors got very different feedback from experienced students. Those students were strongly satisfied with their campus environment but not satisfied with the quality of their fellow students in terms of their entrance scores and their educational background. The Religious facilities factor was not a satisfactory factor either. Table 8 showed the result of Required language which is students’ preferences among English, Chinese and other language for their studying medium. In Table 8 also compared the preferences of the whole Group I with its subgroup PL1. The main Group I and the subgroup had similar percentage distributions which meant that we could use either Group I or its subgroup’s parameters to analyze this factor.. Table 8. Preferred Language of Study Medium vs. Satisfaction. Group E. Group I. Group I-Potential level 1. Preferred language Satisfaction. No.. %. No.. %. (Mean). English. 2.4. 242. 82.9. 145. 85.3. Others. _. 30. 10.3. 15. 8.8. Chinese. 2.0. 20. 6.8. 10. 5.9. Total. _. 292. 100. 170. 100.

(46) 42 Majority (82.9%) of inexperienced students (Group I) preferred English to be their study medium, followed by others (10.3%) which included French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German and Vietnamese. Only 6.8 % of the whole group would like to use Chinese in class. This may explain why there are more Vietnamese students studying in English-speaking countries. The second column in Table 8, which is the Satisfaction mean, reflected the satisfactory level of experienced students with regards to this factor. Vietnamese students who were studying in Taiwan used either English or Chinese to study. For those who used English in class the satisfaction level was 2.4 which was a little bit lower compared with those who used Chinese (satisfaction mean = 2.0). This difference could be due to Taiwan being a Chinese-speaking country where Chinese social environment would support and enhance its studying environment if the teaching medium is also Chinese..

(47) 43 DISCUSSION I.. Findings. The current study had four major findings: 1. Vietnamese students shared a common core need when pursuing overseas higher education, which was to gain (a) foreign degree(s) for a better career prospects. 2. Fourteen factors were ranked in importance in which Availability of appropriate faculty, Quality of lecturers, Quality of teaching methods, Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam, Curriculum, Cost of living, Tuition fee, Quality of academic facilities and Financial aids were on top of the list, followed by Cost of transportation between Taiwan and Vietnam, Required language for study medium, Quality of students, Campus environment and Religious facilities. 3. Among fourteen very important factors above, only three of them were assessed as strongly satisfactory by experienced students (students who have experienced Taiwan overseas education). They were Quality of academic facilities, Quality of lecturers and Campus environment. Seven of them were rated between satisfactory and neutral: Required language for study medium, Quality of teaching methods, Quality of teaching methods, Availability of appropriate faculty, Curriculum, Cost of living, Financial aids and Tuition fee. The remaining four factors were said to be between neutral and dissatisfactory, which were Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam, Quality of students, Religious facilities and Cost of transportation between Taiwan and Vietnam..

(48) 44 4. Students who were using Chinese as language medium in Taiwan were found to be more satisfied than those using English as the medium.. II.. Contributions. Majority of previous literature was about flow of overseas students to Western higher education, which was the word’s social trend in 1970s (Cummings & So, 1985). Cummings & So (1985) also predicted that Western countries will no longer be the only destinations for Asian students in the future. Students would choose Asian countries because of there would be a many things in common between host and home countries and low cost of expenses. This change in trend would also be due to advancement of educational technology in Asian host countries. From theoretical point of view, this research touched on a very small aspect of this new trend, which is the connection between Vietnamese students (home country’s students) and Taiwan education (host country’s education). From a managerial point of view, this research contributed to educators’ governors’, sponsors’ and recruiters’ benefits. Educators may look at these research findings to improve their educational product so as to satisfy their current customers and attract more potential customers. Governors may influence the educational industry through policy-making process. Sponsors would consider the research findings in order to assess their return on investment. Lastly, recruiters may look at the research, just like end users of a product because the aims of those students who studied abroad were to have better career prospects..

(49) 45 III. Recommendations. This research was conducted from Taiwan educators’ point of view so that its findings would directly serve the educators’ purposes in its internationalization progress. According to the research main findings, Vietnamese students’ core need for overseas study was to gain (a) foreign degree(s) for their better career prospects. This purpose was proved by Cumming and So (1985): “Overseas degrees are viewed as a means to superior employment opportunities in modern firms and government.” That is the reason why Recognition of the qualifications in Vietnam was ranked as a very important factor in overseas study decisions. Undoubtedly, Taiwan degrees are not as recognized as English speaking countries’ ones in Vietnam. Although recognition would be increasing because of an increasing number of graduates from Taiwan in Vietnam, more marketing efforts by Taiwan educators should be put in in order to spread good perceptions among Vietnamese employers and people. Moreover, stronger socio – economic and linguistic connections would help Taiwan education in raising perceptions and recognition of Taiwan degrees. Another drawback of Taiwan education was the Quality of students in terms of required entrance scores and their background before entering universities. Most of the experienced students felt dissatisfied and thought that their universities took in Vietnamese students of lower academic standards. This is something that is difficult to manipulate as institutes aim to increase the number of students and maintain students’ quality at the same time. A solution for this problem would be to customize the entry requirement for students from different countries. In another words, if the.

(50) 46 institution applies a standard requirement for every international student which includes Americans, Canadians, Vietnamese, etc., it would hardly recruit enough qualified Vietnamese students because they are mostly below that standard. Customizing and lowering the requirement may help to increase the intake of Vietnamese students but the extent to which the lowering should go is a big question. It should not be too high or too low, which could cause dissatisfactions among students. The level of that customized standard should be surveyed, tested and manipulated in a wider level such as National Universities Association (if any) or Ministry of Education, not only in any single institution. Then, every institution is recommended to apply that customized standard in recruiting Vietnamese students. The other two very important factors which were said by experienced students to be not satisfactory were Religious facilities and Cost of transportation between Taiwan and Vietnam. Religious diversification is nature of human being so it is much convenient for freshmen to get this kind of information on the orientation day. Institutions should, on the first day of school, give instructions to students of how to access religious places on- or off-campus. Cost of transportation between home and host country was a problem for those students studying in Taiwan in this study. This may be solved by institutions’ efforts by which a fund may be created to support students in transportation fees. The fund may be sponsored by some Taiwanese international airlines through collaborations between institutions and airlines. Alternatively, a discount rate may be offered to students if collaboration is successful..

(51) 47 IV. Limitations and Future Research Directions This research was conducted on a basis of a quantitative research. However, one of the sample groups resulted in a very small size (n = 61) which may be a bias in the results. Another bias may occur due to differences in background of the samples. Those who completed the surveys may have different background from those who did not, causing differences in satisfaction levels. Normally, pure quantitative researches are unable to find out the exact reasons for the respondents’ answers. Just like in this study, we were unable to find out the exact reason for the respondents’ unsatisfaction towards certain factors. With all limitations above, other researches could be done in order to make continuous contribution to the industry in both academic and managerial practices. Firstly, a similar research may be conducted with the same kind of samples, the same purposes with added qualitative in-depth interviews to find out the exact reasons for their satisfactions and dissatisfactions. Also, future researchers may do some comparisons between students’ expenses and salary gained after graduation and/or first position offered in order to prove the effects of overseas study on their career prospects. Secondly, a cross-cultural research should also be carried out in an effort to find out differences among different nationalities’ attitudes towards Taiwanese educational products. This research may be limited in Asian nationals or international students depending on research’s scales. Lastly, some other scales should be taken into account instead of just importance and satisfaction as in this study because there are many other factors which may interfere with students’ destination choice (Mazzarol & Soutar, 2002)..

(52) 48 REFERENCES. Burns, Robert B. (2000). Introduction to Research Methods. SAGE Publications. London. California. New Delhi. Cummings, W. K. & So, W. C. (1985). The Preference of Asian Overseas Students For The United States: An Examination of the Context. Higher Education, 14, 403-423. Directorate-general of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan (1987). Statistical Yearbook of the ROC (p. 249). Taipei. Gray, L. (1991). Marketing Education. Open University Press Philadelphia. Hough, J. (1982). Economics of education. In Cohen, L., Thomas, J. and Manion, L. (Eds.), Educational Research and Development in Britain 1970–1980 (pp. 75– 89). Windsor: Nelson Publishing. Joseph, M. & Joseph, B. (1997). Service quality in education: a student perspective. Quality Assurance in Education, 5, 15-21. Kotler, P. and Fox, K. (1985). Strategic Marketing for Educational Institutions. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Mazzarol, T. & Soutar, G. N. (2002). Push-pull factors influencing international student destination choice. The International Journal of Educational Management, 16, 82-90. Ministry of Education. (1987). Educational Statistics of the ROC (pp. 2-5). Taipei: Ministry of Education..

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(55) 51 Appendix A. English Questionnaire Form 1 Form1 (For Vietnamese students without any experiences in Taiwan overseas study). No. of pages: 7. Survey on Important Factors of Vietnamese Students' Decisions in Overseas Higher Education Hello, This survey is part of Masters graduation thesis designed to identify what Vietnamese students expect on overseas study. Your answers may contribute to Taiwan educational policies in the country’s recruitment strategy towards Vietnamese students. Please answer the survey questions honestly under serious considerations and send it back to me by e-mail: nellie_vn@hotmail.com or return it to the interviewer before 30th of May, 2008. Do not sign your name on the survey, your responses will remain strictly confidential and solely be used for academic purpose. Thank you for your assistance and cooperation! Best regards, Duong Minh Tam College of Management, MBA student National Sun Yat Sen University, Taiwan May, 2008 Background Information (Please key in or mark the appropriate answer) Year of Birth: _____________ Gender □ Male □ Female The educational level you are (were) pursuing: (If you have graduated, please mark your highest achieved qualification) □ Bachelor. □Masters. □ Ph.D.

(56) 52 Student’s Core Needs 1. Are you planning to pursue overseas higher education in the future? (Please mark one answer which is the most appropriate to you) □ Yes. □ Possibly yes □ Do not know □ Possibly no. □ No. 2. Suppose that you planned to study abroad, what would your main reason be? (Please mark one answer which is the most appropriate to you) □ Upgrade qualification □ Gain experience of overseas students’ life □ Gain (a) foreign degree(s) for better career prospects □ Unable to enter higher education in Vietnam □ Vietnamese higher education does not meet your demands □ Follow recommendations of parents/ employers/ friends/ peers or relatives □ Other (Please specify:__________________________________). Factors of Academic Offerings 3. How are following program issues important to your choice of an overseas institution? (Please circle the most appropriate number of the importance scale as the following example) ①. Extremely important 2. Important 3. Neutral 4. Unimportant. 5. Extremely unimportant.

(57) 53 □ Availability of appropriate faculty (major). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Attractive curriculum (courses, number of credits, passing score). □ Special designed courses for Vietnamese students. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Researches in your preferred faculty or in the institution 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Time taken to complete the course. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Required language for study medium. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. (Please specify the language preferred: _____________________) 4. How are following quality issues important to your choice of an overseas institution? (Please circle the most appropriate number of the importance scale as the following example) ①. Extremely important 2. Important 3. Neutral 4. Unimportant 5. Extremely unimportant. □ Quality of lecturers (qualifications, experiences…). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Quality of students (required entrance scores, background…). □ Quality of teaching methods. □ Quality of academic facilities (equipments in classroom…)1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Quality of other resources (study materials, technology…) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

(58) 54. Factors of Non-academic Offerings 5. How are following offerings important to your choice of an overseas institution? (Please circle the most appropriate number of the importance scale as the following example) ①. Extremely important 2. Important 3. Neutral 4. Unimportant. 5. Extremely unimportant. □ Campus environment (architecture, landscaping, accessibility) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Accommodation service & facilities. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Supporting services (counseling, career advice…). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Library services & facilities. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Recreational facilities. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Religious facilities. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Tuition fee. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Administration and faculty staff. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Number of international students in school. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Financial aids (scholarship, allowances, on-campus-work…).

(59) 55 Off-campus Environmental Factors 6. How are following environmental factors important to your choice of overseas study? (Please circle the most appropriate number of the importance scale as the following example). ①. Extremely important 2. Important 3. Neutral 4. Unimportant 5. Extremely unimportant □ The country’s culture (cuisines, people, rituals). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Environmental facts (climate, traffics). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ The country’s main language. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. (Please specify the language(s) of interest:_____________________) □ Cost of transportation between that country and Vietnam 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Availability of transportation between that country and Vietnam 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Distance between that country and Vietnam. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Cost of living. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. □ Recognition of that country’s qualifications in Vietnam 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. * Please spare some seconds to look through the survey again to check if any question missed out then return the completed survey to the interviewer or directly email to me via nellie_vn@hotmail.com as soon as it is finished. Thank you very much for your completion of the survey. If you have any interested in the study findings or any questions regarding to the topic, please feel free to contact me. Have a nice day!.