Page 42 - Movers, Shapers, and Everything in Between: Influencers of the International Student Experience

Chapter 2
services. Students are asked to indicate their satisfaction with a particular element on a Likert scale of 1-4 (1=very dissatisfied, 4= very satisfied). While there are many possible metrics that could be used to measure the experience of international students, self-reported satisfaction provides a direct, subjective measure of how the student rates their experience in a given area.
This study draws on the 2016 ISB dataset, filtered to contain only institutions based in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia and only undergraduate, degree-seeking students from India, China, and South Korea. Of the total student responses received in 2016 (N=66,272), selecting these parameters resulted in a subset of 5,242 responses.
Variables
The study was conducted in three parts. First, constructs were created to measure social and academic integration among nationalities using factor analysis in SPSS. These constructs were then used to test for and measure differences among nationalities in integration levels and satisfaction levels (Table 2.1). Having explored these links, the study used linear regression to examine the role of integration in determining satisfaction. Finally, a model was created to show to what extent integration explains the relationship between nationality and self-reported satisfaction.
Table 2.1 Variables and Measures Variable
Student Satisfaction (Dependent Variable) Academic Integration (Dependent Variable)
Social Integration (Dependent Variable) Nationality (Independent Variable)
Gender (Control)
Stage of Study (Control)
Measure
Student’s self-reported level of satisfaction with university experience (1-4 scale)
Construct of Academic Integration based on 6 questions from ISB
Construct of Social Integration based on 7 questions from ISB
Set of Dummy variables: Chinese, Indian and South Korean
Dummy (female = 1)
Set of dummy variables (First year = 1, last year, other year)
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