Werner Soontiens

Chinese ethnicity and values: a country cluster comparison

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare value clusters of people from the same ethnic group living in different circumstances and conditions by describing the conditions and measuring various value dimensions.Design/methodology/approach – The nature of the concept values is teased out, particularly by considering pressures towards convergence and divergence and the validity of scaling values. A brief description of the socio‐economic and cultural environment of the various countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China) leads into the analysis of data. Collected data were analysed through factor analysis to consider clustering of values and to facilitate comparison.Findings – The paper indicates that there is a significant overlap between clustered values across different locations, which, however, shows minor differences. The paper implies that ethnicity and cultural heritage determine values more than socio‐economic circumstances.Research limitations/implications – It is not an in‐depth anal...

The image and academic expectations of South African and Malaysian university students

Tertiary institutions across the globe are facing challenges brought about by globalisation, internationalisation and government policy transformations in higher education. Attracting quality students in a highly competitive education environment is crucial, as poor retention ratios are a cause of concern and government funding is consequently being influenced adversely. In striving to maintain a respectable and viable market share, sound marketing principles should be applied as universities compete for quality students to service them for the duration of studies. This paper examines and compares the criteria used by South African and Malaysian students when choosing or evaluating a tertiary institution. Both countries are emerging countries where education not only is recognised as a crucial driving force, but where the accessibility of education is politically important. The main findings are (amongst others) that the most important attributes for South African students are the institutional reputation and reasonable tuition fees, while Malaysian students consider the reputation of the study programme and informed academic staff as most important.

Marketing and Reputation in the Services Sector: Higher Education in South Africa and Singapore

Over the past few decades the tertiary sector has developed from a predominantly inward focussed industry serving public interest to an internationalised and commercially competitive industry. Resulting from this fundamental change is a drive to better understand the most prominent dimensions that impact on internationalisation, more particularly, the expectations and experiences of students. Although some of these can be argued to be country specific, and thus differentiate between markets, others are universal and impact on the overall industry. One of the latter is a pressure to consider and treat students as clients introducing all the dynamics of service delivery and management. The primary objective of this paper is to identify the most important variables related to marketing and reputation issues when selecting a university in South-Africa and compare the same for Singapore students. This study revealed that the most important consideration for the South African sample, regarding marketing and reputation related variables when choosing an institution of higher education, is the academic reputation of the institution, while the marketing activities were regarded as priority by the Singaporean sample.

Stakeholder Informed Non-Traditional Student Induction: A Balanced Approach.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the evolution of a tailored university induction program over time to establish the change in the nature and content of the program. Design/methodology/approach – The induction program is pitched against the conceptual backdrop of academic norms and conventions, language, integration and the role of mentoring. As an exploratory study of a unique and complex induction program it reports on the basis of discourse analysis over time (from 2009 to 2012). Findings – The paper establishes that consideration of feedback by students, university staff (academic and professional) and external stakeholders has allowed the program to morph to a balanced content of academic; social; and socio-academic integration activities. Research limitations/implications – The paper confirms the framework proposed by Zepke and Leach (2005) and renders a further level of validity to the model when applied in a cross-cultural higher education context. Practical implications – Practi...

Internationalisation of Higher Education: Service Quality in Higher Education in Selected Southern Hemisphere Countries

Abstract The tertiary sector has over the last two decades developed from a predominantly inwards focussed industry serving public interest to an internationalised and commercially competitive industry. This fundamental change resulted in amongst others a drive to better understand the most prominent dimensions that impact on internationalisation, more particularly the expectations and experiences of students. Although some of these changes can be argued to be country specific and thus differentiated between markets, others are universal and impact on the overall industry. One of the latter changes is a pressure to consider and treat students as clients, introducing all the dynamics of service delivery and management. This paper considers the importance of service delivery related to the market positioning of academic institutions in Australia and South Africa with a particular focus on non-academic internationalisation activities. The main findings reveal that the most important variable in the non-academic category is an effective induction program.