Customer Journey of Vietnamese Students in Choosing International Bachelor’s Programmes : Case: Lahti University of Applied Sciences Ltd
Nguyen, Thi Tram Anh (2018)
Lahden ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018053011117
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018053011117
Tiivistelmä
Today, marketisation or market mechanisms are playing an increasingly important role in higher education. Many educational institutions have become autonomous and compete with each other for students, profits, and ranks. Students are treated as customers and their mobility is considered as a way of internationalization of higher education. As of 2017, Finland started introducing tuition fees in higher education to non-EU/EEA students. This change puts Finnish universities in the education market where they have to build a new strategy to attract international students. Since Vietnamese students are one of the largest groups among international students in Finland, this thesis attempts to provide an insight into Vietnamese students’ decision journey for the case company – Lahti UAS Ltd.
The thesis is written using a deductive reasoning approach and uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative methods are used for measuring the results received from a survey and qualitative methods are applied in analysing the answers received from interviews. Moreover, the study is supported by both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data were gathered from interviews with Vietnamese IBU18K students at Lahti UAS and from a survey that was distributed online to Vietnamese students. The secondary sources were collected from reliable literature, such as official books, peer-reviewed articles in journals or periodicals and conference proceedings.
The findings from the empirical research show that Vietnamese students enter the decision journey around the time they attend high school and university. They seek information about studying abroad on Google and social media, and highly trust information provided by friends and relatives that already studied abroad. Based on the findings, recommendations on potential marketing activities are provided to the case company.
The thesis is written using a deductive reasoning approach and uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative methods are used for measuring the results received from a survey and qualitative methods are applied in analysing the answers received from interviews. Moreover, the study is supported by both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data were gathered from interviews with Vietnamese IBU18K students at Lahti UAS and from a survey that was distributed online to Vietnamese students. The secondary sources were collected from reliable literature, such as official books, peer-reviewed articles in journals or periodicals and conference proceedings.
The findings from the empirical research show that Vietnamese students enter the decision journey around the time they attend high school and university. They seek information about studying abroad on Google and social media, and highly trust information provided by friends and relatives that already studied abroad. Based on the findings, recommendations on potential marketing activities are provided to the case company.