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
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Authors who publish this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open Access Instruction).