Retaining international students for advanced study in Malaysia : an analysis of investment and consumption motive

The shift of intention from merely focusing on internationalisation as a source of revenue generation to a more diverse objective of talent development that promotes research and innovation is imperative. Thus, the ability of the host countries to retain quality international students for advanced study is nevertheless essential. Despite huge literature concentrating on identifying the factors that can attract potential international students to enrol in host countries, few known studies however, were carried out to identify the factors that are able to influence the choice of the currently enrolled international students to remain in Malaysia for their advanced study. A combination of different probability sampling methods was used with the first stage involving the stratified random sampling where higher education institutions were divided into five strata, followed by the quota random sampling where students were then stratified by their level of studies. Through this sampling, a total number of 1,000
international students were selected. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed but only 753 were valid to be analysed. Using the Binary Logit Model, the study identified the educational choice motive that influences the decision of international students to remain in Malaysia for their advanced study and to recommend Malaysia to their friends. The finding shows that the consumption motive dominates the investment motive, suggesting that students‟ decision to remain in Malaysia for advanced study is highly related to the consumption motive as compared to the investment motive. Moreover, this research also found that both investment and consumption motives influenced the currently enrolled international students to recommend Malaysia to their friends and families. The findings from this study lend support to the commonly held view that the quality of education matters.