Advances in Social Behaviour Research

Advances in Social Behaviour Research

Vol. 3, 01 March 2023


Open Access | Article

Factors Influencing the Choice of Destination for Pursuing a Master’s Degree: A Mixed Methods Research

Yichao Sun * 1
1 Beiwai College, Beijing Foreign Studies University

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Advances in Social Behaviour Research, Vol. 3, 405-413 Advances in Social Behaviour Research,
Published 01 March 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Yichao Sun. Factors Influencing the Choice of Destination for Pursuing a Master’s Degree: A Mixed Methods Research. LNEP (2023) Vol. 3: 405-413. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7048/3/2022514.

Abstract

This report identifies factors that influence students’ choices over where to pursue a master’s degree. Based on information from the empirical study as well as scholarly works done by previous writers on education, the initial hypothesis of 10 factors with a whole spectrum of effects was proposed. This research employed both qualitative analysis and quantitative method of reliability and factor analyses. The qualitative part figured out a total of 18 original factors for quantitative analysis, which later compared their matrix and leave 15 factors of strong relevance. The results indicate that students’ own needs turn out to be the most influential factor, with school characteristics, others’ opinions, and the administrative efficacy of the school also contributing to the issue.

Keywords

behavioral science., mixed methods research, postgraduate education, school choice

References

1. Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2021, December 22). All preparations for the 2022 Unified National Graduate Entrance Examination were done. Retrieved January 13, 2022, from http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/202112/t20211222_589176.html

2. Wei, H. (2013). An empirical study on the determinants of international student mobility: a global perspective. Higher Education, 66(1), 105–122. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23473596

3. Holdsworth, D. K. (2006). Choice Modeling New Zealand High School Seniors’ Preferences for University Education [J]. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 15(2), 81-102.

4. İlğan, A., Ataman, O., & Yurdunkulu, A. (2018). Factors Affecting University Choice: A Study on University Freshman Students. Germany: Buca Faculty of Education Journal, 46, 199-216.

5. Peters, D. L., & Daly, S. R. (2013). Returning to Graduate School: Expectations of Success, Values of the Degree, and Managing the Costs. J. Eng. Educ., 102: 244-268. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20012

6. Kaiser, H. F. (1960). "The Application of Electronic Computers to Factor Analysis". Educational and Psychological Measurement. 20 (1): 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446002000116

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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