the role of personal values in enhancing student experience and satisfaction among international...

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 29 (2011) 1807 – 1815

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1877-0428 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Dr Zafer Bekirogullari.doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.428

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2010) 000–000

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International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology (ICEEPSY 2011)

The role of personal values in enhancing student experience and satisfaction among International postgraduate students: an exploratory study

Rodney Arambewelaa , John Hallb

A Deakin University, Geelong, Australia 3217 b Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia 3125

Abstract

Universities are faced with the challenging task of educating an increasingly diverse and mobile student community with changing demands and aspirations. A key source of this diversity is international students and an understanding of the backgrounds of these students and their expectations is central to ensure effective delivery of educational and support services and to enhance student experience, and satisfaction. This study is focussed on four groups of Asian postgraduate students studying in Australian universities and investigates the influence of personal values in enhancing university experience and student satisfaction. Using multivariate data analysis and Structural Equation Modelling, this paper argues that personal values are predictors of individual behaviour and decision making which could impact on how they assess their university experience and satisfaction with the learning environment.

© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Dr. Zafer Bekirogullari of Cognitive – Counselling, Research & Conference Services C-crcs.

Keywords: International students; Personal values; Student experience; Student satisfaction.

© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Dr Zafer Bekirogullari.

1808 Rodney Arambewela and John Hall / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 29 (2011) 1807 – 1815 Rodney Arambewela & John Hall/ Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2011) 000–000

1. Introduction

An important trend emerging in relation to international education market is the growth in demand for postgraduate studies, particularly since 2000. For example, in the year 2003-2004, postgraduate student enrolments in the USA increased by 2.4% and are expected to increase further in the coming years. UK data for 2008-2009 indicates that postgraduate enrolments are over 54% of the total enrolments (Higher Education Statistics Agency 2010), while, in Australia, international postgraduate students account for nearly 25% of all foreign students in HE, and the numbers are expected to grow significantly, despite the recent downturn in the growth of international students for undergraduate studies, in view of the continued growth in demand from countries such as China and India (DETYA 2000; AEI 2008; Ross 2010). The student groups from China, India, Indonesia and Thailand selected for this study are from countries that represent 61% of all Asian postgraduate students studying in Australia. They represent not only diverse cultures but also diversity in terms of their demographic characteristics which presents enormous challenges in teaching and learning and in the provision of programs and facilities to deliver a positive student experience among students (Coldrake, 2001; Trotter and Roberts 2006).

Customer profiling of international students using psychographics, such as personal values, can provide greater insights into their’ attitudes, beliefs and behaviour. Personal values have long been considered an important variable in understanding consumer behaviour and decision-making (Rokeach 1973) and have been used in research in a variety of disciplines (Scott and Lamont 1973; Long and Schiffman 2000; Lages and Fernandes 2005).) indicate that personal values can have a direct effect on the expectations of consumers on product and services and the criteria used to evaluate the performance of these products and services. More importantly, Vinson, Munson and Nakanishi (1977), and Vinson and Gutman (1978) have shown that personal value systems have an impact on customer dissatisfaction and suggest that an understanding of the motivations and behaviour of students is an essential requirement with regard to targeting services to international students. The application of personal values to research on higher education has received very little attention so far and the research on the impact of personal values on student satisfaction still remains embryonic (Kilbourne, Grunhagen and Foley 2005; Ledden, Kalafatis and Samouel 2007). This study seeks to make a contribution to this under-researched area.

2. Literature Review

Rokeach (1973, p.5) who propounded the theory of personal values, defines them as “enduring beliefs that a particular mode of behaviour or end-state of existence is preferable to opposite modes of behaviour or end-states”. Personal values are relevant to all areas of life as they influence one’s preferred choice of behaviour in any given situation and are able to “guide actions, attitudes, judgments, and comparisons across specific objects and situations” (Long and Shiffman 2000, p.216). Two most widely used quantitative measures related to personal values are the Rockeach Value Survey (RVS) developed Rockeach in 1979 and the List of Values (LOV) by Kahle (1983). These instruments have been used extensively in research on personal values and these instruments have been tested cross culturally.

The LOV consists of nine personal values, namely a sense of belonging, sense of accomplishment, fun and enjoyment, warm relationships, excitement, being well-respected, security, self-respect and self-fulfilment. Studies using the LOV, in a number of consumption scenarios and cultures, have identified intrinsically-oriented and extrinsically-oriented personal value domains (see for example, Thrane 1997; Jago 1997; Fall and Knutson 2001). The intrinsically-oriented personal value domain is generally associated with achievement-based personal values, such as to have a sense of accomplishment or to have security. The extrinsically-oriented personal value domain is, on the other hand, generally associated with how individuals relate to others. To be in warm relationships and to be well-respected, for example, are often found to be associated with this personal value domain. In some studies, a hedonistic personal value domain, comprised of to have fun and enjoyment and to have excitement, has emerged. Some criticism, however, has been directed at the LOV in terms of its validity across cultures and its use in consumption scenarios. Many of the results obtained using the LOV in western cultures have been consistent and its use in these contexts seems appropriate.

The effect of personal values on consumer decision making process has been proven in several studies (Wallendorf and Arnould 1988; Clarke and Micken 2002). Personal values also have been studied in a number of consumption

1809Rodney Arambewela and John Hall / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 29 (2011) 1807 – 1815 Rodney Arambewela & John hall/ Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2011) 000–000

and choice scenarios, including that of online shopping (Koo et al, 2008); frequency programs (Long and Schiffman, 2000); retail outlets (Erdem et al., 1999); beer and smoking (Kropp, Lavack, and Holden, 1999); television (McDaniel, 2002); and ski destinations Thrane 1997). Since the seminal work of Schwartz and Bilsky (1990), when the structure of personal values in a cross-cultural context were investigated, interest in the differing roles of personal values across cultures has grown including the role of personal values in the satisfaction formation process.

3. Aim

This paper aims to analyse personal values of Asian international postgraduate students from China, India, Indonesia and Thailand studying in Australian universities using Kahle’s List of Values (Kahle, 1983 & Kahle et al, 1986)). The study investigates these differences in terms of nationality, gender and age which are important segmentation variables.

The aims investigated in this paper are threefold, namely: (a) Are personal values significant predictors of international student satisfaction? (b) Are there differences in personal values of postgraduate international students and in terms of nationality, age

and gender? (c) What are the implications of (a) and (b) in the delivery of educational and social services by universities to

international students

4. Methodology

Personal values were measured with the LOV using a seven-point scale, where ‘1’ represented strongly disagree and ‘7’ represented strongly agree. The LOV consists of nine statements relating to the nine LOV items stated above.

Data were collected from a sample of postgraduate students from China, India, Indonesia and Thailand in five universities in Victoria, Australia. A total 371 useable questionnaires were received providing response rate of 24.3 per cent. Exploratory Factor analysis was undertaken initially of the personal values data to determine the underlying personal value domains. Structural equation modelling (SEM) in AMOS was used to analyse the relationship of the value construct to student satisfaction. ANOVA and MANOVA tests were employed to examine the differences between the nationalities based on their personal values, gender and age.

5. Results

The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) (.839) measure of sampling adequacy indicated that the data met this criteria and Bartlett’s test of sphericity (p=.000) also indicated the appropriateness of the data for use in factor analysis. The factor solution comprised two factors with eigenvalues greater than one. The first factor explained 55.3 per cent of the variance and the second factor explained 18.2 per cent of the variance. Overall, the two-factor solution explained 73.5 percent of the variance. Figure 1 displays the LOV items that load on each of the factors. Given that the items that loaded on the first factor were associated with self-control, it was labelled Self-efficacy. This is also associated with student’s perceived confidence in their ability to undertake tasks with expectation of positive outcomes such as better careers (Peterson, 1993). Those LOV items that loaded most highly on this factor were ‘to be well respected’, ‘to have self-respect’ and ‘to have self-fulfilment’. As ‘to have fun and enjoyment’ and ‘to have excitement’ relate to a hedonistic personal value domain, the second factor was labelled Hedonism.

Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used in the study to analyse the hypothesised relationships between the value constructs of self-efficacy and hedonism and student satisfaction. SEM provides a method of testing hypotheses about relationships among measured variables that have resulted from the questionnaire items and latent variables by estimating a set of separate multiple regression equations simultaneously. (Kline 1998; Homer and Kahle 1988; Tabachnick & Fidell 2001; Hair et al. 2006). One-factor congeneric models were developed for the two value constructs. The path model’s fit indices indicate a good fit of the model to the data as shown in Table 1.


Figure 1

Table 1: Fit Statistics

df /df P RMSEA GFI AGFI CFI 122.3 33 3.67 .01 .07 .96 .93 .93

The structural model in Figure 1 shows that the two structural paths; Self-efficacy and Hedonism were highly significant (Table 2). Both of these factors, had equivalent importance (SRW = 0.17). This finding supports the assertion made earlier that the fulfilment of value aspirations will positively and significantly influence levels of satisfaction for international students.

Table 2: Standardised Estimates for the Model

Variables SRW1 PSatisfaction <---- self-efficacy 0.17 .008 Satisfaction <---- hedonism 0.17 .023

SRW1 = Standardised Regression Weight. S.E.2 = Standardised Estimate C.R.3 = Critical Ratio P = Probability

Total Satisfaction

Self-Efficacy

Security.e1

1

1

Belonging.e21

Warm rels e31

Accomplishe41

Self fulfill e51

Self respecte61

Well respected e71

HedonismExcitement e8

11

Fun & enjoy e91

Z1

1


5.1. Nationality

A significant difference (.001) across the values constructs of Self-efficacy and Hedonism was obtained using MANOVA with regard to the nationality grouping of the students. Further investigation using ANOVA found that each variable of each construct varied significantly (.001) according to nationality grouping. Students from India ranked very highly on values associated with Self-efficacy, followed by Indonesian students, while Indonesian and Thai students attached greater importance on values associated with Hedonism. On average, Chinese students appear to attach relatively low importance to both factors. In terms of the individual variables, security was more important to Indonesian students as was fun and enjoyment in life while excitement was more important to Thai students. The differences are highlighted in Table 3 which shows the relative importance of the values for the national groupings based on mean score for each personal value.

Table 3: Relative importance of personal values by nationality

Personal value domain Nationality Importance Factor One: Self-efficacy Low High Being well respected China Thailand Indonesia India To have self respect China Thailand Indonesia India To have self-fulfilment Thailand China Indonesia India To have a sense of accomplishment China Thailand Indonesia India To have a warm relationship with others China Thailand Indonesia India To have a sense of belonging Thailand China Indonesia India To have security China Thailand India Indonesia Factor Two: Hedonism To have fun and enjoyment in life Thai China India Indonesia To have excitement China India Indonesia Thailand

Table 4: ANOVA: Significance of gender

Personal value domain Nationality & Gender China Thailand Indonesia India

Factor One: Self-efficacy M F M F M F M F Being well respected ns ns ns 6.5

3 7.00*

To have self respect 5.96 6.46 ns ns ns To have self-fulfilment 5.74 6.27 ns ns ns To have a sense of accomplishment

ns ns ns 6.43

6.80*

To have a warm relationship with others

ns ns ns ns

To have a sense of belonging ns ns ns ns To have security 6.27 6.89 ns ns 6.2

7 6.89***

Factor Two: Hedonism To have fun and enjoyment in life ns ns ns 6.03 5.23****

To have excitement ns ns ns 5.70 5.17**

Significance level: ****.0001, ***.001, **.01, *.05 ns: not significant


5.2. Gender

MANOVA highlighted significant differences (.001) for Indonesian and Indian students with regard to gender on the constructs of Self-efficacy and Hedonism respectively. ANOVA results indicated that there are significant gender differences at varying levels in relation to a number of personal values among the student cohorts. For example the differences among Indian students were significant at .05 for the values being well respected and to have a sense of accomplishment, while the values to have fun and enjoyment in life, to have security and to have excitement were highly significant at .0001, .001 and .01 respectively. This contrasts with differences at a significance level of .05 for Chinese students for the values to have self respect and to have self-fulfilment. For each of the variables differences were larger for females than males and no significant differences were evident for Indonesian or Thai students. Table 4 shows the mean scores and the levels of significance of the individual variables for each construct.

5.3. Age

MANOVA results showed that there are significant differences (.001) within age categories among Indonesian and Indian students for the Self-efficacy construct and Thai students in relation to the Hedonism construct. There were no significant differences in relation to the Self-efficacy construct among Chinese or Thai students, similarly with regard to the Hedonism construct no significant differences on age was found among Chinese, Indonesian and Indian students. Further analysis using ANOVA of the variables related to Self-efficacy and Hedonism constructs revealed that there are significant differences (.05) for values of being well respected and to have self respect for Indonesian students and to have excitement among Thai students. No significant differences were found among students from other countries of origin. A key finding was that the importance of Self-efficacy was significant within younger and older age groups of Indonesian students whereas the importance of Hedonism declined with increase in age among Thai students (See table 5).

Table 5: ANOVA: Significance of age

Personal value domain Nationality and Age Indonesia Thailand

21-24 25-29 30-34 35+ 21-24 25-29 30-34 35+ Factor One: Self-efficacy

Being well respected * 6.67 6.66 6.06 6.67 Ns ns To have self respect * 6.71 6.57 6.00 6.67 Ns ns Factor Two: Hedonism To have excitement * ns ns 5.32 5.07 4.54 4.17 Significance level: *.05 ns: not significant

6. Discussion and Conclusions

This study is focussed on marketing of international education and, specifically, on under-researched international postgraduate students (see Grayson 2008) in Australian universities, a segment which has shown continuous growth in enrolments despite the declining trend in undergraduate enrolments. The multivariate analysis of results provides insights into the differences in personal values of postgraduate students from Asia and how they vary by nationality, age and gender. In addition, the structural equation modelling indicates that the two factor solution (Self-efficacy and Hedonism) with 73.5 percent explained variance and the high reliability of the LOV across all national groups exert a significant influence on satisfaction among postgraduate students.

MANOVA results indicate significant differences (.001) among all student groups by nationality in relation to the value constructs Self-efficacy and Hedonism. For example, the results suggest that whilst students of an Indian and Indonesian background are moderately predisposed to hedonistic values, they seem to place more importance on personal values that are underlying the domain of Self-efficacy. With this information, universities could consider


highlighting the opportunities to fulfil related personal value goals – this could be achieved in brochures and web-based communication. In developing educational programs for Indian and Indonesian students, self-paced learning approaches may be an appropriate means of enabling these student cohorts to feel that they are in control of their learning experiences whilst in Australia.

The ANOVA results corroborate with MANOVA on nationality differences with regard to individual LOV items in each of the constructs with a significance level of .001, though ANOVA highlights other differences in relation to individual LOV items. The rankings of the individual LOV items were high (>5 out of 7) indicating the recognition of these values by all nationality groups. However, Indian students appear to place greater importance on values in the Self-efficacy construct than other student groups while Indonesian and Thai students seem to indicate greater importance to values in the Hedonism construct. Among the individual LOV items to have security within Self-efficacy construct and to have fun and enjoyment and to have excitement within the Hedonism construct appear to reflect the overall value perceptions of the students.

With regard to Age and Gender, the differences are significant only among Indian and Indonesian students according to MANOVA for the constructs considered in totality. However ANOVA results indicate a more disparate picture among student groups when the individual variables that make up each of the constructs are considered separately. While Being well respected, to have self respect, to have security and to have fun and enjoyment appear to be the predominant values where significant differences are found, Chinese students in particular seem to be more concerned with values of, to have self respect and to have security reflecting the influence of the cultural heritage related to Confucianism. Indian students also seem to display similar values of respect as the Chinese students, but differ from their orientation towards Hedonism values shared with Indonesian and Thai students.

This study therefore highlights the opportunities for universities and also other higher education providers to recognize that Asia is a differentiated market place where students from different countries and different cultural backgrounds have different needs and wants to satisfy. The development of a segmented approach in designing educational programs and targeting services to students from different countries should therefore be part of the organizational strategy to enhance their study experience. It would be useful to consider incorporating cultural aspects of students’ own educational systems, particularly in the early stages of their education in Australia. Promotional material that emphasises popularity, status wealth and power will be attractive to students of a Chinese cultural background. Fun and enjoyment is recognised as an important part of university life by all national groups. Universities that provide good facilities and opportunities for the social interaction of overseas students in a variety of areas are more likely to satisfy the needs of these students. Self-Efficacy is important for students from India and Indonesia and in developing programs for Indian and Indonesian students; self-paced learning approaches may be an appropriate means of enabling these student cohorts to feel that they are in control of their learning experiences whilst in Australia. The information will also be useful in planning communication programs for students especially using university brochures and web-based media.

The success of such an approach will depend on the cross cultural understanding of all employees of the university. Training sessions and seminars on cross cultural awareness, effective teaching methods aimed at students from different cultures and learning styles and regular course evaluations are among strategic initiatives in addressing student diversity and overall quality improvement.

7. Limitations and Future Research

The student sample with a limited number of Asian groups and the focus of the study on one state of Australia are two major limitations. Some caution is, therefore, required with regard to the generalisation of the results in other environments. This exploratory study, however, provides a platform for further research in this area of marketing or marketing education. Future research could employ samples with greater diversity with regard to nationality, which would provide more opportunities for comparative analysis. Whilst this study investigated students using personal values, as a means of profiling and as a point of comparison, future research could investigate the role of personal values in the service consumption process, especially with regard to student satisfaction with services delivered by tertiary institutions.


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