Factors affecting the decision of undergraduate students to participate in student exchange program

Abstract

         This research is a cross-sectional study research conducted by using a survey. The purpose of this research is to investigate the individual factors and student exchange program factors affecting the decision of undergraduate pharmacy students at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University to participate in student exchange program arranged by Division of Public and International Relations. The population of this research are 466 undergraduate pharmacy students who were in the 2^nd year, 3^rd year, 4^th year, and 5^th year and registered in the first semester of 2014 academic year at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University. Having received the validity score as 0.89, the research instrument of this study is a self-administered questionnaire which is developed based on the objectives, relevant research studies, and theoretical concepts of the study in order to elicit the data in the end of November 2014. Although 392 questionnaires (85%) were returned to the researcher, only 382 questionnaires (82%) were completed for data analyzing. The descriptive statistics is used to analyze frequency, percentage, means, standard deviation, and using t-test and one-way ANOVA to examine individual differences.

         The major findings revealed that the most student exchange program factors affecting undergraduate pharmacy students to participate in the student exchange program included in-charge officer, followed by cost of living, scholarship or funding support, and accommodation and surrounding, respectively. In addition, it is revealed in the study that individual factors in terms of gender, religious, and academic year of study of the students affect them to participate in the exchange program at statistically significant level of 0.05. It can be concluded that most of the undergraduate pharmacy students highly concerned about a good care of in-charge officer or program provider of host university, financial factor, and the physical environment and surroundings of the host university in order to decide to take part in the student exchange program. Also, the differences of said individual factors should be concerned for the program administration and arrangement.