The changing body of students
A study of the motives, expectations and preparedness of postgraduate marketing students
Jie Liu
Department of Business and Management Studies,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Abstract
Purpose
– The aim of this paper is to assess the motives, expectations and preparedness of postgraduate marketing students, and discuss possible implications for postgraduate marketing education in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
– The research uses primary data collected from postgraduate marketing students at four British universities. Factor analysis is used to evaluate the convergent validity of the survey questionnaire and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to examine the internal consistency and reliability of the variables composing the major scales.
Findings
– The results indicate that postgraduate marketing education today faces a culturally diverse student body coupled with a notable lack of relevant work experience. Students are found to have relatively low perception of their preparedness for postgraduate study and high expectations for support and practical experience in marketing.
Research limitations/implications
– The sample used is relatively small although the high response rate achieved would help add validity to the study. Further research should examine the ways in which students draw on their prior-learning experience to make sense of their learning process.
Practical implications
– This study should be of interest to postgraduate marketing programme and module leaders. It suggests that a realignment of curriculum design and various support activities on the part of postgraduate marketing education providers are needed to respond to the changing body of students.
Originality/value
– The study offers a timely measure of the motives, preparedness, and expectations of postgraduate marketing students. The findings should be of immediate and practical value to postgraduate marketing educators in the UK.
Keywords
Postgraduates, Higher education, Marketing, United Kingdom, Curricula
Paper type
Research paper
Introduction
Postgraduate marketing education in the UK has changed dramatically in the last decade. Internationalisation and growth in student mobility have resulted in significant changes in the postgraduate marketing student body and a quest for value for money from a British postgraduate qualification (Taylor, 2002). What is notable, in particular, is the growth in the number of international students on taught programmes.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-4503.htm The author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments,
Dr Paul Ashwin of Lancaster University for his helpful feedback on the earlier versions of the paper, and the marketing colleagues and their students from the four universities involved in the study for their unfailing assistance with the collection of data.
MIP
28,7
812
Received March 2010
Revised June 2010
Accepted June 2010
Marketing Intelligence & Planning
Vol. 28 No. 7, 2010 pp. 812-830 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-4503
DOI 10.1108/02634501011086436
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Furthermore, the marketing debate on the balance between theory and practice
(Brennan, 2004; Cox, 2006) has enhanced the need for a closer examination of what and who the postgraduate marketing education is for in order to meet the needs of all stakeholders concerned these being students, educators, as well as employers who increasingly demand for “work-ready” marketing managers.
Employers of postgraduate students suggest that there are areas in which more could be done to ensure that postgraduates get maximum benefit from their investment in a postgraduate education and are well equipped to succeed in their chosen career
(Universities UK, 2010). Accordingly, it is important that we ask how well we understand the variations in students’ pre-entry characteristics such as their motives, expectations, and preparedness in order to facilitate the teaching of marketing to an increasingly diverse student population. This study aims to determine the extent to which these variations fit in with marketing provision in the UK and suggest ways that the marketing curriculum could be made more relevant to the needs of these students. More specific questions asked by the study include:
RQ1.
What are students’ motives for choosing postgraduate marketing education?
RQ2.
What do students expect from postgraduate marketing education?
RQ3.
How prepared are students with their knowledge, skills and personal attributes in relation to their study?
To answer the above questions, the remainder of the paper expands on the changing environment of the postgraduate marketing education in the UK, discusses the theoretical and methodological context of the study, analyses the results and discusses the ways in which postgraduate marketing education could be made more relevant to students’ needs.
Background: the changing postgraduate education environment
Earlier studies identified trends in the UK postgraduate education and predicted possible changes in the postgraduate qualifications (Taylor, 2002). Among the trends identified were the increasing student numbers on taught programmes, expansion in international student recruitment, and expansion in postgraduate activity in the post-1992 universities especially in taught programmes and part-time study. It was found that in proportionate terms, postgraduate numbers increased more than undergraduates; the nature and purpose of courses changed; and teaching methods were also transformed (Taylor, 2002).
Some of the predictions have materialised as demonstrated in the latest statistics of HESA
(2009). The number of postgraduate students during 2007-2008 stood at 501,135, an increase of 49.4 per cent from that of 335, 325 in 1994-1995. The main area of postgraduate growth was found to be in taught programmes. Of the 202,010 students who obtained postgraduate qualifications in 2007-2008, 182,540 (90 per cent) obtained their qualifications after following taught programmes in comparison with only 19,470
(10 per cent) who completed their studies mainly by research. The growth might also be attributed to the current economic downturn as in the past postgraduate student demand often fluctuated in line with the employment prospects with numbers increasing at time of economic difficulty (Taylor, 2002).
Most critical to the picture of overall demand for UK postgraduate education is that from international students, who currently make up 41 per cent of all full-time students
The changing body of students 813
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER At 02:27 20 October 2014 (PT) changes described early in the paper. In the c ontext of the UK and for the purpose of this study, international students are defined as non-UK domiciled students. Existing literature demonstrates that there are differences between home and international students in terms of culture, previous educationa l experience, learning styles, transition from undergraduate to postgraduate education, and perception of the effectiveness of the learning and teaching methods (Biggs, 1999; Egege and Kutieleh, 2003; Cathcart et al.
, 2006; Sliwa and Grandy,
2006; Turner, 2006; Liu, 2009; Hall and Sung, 2009)
. For example, the learning transition for postgraduate students from East Asian countr ies such as China was found to be extremely hard to approach as the knowledge transition s in the region vary considerably from the
Anglo-European conventions (Egege and Ku tieleh, 2003). In another study, Chinese students were found to respond better to tut or-centred learning than to process-based, student-centred learning and many found it di fficult to adapt to the British learning and teaching conventions (Liu, 2009). Research als o found that lecturers and students hold differing perceptions of the reasons for th ese differences (Hall and Sung, 2009). Whilst lecturers regard language as the essential ca use of East Asian students’ difficulties, students recognise that, additionally, a lack of culturally related knowledge of
British academic norms present a fundamenta l challenge to their learning (Hall and
Sung, 2009).
Students’ prior motives, preparedness, and expectations
In this study, the pre-entry characteristics of students are examined through their motives, preparedness and expectations. First, the factors that may motivate students to pursue postgraduate education can be divided into intrinsic, extrinsic and career related. The type of motivation may influence how students learn and how well they perform (Pintrich and Schunk, 1996). Existing literature suggests that intrinsic motivation is more desirable as it is more likely to lead to higher level of engagement and deeper approaches to learning (Paulsen and Gentry, 1995; Byrne and Flood, 2005).
In comparison, an extrinsic motivation is associated with lower level of involvement and a more surface approach to learning (Paulsen and Gentry, 1995). Marketing education was previously found to be based on two distinct approaches regarding aims, usually denominated “instrumental” and “intrinsic” (Clarke et al.
, 2006). The intrinsic or
“liberal” approach is concerned with the development of individual potentialities or the development of intellect and character (Peters, 1970; Helgensa et al.
, 2009), emphasising that education should equip students to make their own free, autonomous choices about the life they will lead (Bridges, 1992). The instrumental approach focuses on skills, implying that marketing subjects offered should give students the opportunity to develop and apply skills in order to enhance personal effectiveness and achievement at work (Bridges, 1992) and that business schools should teach students so they can hit the employment world fully trained (Clarke et al.
, 2006). Here, education is not perceived as an end in itself, but as the mean to an end (Helgensa et al.
, 2009). However, others argue that intrinsic and instrumental approaches should not be seen as being on the opposite ends of a spectrum (Dacko, 2006; Stringfellow et al.
, 2006). In other words, students’ motivations for undertaking postgraduate study are varied. Consequently, marketing education should focus, on the one hand, on developing students “for life” by developing their intellectual and lifelong learning capabilities and, on the other, developing students “for work” by equipping them with marketing knowledge and subject-specific skills.
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