Qualitative Research Stand
定性研究站

1.1 Interviews Findings
1.1訪談結果

 

The International students interviewed had all applied through an agent while the British and the European students had applied independently. Thisdecision was determined by the fact that it is more difficult for international students to get accurate information on British universities and to identify and compare similar degrees in different institutions. Furthermore interna-tional students have to go through a more complex procedure to get their student visa and the agency can help them through these steps.
采訪的國際學生都通過代理應用，而英國和歐洲的學生獨立應用。這一決定立即被確定為國際學生在英國的大學中得到準確的信息和identifyand比較相似程度在不同的機構，它是比較困難的事實。此外，國際學生必須通過一個更復雜的過程，去獲得學生簽證，該機構可以幫助他們完成這些步驟。......

The students came from relative well off families and were supporting by themselves their education expenses or were helped by their families. The main motivators that made them interested in pursuing masters at a UKHEI was their willingness to enter or progress in a globalised work market ata qualified professional level. Some students were also motivated by the fact that they wanted to experience diversity and multiculturality, as they sow these as personal enrichment elements.
學生來自相對富裕的家庭，并支持自己的教育費用，或由家人幫助。的主要激勵因素，使他們熱衷于追求大師在UKHEI是他們愿意進入或在一個全球化的就業市場ATA合格的專業水平進步。有些學生還出于事實上，他們想體驗的多樣性和文化多元性，因為他們播下這些作為個人致富的元素。

The usage and consumption situation was quite homogeneous, they ei-ther had completed their undergraduate studies in a business related subjectand wanted to gain a higher level of specialisation or studied a non-businessrelated subject and wanted to improve their business knowledge and em-ployability skills at an internationally reputed http://ukthesis.org/ygsslwdx UK HEI. Only one of theinterviewees was a returning student and had had a work experience of 5years in a company.

For the international students the phases of the application process werequite similar, almost everyone did some independent research on the Internetbefore contacting the agency, most of the students looked at popular UKHEI rankings such as the Guardian. The role that the family, primarilyparents, play in the decision was different, for some students parents wereplaying an active role in the early stage of orientation and decision makingprocess these students discussed most of the aspects with parents. Otherstudents collected information and dealt independently with the selection ofthe HEI and proposed to their parents the overall plan for their studies. Inthis situations the only issues were parents played an active role in decisionmaking were financing issues.

The most important influencers of the student UK HEI choice were theUniversity reputation, the subjects available (most of the students only con-sidered the universities which offered exactly the specific subject they whereinterested into) and third the university location. For the British studentthis mainly meant a pleasant city with which he was familiar with, while forinternational students the main reason of attraction to the English southeastcost are the mild weather and the proximity to London and mainland Europewhich allows for frequent and not too expensive holiday brakes.

The two students which applied independently did this because of higherdegree of information availability on the university as well as from easy accessto trusted first hand sources. In the case of the British student the selectionof the UK HEI was highly driven by a high level of satisfaction with theuniversity in the undergraduate experience which turned the student into aloyal customer. The student in fact reported to have only considered otheruniversities (all extremely qualified in marketing and with a longer traditionthan Southampton) but to have given more weight to his previous experi-ence in the university and to friends’ recommendations. Unsurprisingly thestudent presents a very high feeling of belonging and satisfaction with theuniversity and a high promoter score.

Concerning welcome week the interviewed students where not very im-pressed, they regret the fact that there where no events for postgraduatein-coming students and that most of the events were either designed strictlyfor freshers or not well advertised, for example some students did not takepart to the Bun Fight (the university society sign-up fair) because they didn’tknow about it or what it meant. Some students were also unhappy with thefact that no recognition was given to the class nucleus in the meet and greet,therefore making it very difficult to identify class mates among the hugepostgraduate student body.

Three of the students lived during the year in the university residence.They were overall happy with the experience and with the fact that theyhad the chance to meet lots of other students. One student comments on thehousing service provision and on the staff were not very positive.