Internationalization of Tertiary Education in Malaysia

Internationalization plays an important role in the tertiary education sector. Internationalization of tertiary education will urge the society of a nation to form a "knowledge-based society" Internationalization process in tertiary education has allowed researchers and students to obtain information and knowledge even without have to travel abroad. Besides, it also bring opportunities for students to go overseas’ tertiary education institutions. Consequently, a nation tertiary education which internationalizes their operation will change it characteristics, products and services in order to meet the demand. The main purpose for this study is to explore the possible existence relationship between the independent variables (facility, quality, cost and image and prestige) and the dependent variables (international undergraduate students’ satisfaction) in University Utara Malaysia (UUM). The data used for this study is derived from the questionnaire survey conducted among the international undergraduate students in UUM randomly from who come from various countries. A total of 50 useable respondents were successfully obtained. The descriptive analysis, reliability analysis and correlation analysis were undertaken in this study. This research develops and evaluates a model of international undergraduate students’ satisfaction which related to the facility, quality, cost and image and prestige. Result shows that all of the factors have impact on international undergraduate student satisfaction. This study provide insight to the four important factors which are facility, quality, cost and image and prestige as perceived by international undergraduate student as important in affecting their satisfaction toward a tertiary education institution. Therefore, university should develop diversify marketing plan which meet the needs of international undergraduate student satisfaction as discovered in this study.