Factors affecting international students’ intention to enroll at UNIMAS / Aileen Anne Anak Jinggong… [et al.]

There is a stiff competition in education industry in attracting students either local students or international students. The higher education institutions need to have the right characteristics required by the students in order to outweigh their competitors. Therefore, universities or higher education institution need to understand the factors which can attract students to enrol at their university. Despite the target by UNIMAS to recruit at least 50 international students per intake, UNIMAS seldom achieve its target. Hence, this study aims to investigate the factors affecting international students’ enrolment at UNIMAS. This research focus on major factors influencing international student’s choice of higher institution such as location of the university, cost of education, university reputation, academic programs, learning facilities, family/peer influence and country image. Questionnaires were emailed to a total population of 540 international students of which 275 had responded and the analysis was carried out using SPSS. From the reliability test, only Low Cost, University Reputation, Academic Programs and Country Image are reliable in measuring the international students’ intention to enrol in UNIMAS. The multiple regression shows that all the factors are reliable at 1% significant level except for Academic Programs. The findings can assist UNIMAS to plan their strategy to promote UNIMAS in international level as well as to understand the critical factors that need to be improved in order to attract more international students and to give the best experience for the current students.