Significant Factors That Influence Students to Continue Study and to Pursue a Higher Degree at a Private Institute of Technology in Taiwan

Date of Degree

8-2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Program

Education

Advisor

Nancy Robbins

Advisor

Absael Antelo

Advisor

Joseph W. Eyles

Advisor

Gilberto Hinojosa

Abstract

This research investigated what significant factors influence students to continue to study and to pursue a higher degree at the public and private institute of technology. It also determined if the significant factors would be different based on gender and age in each school. The results showed that there are different significant factors for students who have been studying at different kinds of institutes of technology and whose age and gender are different. These results indicate the public institute of technology could be a role model for the private institute of technology. The Students’ Satisfaction Questionnaire (SSQ), created by the Bolton Institute in the U.K., was used to collect data from 430 students at each site. Because the SSQ was translated from English into Chinese, a pilot test of 47 and 41 randomly selected subjects from a similar public and a similar private institute of technology, respectively, were conducted to ensure the SSQ was clear to participants in each school. Cronbach’s alpha was employed to test for reliability in this research. To measure data quality, composite reliability, convergent and discriminant validities were reported. Data analyses included frequencies and percentages. R-square and T test, and LISREL 8.3 also were with a significance level of 0.05. Students at the public institute of technology expressed higher satisfaction, especially in the area of learning resources. In contrast, regardless of age or gender, students felt dissatisfaction with the learning environment that the private institute of technology provided. Age and gender also did not influence the different ratings on other dimensions. The results clearly showed what dimensions received low ratings by the private school students. These ratings suggest areas the school can look to change to attract additional students.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS