Volume 29, Issue 4, 2020
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.825
The Role of Motivation and Career Planning in Students’ Decision-Making Process for Studying Abroad: A Mixed-Methods Study
Abstract
The number of Vietnamese students studying abroad in other Asian countries has increased considerably, Taiwan has become one of the most popular destinations. This study investigated the motivation leading to the choice of Vietnamese students to study in Taiwan. Additionally, an appropriate model of students’ decision-making process that explores the desire to study abroad was developed, clarifying, and emphasizing the impact of the motivation on students’ career planning and decision-making process. This study was conducted using the mixed-methods methodology. A qualitative approach was used for indepth interviews with 30 Vietnamese students studying in Taiwan. The data collected from the interviews were used to create questionnaires to survey more than 500 participants, and the responses were used for quantitative analysis. The results reveal the main factors of the motivation and career planning of Vietnamese students to study abroad in Taiwan and provide a model of how the students’ decision-making process operates. The quantitative findings indicate that students’ motivation and career planning have a significant correlation, whereas both of them directly affect decision-making.
Keywords
Motivation, Career planning, Mixed-methods, Decision-making, Taiwan, Vietnamese students.