Nghiên cứu sinh Phạm Thị Kim Thanh bảo vệ luận án tiến sĩ
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE DISSERTATION
Dissertation title: The impact of academic quality on non-positive student engagement in higher education
Specialization: Business Administration, E-PhD Program Specialization code: 9340101
PhD candidate: Pham Thi Kim Thanh
Supervisor: Associate Professor Vu Tri Dung
Original contributions to academic and theoretical aspects
This dissertation makes two key contributions to the customer engagement literature by addressing the gaps related to the complex and multifacet interaction in higher education service, encompassing engagement manifestation at different valence and intensity. First, while the current literature on customer engagement has mostly focused on positive valence, this study investigates the non-positive valence of customer engagement, including disengagement and negative engagement of undergraduate students, the customer of higher education institutes (HEI). This study found that though perceived academic quality has been proven to play an important role in student engagement in learning activities, it does not necessarily predict disengagement intention. However, perceived academic quality has been proven to have a significant impact on Negative engagement intention outside HEI. This study also found that while student satisfaction with academic quality promotes student engagement, dissatisfaction with academic quality does not necessarily lead to student disengagement but significantly predicts negative engagement intention outside HEI rather than inside HEI. Moreover, this study found the moderating effects of school and major preference to better explain the differences in the relationships in the model.
Second, this study may be the first attempt to employ the Theory of Planned Behavior to better explain disengagement and negative engagement intention toward different focal objects within and outside HEI. The findings reveal that attitude has a negative impact on student disengagement intention, while it has significant positive impacts on both negative engagement intention within HEI and outside HEI. It finds that subjective norm has a significant positive impact on student disengagement intention and negative engagement intention within HEI but has no significant impact on negative engagement intention outside HEI. Meanwhile, this study finds a significant positive impact of perceived behavioral control on negative CE intention within HEI.
Recommendations derived from the findings of the dissertation
Based on the findings, this research has proposed some recommendations for Higher education institutes and governmental offices related to Training and education related to student/ customer engagement behavior:
- Combination of personal communication between teaching staff and students, digital interactive channels of HEIs, and student evaluation of teaching survey (SET);
- The use of advanced technology in digital platforms and the design of SET in the Quality Assurance practice;
- Cooperation among stakeholders in career orientation activity for high school students.
