International Parents and Students’ Perceptions and Expectations on an Australian Degree Program in Kkuic

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Another purpose of the study is to help KKUIC develop a marketing plan for the program, to introduce it and attract people to the program. The Australian degree program has several differences from the usual Thai program, especially about the length, and KKUIC will use gained information about people’s perceptions and expectations to lay out suitable plans to promote the new joint program.

Last but not least, the research provides a better view on international education trend in progress in Thailand.

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Research Questions

The following questions are the main focus of the research, and will be clarified throughout the research:

- What are the international parents and students’ perceptions and expectations of an Australian University’s degree program being offered at KKUIC?

- Is there any potential to offer an Australian university degree program being offered at KKUIC

- What are the possible effects of having an Australian degree program in Thailand?

Research Hypothesis

As the project is new, there are unpredictable aspects, yet the hypotheses can be some of the following:

- Perceptions

-Positive; they could be accepted to study the same program through the different culture (Thai culture) as an opportunity to live and learn.

-Negative; they might be afraid about course structure, materials, covering environment should be same in Australia.

- Expectations

- For International students, they might be expected the constantly learning environment same as in Australia, covering high standard and quality about course structure, materials, lecturers, social, and etc., while study the course in KKUIC.

- For other students(could be Thai students who are interested in course), they might be expected the high quality program like in Australia, while save their expenses instead of go aboard to study the same course. (study Australian’s degree program in Thailand could be reduced expenses like accommodation, living costs, and transportation in oversea.)

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Definition of Terms

College: any place for specialized education after the age of 16 where people study or train to get knowledge and/or skills

Accounting: a system that provides quantitative information about finances

Student: a person who is learning at a college, university or school

Perception: the process of perceiving, or the representation of what is perceived

Expectation: the belief about the future, or the feeling that something is about to happen

Limitations of the study

The study involves a number of foreigners, both students and parents living or travelling in Thailand, and there will be some certain limitations. We forecast some as follow:

- There would be a level of difficulty in collecting data from international students and parents because some of them may not be willing to cooperate.

- The research group is small, not more than 20 people, therefore it would take time to collect necessary data and analyze it.

- There is a time limit for the study, and we may not have enough time to get all the information we need

- There are not many foreigners living in Khon Kaen. We will need to pick a location with enough foreigners, such as Bangkok.

- Foreigners may not be familiar with Khon Kaen area, and the research will meet difficulties to be actualized.

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Chapter II: Literature Review

When universities were established several centuries ago, they tried to attract students from everywhere, including from overseas. However, in that time, student mobility was hardly possible. Not until the second half of the twentieth century that globalization contributed in bringing international students and universities closer across national boundaries (Wilkins, Stephens, & Huisman, 2012). In recent years the demand of having a quality international education has been growing rapidly, to the point that the universities cannot handle by themselves. This is when the universities “localize” by creating local branch campuses with local universities, or by their own names.

The invention of transnational higher education has helped to diverse the choice of students; reduce culture-shock, and reduce financial burdens (Wilkins, 2012). Researchers have been interested in the motivation of students in choosing to study an international quality of higher education at a local venue. The advantages of transnational branch campuses are considerable, means that they can strongly influence the students, and even parents, on choosing the location for higher education.

Figure 1. Push2 Pull2 model of international student destination choice (Wilkins, Stephens, & Huisman, Student choice in higher education: Motivations for choosing to study at an international branch campus, 2012)

In Figure 1, the main advantages of home campus and branch campus are listed. These are the factors that both students and parents consider before picking the destination. It can be implied that the quality of home campus might not be the only factors that affect the destination choice. Country-specific advantages and conveniences such as weather or culture might sometimes be concerned as the first place. United Arab Emirates is the leader of international branch campus trends, with over 40 branch campuses. This is a clear example of how people demand high quality education whilst staying in their home country (Becker, 2010).

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Table1. Main reasons explaining students’ decision to study at an international branch campus in the UAE (Wilkins, Stephens,