UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ Đoàn Hồng Phát STUDENT PERCEIVED VALUE TOWARDS UNIVERSITIES’ HIGH QUALITY PROGRAM IN VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ Đoàn Hồng Phát STUDENT PERCEIVED VALUE TOWARDS UNIVERSITIES’ HIGH QUALITY PROGRAM IN VIETNAM ID: 22130055 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: Assoc. PHAM NGOC THUY Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -iii- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this research represents a milestone in my life. It has been a long time and required a great amount of time and effort. There used to be so many challenges and barriers that made me down and flinch.
However, with the great support from my beloved family, my dear friends and my kind colleagues, I was added with strength and continued my steps to complete this thesis. Therefore, from deep of my heart, I would like to say thank you to all of supporters who did not mind spending precious time for helping me during a long journey. Especially, I wish to express my deeply gratitude to Assoc. Pham Ngoc Thuy who has patiently instructed and shared with me her precious experiences.
It was her who maintained my belief and led me forward on the right decisions. To me, not only is this a thesis, but this is also a journey for me to grow and become more matured. At this moment, I feel confident in myself than ever. Academic knowledge and experiences I have accumulated for more than 2 years at International School of Business will definitely be my firm preparation for my next move.
Once again, thank you for transferring me knowledge, strength and courage! LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -iv- STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION (Candidate Certificate) I certify that the work in the thesis entitled “Student perceived value towards universities’ high quality programs in Vietnam” is the result of my own research and has not been submitted for a higher degree to any university or institution other than International School of Business (ISB). I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help and assistance that I have received in my thesis have been appropriately acknowledged. Ho Chi Minh, 21 December, 2015 Doan Hong Phat LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -v- TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEGEMENT.
iii STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF FIGURES.
viii LIST OF TABLES. Scope of the research. 6 Chapter 2: Literature review. Student perceived value.
Perceived service quality. Perceived service quality and emotional value. Perceived performance risk and emotional value. Perceived price and emotional value.
Perceived price and perceived service quality. Perceived service quality and perceived performance risk. Perceived price and perceived performance risk. 15 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -vi- Chapter 3: Research methodology.
26 Chapter 4: Data analysis. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Composite reliability and variance extracted. Convergent validity test.
Discriminant validity test. Research model test. Theoretical model test by using SEM approach. Theoretical model estimation by BOOTSTRAP.
46 Chapter 5: Conclusion, implications and limitations. Contribution of the study. Limitations and direction for future research. 62 Appendix C: Descriptive statistics.
64 Appendix D: Bootstrap distribution (Default model). 67 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -vii- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABBREVIATION MEANING AMOS Analysis of Moment Structures AVE Average Variance Extracted BU Banking University CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis CFI Comparative Fit Index CR Composite Reliability FTU Foreign Trade University GFI Goodness of Fit index HCMC Ho Chi Minh City HQP High Quality Program MTP Massive Training Program TFI Tucker & Lewis Index UEH University of Economics RMSEA Root Mean Square Error Approximation SEM Structural Equation Modeling SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -viii- LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: The proposed research model .1: The first CFA result .2: The second CFA result .4: SEM analysis result for Structural Model. 40 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -ix- LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Hypotheses in the model .1: Scale of Perceived service quality .2: Scale of Perceived price .3: Scale of Perceived performance risk .4: Scale of Student emotional value .5: Summary of goodness fit indices .1: Descriptive statistics of the data.2: Model Fit Summary – Comparison.3: The results of reliability and variance extracted test .4: Regression weights and Standardized regression weights summary .5: Testing the discriminant validity .6: Regression Weights – Theoretical Model .7: Standardized Regression Weights of Theoretical Model .8: Squared Multiple Correlation.9: Results of testing the hypotheses .10: Standardized Regression Weights (Theoretical Model). 45 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -x- ABSTRACT This study empirically examines the effects of perceived service quality, perceived price, perceived performance risk on the emotional value of students towards the high- quality program in universities in Vietnam.
Structural equation modeling was used to test these impacts, utilizing a sample of 277 students in three public universities in Ho Chi Minh City, including Foreign Trade University, University of Economics and Banking University. The results show that among three determinants, only perceived service quality was found to affect student emotional value towards the high-quality program. Although perceived price was found not to have an impact on student emotional value but it had a significant and positive effect on perceived service quality. Moreover, the study also reveals that perceived service quality had a significant and negative influence on perceived performance risk.
These findings imply that managers of the high-quality program in universities should pay attention to improving the perception of service quality in order to enhance student emotional value. The research findings also engage with some limitations in the strength of measurement scale and the sampling method. Besides, it is lack of investigating the moderating effect of demographic variables on relationships. They lead to valuable directions for further researches in future.
Key words: the high-quality program, student emotional value, perceived service quality, perceived performance risk, perceived price. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -1- CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Research background Upon Vietnam’s deeper and deeper integration into the global economy, the labor quality is one of the big challenges to Vietnam (Van Anh, 2015). Despite the advantage of cheap labor cost, the competitiveness of Vietnam human resources is considered to be low compared to that of other ASEAN countries.
Nguyen Tuyen (2014) claims that Vietnamese labors are lack of the expertise and skills they are equipped at universities are not suitable with the reality demand. Therefore, there is a huge shortage of high skilled managers that the society and the economy are demanding. The rooted cause of this situation is because the quality of training programs in Vietnam is still limited and has not met the society’s demand, leading to low competitiveness of Vietnamese labor force (Nguyen Tuyen, 2014). Surveys conducted by government-linked organizations reveal that 50 percent of Vietnamese university graduates cannot find jobs in their area of specialization and 25 percent of undergraduate curricula are filled with political indoctrination (Higher Education Overview, n.
Originating from this reality, Vietnam has made a great effort to improve university education programs throughout the country. One of the most outstanding education events is the approval of the proposal named Vietnam University Education Reform of The Government dated 2 November, 2005. The main purpose of this proposal is to enhance the education quality and help Vietnam education system to access the advanced level in the world. Accordingly, a variety of abroad advanced programs have been adopted and implemented in Vietnam such as the advanced program, the talented engineer program, the high-quality engineer program, the special training program and the high-quality program.
Among these, the most outstanding and popular one in universities these days is the high-quality program using English as a formal language in teaching. Since its appearance, this program has received a great attention of the society as well as learners due to its prominent characteristics over the massive training program. According to the Regulation of high quality training for the undergraduate issued by Ministry of Education and Training (2014), the massive training program (MTP) is the one LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -2- training the undergraduate and legally carried out in educational institutions. This program has the ceiling level of tuition fee in accordance with the existing regulation of the Government.
Meanwhile, the high-quality program (HQP) is understood as the one aiming to explore and train good students through the preference of teaching and learning facilities, experienced lecturer crew as well as qualified teaching method adapted from advanced universities in the area and around the world. Especially, this program has conditions to ensure its quality and higher output standards compared to the MTP. There are some distinctive aspects making the HQP more outstanding than the MTP, including the output standards, lecturer crew, the curricula, material facilities, organization and training administration (Ministry of Education and Training, 2014). In terms of the output standards, the standards of HQP must be higher than that of MTP relating to professional knowledge, foreign language ability, the capability of applying information technology, leadership ability and teamwork ability.
In particular, the foreign language competence must reach 4 out of 6 based on the six-level frame of foreign language competence used in Vietnam or equivalence (Ministry of Education and Training, 2014). In regard with lecturers, the condition for teachers attending to give lecture is much stricter. In detail, only lecturers who have master level or above are selected to attend HQP. To professional subjects taught in English, lecturers’ English ability must reach the level 5 out of 6 in accordance with the six-level frame used in Vietnam or lecturers took a full time course of bachelor or above overseas (Ministry of Education and Training, 2014).
In association with the training curricula, the curricula of HQP is built and developed based on the curricula of MTP. However, it is guaranteed to have reference with the curricula of oversea programs (Ministry of Education and Training, 2014). In terms of material facilities serving for the training and scientific research, HQP must ensure to have private rooms equipped with the internet and devices supporting for teaching and learning. Moreover, each student of the program has self-study place at school.
In addition, schools must have sufficient reference materials and library serving for lecturers and students (Ministry of Education and Training, 2014). LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com -3- In regard with organization and training administration, the program is required to invite foreign lecturers to give lecture to create a positive training environment. In particular, students will have opportunities to have filed trips and internship at companies, local and international corporates (Ministry of Education and Training, 2014). From the above mentioned distinctive features, it can be said that HQP potentially provides learners with the superior quality and learning environment compared to the MTP.
Research problem Since the Ministry of Education and Training allowed universities to implement the HQP in 2010, many universities throughout the country have opened this program with various majors such as business administration, banking finance, international relation and external economics, etc. The main purpose of these programs is to increase the training quality and to meet increasingly demand for well-educated workforce of the labor market. However, in the reality, each institution has a different way of executing (Vu Tho, 2013). Several examples can be listed such as the different input requirement of English, the number of students distributed in a class, the tuition fee, the curricula and even the proportion of English used in the course.
It is this difference in implementation that leads to the difference in training quality among universities.