Price
Given the intangibility of education services it is important for Victoria University to maximise their perceived value. The price of fees, cost of living and the ability to offset costs through part time work are the main price considerations before students decide to study abroad.
The research included in this report on Thailand shows there were over 24,000 Thai students who studied overseas in 2012 and only 2% studied in New Zealand. Also the fact that only 0.5% of total Thai students study overseas shows a lack of affordability of studying abroad, especially since the cost of a similar education in Thailand can be as little as $5,000.00 (NZD). For many, the high cost of living in New Zealand is unlikely to be sufficiently off set …show more content…
Thailand has the technological infrastructure already in place that could cope with an online learning environment and Victoria already has many courses available that follow a distance-learning model.
The Thai International Education Consultants’ Association in 2012 also signed an agreement with the New Zealand Government promoting collaboration between institutions (ICEF, 2012). Victoria ranks similarly with King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (Times Higher Education, 2014) therefore it would serve as a good candidate to use as a surrogate to offer courses. This would make a Victoria University education more affordable as the high living costs of New Zealand would no longer be a factor when choosing to study with Victoria University.
China, compared to Thailand has much larger middle class with a comparable purchasing power to New Zealand. Therefore Victoria University should maintain a model of persuading Chinese students to live and study in Wellington. The same factors mentioned above are considered by Chinese students when deciding to study in New Zealand, however, China’s relative buying power means tuition fees and Wellington’s cost of living are similar to studying in China and do not act as a barrier to studying in New …show more content…
In order to achieve better market recognition Victoria University should develop their existing “Victoria International” website further with the type of content demanded by Thai students and have the website translated to Thai so users can choose which language to view the website.
Thai student decision making in relation to studying abroad is heavily influenced by the financial cost, their parents’ expectations to obtain higher English education, quality and university agents (Pimpa, 2003). Therefore the website and trade visits should be geared towards both students and their parents and include information relating to the cost of studying in New Zealand, the university ranking and alumni affiliations with multi nationals in order to convey quality.
For those students looking to study towards a foreign degree while remaining in Thailand, onsite information seminars by agents should be held at affiliated campuses and provide personalised information that directly address the concerns expressed by those in attendance. These offshore teaching programmes and recruitment offices have been shown to offer competitive advantage in the international education market (Mazzarol,
Given the intangibility of education services it is important for Victoria University to maximise their perceived value. The price of fees, cost of living and the ability to offset costs through part time work are the main price considerations before students decide to study abroad.
The research included in this report on Thailand shows there were over 24,000 Thai students who studied overseas in 2012 and only 2% studied in New Zealand. Also the fact that only 0.5% of total Thai students study overseas shows a lack of affordability of studying abroad, especially since the cost of a similar education in Thailand can be as little as $5,000.00 (NZD). For many, the high cost of living in New Zealand is unlikely to be sufficiently off set …show more content…
Thailand has the technological infrastructure already in place that could cope with an online learning environment and Victoria already has many courses available that follow a distance-learning model.
The Thai International Education Consultants’ Association in 2012 also signed an agreement with the New Zealand Government promoting collaboration between institutions (ICEF, 2012). Victoria ranks similarly with King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (Times Higher Education, 2014) therefore it would serve as a good candidate to use as a surrogate to offer courses. This would make a Victoria University education more affordable as the high living costs of New Zealand would no longer be a factor when choosing to study with Victoria University.
China, compared to Thailand has much larger middle class with a comparable purchasing power to New Zealand. Therefore Victoria University should maintain a model of persuading Chinese students to live and study in Wellington. The same factors mentioned above are considered by Chinese students when deciding to study in New Zealand, however, China’s relative buying power means tuition fees and Wellington’s cost of living are similar to studying in China and do not act as a barrier to studying in New …show more content…
In order to achieve better market recognition Victoria University should develop their existing “Victoria International” website further with the type of content demanded by Thai students and have the website translated to Thai so users can choose which language to view the website.
Thai student decision making in relation to studying abroad is heavily influenced by the financial cost, their parents’ expectations to obtain higher English education, quality and university agents (Pimpa, 2003). Therefore the website and trade visits should be geared towards both students and their parents and include information relating to the cost of studying in New Zealand, the university ranking and alumni affiliations with multi nationals in order to convey quality.
For those students looking to study towards a foreign degree while remaining in Thailand, onsite information seminars by agents should be held at affiliated campuses and provide personalised information that directly address the concerns expressed by those in attendance. These offshore teaching programmes and recruitment offices have been shown to offer competitive advantage in the international education market (Mazzarol,