Choosing an offshore international program: a study of transnational higher education in Hong Kong

The demand for international higher education is increasing at an unprecedented rate, and transnational education makes up a significant proportion of the international higher education sector. With the expansion of the transnational market, a deeper understanding of students’ behaviour in choosing a transnational institution, and in choosing a program, is important to ensure that student needs are met and to improve the capability of transnational education providers to offer relevant and valued education. The main purpose of this research was to study the university choice process and to identify the factors that influence students in the process of choosing an offshore international program. The context was the transnational higher education sector in Hong Kong. This research adopted as its theoretical framework the concepts of Hossler and Gallagher’s school choice model and the push-pull model of international education. Using a mixed-methods approach, survey questionnaires were collected from 496 offshore international students enrolled in 12 programs from five universities, andqualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 20 students. Findings showed that the university choice of offshore international students is a multi-dimensional decision process which combines a variety of factors at different stages. Unlike most previous studies, the country effect was found to be less significant for offshore than for onshore international students. The local partner institution played an important role in the transnational university choice process. The Modified Transnational University Choice model developed here reflects the interaction of the program effect, the transnational push and pull effect, and the influences of theuniversity and local partner institutions. The discussion, recommendations and conclusions from this research are relevant for administrators and policy makers of transnational education providers, and contribute to the management practice and the current body of knowledge on international education.