The number of foreign students studying in Korea has been increased recently. The influx of more foreign students leads to the increasing of the korean national brand power, and creates more economic effect while internationalizes Korean universities... The number of foreign students studying in Korea has been increased recently. The influx of more foreign students leads to the increasing of the korean national brand power, and creates more economic effect while internationalizes Korean universities. However, problems such as maladjustment to a new learning environment and dropout may be caused without managing foreign students in Korea properly. Besides, the rate of foreign students staying in Korea illegally has reached up to 8% at present, and the rate of foreign students dropping out of Korean universities has increased since 2012. Previous studies about dropping out have mainly focused on domestic students, have not been conducted yet on foreign students. It is necessary to comprehend such an environmental changes and to manage foreign students in Korea. This study aims to examine Chinese students’ dropout intention in Korea and finds out individual and organization-level variables which influence their dropout intention in Korea. Ultimately, this study intends to provide basic data which can be used to take educational measures to prevent Chinese students from dropping out in Korean Universities. Research questions of this study have been listed as followed. First, what is the level of Chinese students’ dropout intention in Korea? Second, Were there any differences in Chinese students’ dropout intention between individual and organizational variables? Third, how do individual and organizational variables affect Chinese students’ dropout intention in Korea? As regard to the methods adopted in the research, Chinese undergraduates studying in Korean universities have been selected as the research subjects. This excluded Chinese students taking short-term courses such as Korean language courses and those participated in exchange students programs. 31 four-year universities with more than 100 international undergraduate students were selected. A total of 1,550 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the 31 universities, 50 copies per university, and a total of 1,461 copies of the questionnaire were collected and used for analysis. For analyzing the difference in Chinese students’ dropout intention, SPSS 21.0 program was used to conduct frequency, reliability analysis, t-test and one-way ANOVA. For estimating the individual and organizational level variables influencing Chinese students’ dropout intention in Korea, HLM 6.08 program was used to conduct Hierarchical Linear Modeling(HLM) analysis. The results of this study can be summarized as bellowed, First, this study found that the level of Chinese students’ dropout intention in Korea was slightly lower than average. Second, as a result of analyzing differences in their dropout intention by variables, that they showed a significant difference in gender, grade, scale of foreigner student. Result showed male student’s dropout intention was significantly higher than that of female students. And sophomore student’s dropout was intention significantly higher than that of senior students. The dropout attention of students in universities with less foreign students was significantly higher than students in universities with more foreign students. Third, as a result of analyzing the influence of individual-level variables affecting Chinese students’ dropout intention, this study found out that among all the psychological variables, cultural adaptation Stress had a positive(/) effect on Chinese students’ dropout intention, while goal commitment and organizational commitment had a negative(-) effect on their dropout intention. Besides, fellowship, experience of participating in a foreign student support program and college GPA were found to have negative(-) effect on Chinese students’ dropout intention out of all the college experience variables, and the number of foreign students and the rate of participating in a foreign student support program had found to have a negative(-) effect on their dropout intention out of all the organization-level variables. Based on the results, this study suggests that Korean universities can reduce Chinese students’ dropout rate with the following roles. First, it is necessary for Korean universities to establish an early warning system that can comprehends the level of foreign students’ dropout intention and prevent potential dropouts from dropping out of college actually. Second, Korean universities need to comprehend the academic achievement levels of foreign students in advance and be able to provide supplementary lessons or tutoring programs systematically, so that foreign students with poor academic performances will not lose interest in learning and not dropping out eventually. Third, it is important to promote cultural experience activities to help Chinese and Korean students understand the culture of each other more and alleviate any cultural shocks and conflicts that a foreign students may face. Fourth, it is necessary to provide proper programs for faculty and Korean students to realize not only the value of international students but also the importance of international education exchanges. So that an environment as such will be able to accept foreigners and foreign cultures without prejudice. Fifth, student selection system with standardized entrance requirements and enhanced entrance examinations system should be established so that Korean universities are able to select foreign students who are less likely to leave school illegally or dropout from college. This study aims to comprehend the dropout intention of Chinese students, who are studying in Korean universities, and examines and verifies the influence of variables affecting Chinese students’ dropout intention in Korea. It is expected that the results of this study will be useful in understanding Chinese students’ dropout intention and will be further seeking plans to reduce foreign students’ dropout through education, and ultimately contributing to manage foreign students systematically.
|
