Perception Of International Students Regarding Household In The United States

Introduction and international students’ perception on the households in the US

Purpose of evaluation:

The international students have a positive perception about the American economy which has made it one of the most sought after education destination. The purpose of the paper is to study this aspect through a logical model which would connect the perceptions to the market conditions of the US.

1. To study how strategic human resource management in the American organizations impact the positive perception among foreign students in the US.
2. To study how macroeconomic conditions prevailing in the US impact the perception of foreign students.
3. 3 To study how the American institutes assess the needs of the international student.

The following are the questions which the paper would address:

1. How does SHRM in the American organization enforce positive perceptions among international students in the America?
2. How does external market environment impact these positive perceptions?
3. How do American organizations conduct assessment of the needs of these foreign students and attend to them?

The following are the hypothesis on which the research would stand:

H_0: Market conditions and SHRM boost perception about American household among international students..

H_1:Market conditions and SHRM do not boost perception about American household among international students.

The research would pave way to conduct future research on relationship between market conditions in the US and its foreign student visits. The universities in the US can use the research to find out ways to boost their revenue generation by welcoming more foreign students.

Strategic human resource management:

Jackson, Schuler and Jiang (2014) mention that strategic human resource management refers to strategically aligning and managing the human resources by business organizations with their business needs. The apex management bodies of organizations today regard their employees as strategic business partners and involve them in daily operations. Luthans and Doh (2018) add to this opinion of Jackson, Schuler and Jiang. They point out that strategically managing human resources has become more pertinent in economies in the United States of America where a large majority of students and workforce come from other countries. These students have their own cultures and traditions which are different from that the resident Americans. The professors and educationists require to consider these diversity aspects among the students while dealing with them. Suskie (2018) mentions that educational institutes in the US conduct assessment of the needs of international students in order to frame appropriate infrastructure for them.

Figure 1. Graph showing top countries of origin of the US

(Source: statista.com, 2018)

The graph above shows that most of the international students studying the United States of America originate from Asian countries namely, China, India, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. This means that the companies in the US have to take care of their needs of the students from these countries.

Figure 2. Graph showing streams taken by international students in 5 years

(Source: usnews.com, 2018)

The graph above shows that the two main streams the international students pursue while studying in the US are management and engineering. This means that international educational institutions have to incorporate the needs of this immense population of students while framing their student policies. One can point out that most of the international students studying in the US originate from those nations with whom the United States have strong bilateral relationship. Thus, it would be pertinent to study the macroeconomic conditions prevailing in the US which have deep impact on the perceptions students have about American household conditions.

Political conditions have strong impact on the student exchange programs between countries. The government of the United States of have bilateral investment relationships which allows the countries entering into these agreements avail preferential treatment in the US.  The country has entered into talent sharing agreements with countries like South Korea and China (state.gov, 2018). Lee and Sehoole (2015) support these graphs shown above and mention that politically stable economies like the US can promote to development of large number of multinational companies which create immense employment opportunities. These companies acquire human resources from different countries. This is evident from the fact that The United States of America is home of the some of the largest global companies from diverse fields like information technology and finance (Stone & Deadrick, 2015). This presence of large number of multinational companies has led to international educational institutes which offer qualifications which are accepted all over the world owing to global presence of the American multinational companies. Yi et al.(2015) supports these facts and opines that this global acceptance of American educational degrees and the dominance of the American MNCs in the global market has led to a strong perceptions among foreign students. They perceive opportunities to study in the US as strong career developmental scopes. This positive perceptions among the students result in immense number of foreign student visits to the US.

Aim and objectives of the proposal

Figure 3. Figure showing conditions of US bilateral investment treaties

(Source: state.gov, 2018)

The economic conditions which impact the perceptions and needs of the foreign students consist high cost of living in the country. Van den Berg (2016) mentions that the economic development of the US attract a large number of international students a large portion of who settle down in the country. Hazelkorn (2015) however, points out that the dependence of the American companies on eastern markets like Asia and Australia has resulted in partial alterations in this seeming monopoly of the US as destination of foreign students. Mellor (2018) further points out that the availability of large number of banks in the United States of America makes possible for foreign students transfer money from their home countries easily. This creates a positive perception among the foreign students studying in the US. Ghisellini, Cialani and Ulgiati (2016) point out that large number of products available in the American market create sense of material wellbeing among students. The high standard of living too create a positive perception of the American household standard among the international students. Thus, it can be inferred that the economic factors in the US like high standard of living and availability of more job opportunities create positive perception among international students.

Figure 4. Graph showing cost of living in the US

(Source: statista.com, 2018)

Figure 5. Comparison between the US, India, China and South Korea

(Source: hofstede-insights.com, 2018)

The cultural factors factors play important role in determining the perceptions among the international students about the American household conditions. The country receives majority of international students from China, India and South Korea as discussed above (statista.com, 2018). The cultural comparison between these three nations against the United States on the Hofstede’s tool shown above points out that these three nations being eastern cultures share similarity in different parameters like individualism and masculinity. The United States of America has no state religion and promote tolerate various religious groups from different countries like Islam, Hindu and Buddhists. Spread of English and its acceptance in most of the countries have enabled the students from these countries migrate to the US. Besides English, Asian languages like Chinese are also gaining increasing acceptances in the country (washingtonpost.com, 2018). These cultural factors have created a strong and positive perceptions among the foreign students about American household. However, cultural differences between the resident American students and the foreign students did cause cultural tensions. There have been reports of Asian people including students have been cornered because they were ‘superior’ to their American counterparts and the latter considered them as competitors or rather intruders (history.state.gov, 2018). The technologically advanced methods of education which American educational institutes use create a strong perception in the minds of the international students. One can infer that the cultural and economic environmental factors of the US are positive as far as international students are concerned. The United States of America partners with several foreign countries to fight environmental issues like degeneration of marine life. This enables students from foreign countries visit the US to conduct research and higher education in environmental sphere (theguardian.com, 2018).

Research questions

The legal factors which pertains to international students consist of talent sharing agreements which US shares with different countries (Van den Berg, 2016). However, there have been incidences of rising crime in educational institutes in the US like firing (thesun.co.uk, 2018). Besides these rising crimes, rising hostilities against immigrants including students and labelling them as ‘criminals’ have raised serious concerns among the international students. These legal concerns coupled with anti-immigrant policies of the government boost negative perceptions among international students regarding American households (businessinsider.in, 2018).

The needs of the foreign students pursuing education in the United States of America can be assessed from the above discussion. The extremely high cost of living in the US necessitate international students avail financial assistance in the country (statista.com, 2018). The Federal Government of United States, in response to these needs of these students have facilities of financial assistance in form of scholarships (ed.gov, 2018). The colleges in the US provide facilities like part working allowances to provide the foreign students financial sustainability in the country. They also provide facilities like stay with parents, lodging and on campus hostel facilities to international students. The educational institutes in the United States celebrate Asian festivals. This shows the acceptance of cultural perceptions of the international students which boost their perception (college.harvard.edu, 2018).

Research design

There are three types of research designs, which are explanatory, exploratory and descriptive type of design of research (Ledford &Gast, 2018). It is seen that descriptive design of research shall not take into account various factors of the research work which can potentially cause or take place under particular circumstances. It can be said that descriptive type of research work never be utilized on the source of casual relationship where the variable would affect each other. For conducting this particular research work, the researcher should choose descriptive design as it is a collaboration of exploratory and explanatory design of research which would allow him to explain the topic of the research in a vivid manner and along with that he would be able to forecast the most possible future occurrence which are related to the personal experiences of the scholar.

Positivism, Interpretivism and Post positivism are the most accepted philosophy for conducting research works. It can be said that Post positivism philosophy of the research allows the research scholar to get engaged with a continuous work related to the topic of the research and attaining the final result can be dubious at times. Whereas positivism philosophy of the research can allow the research supports the scientific observations and enables the researcher to analyze the collected data statistically. On the other hand, interpretivism philosophy of the research will allow the research scholar to make critical observation on the collected data fir studying the background information relevant to the topic of the research. For conducting this research work, the research scholar thus should choose positivism philosophy of the research, as it is certainly the most scientific philosophy that can be utilized for conducting this particular type of research work and it would help the researcher to attain the truth in a compact manner (Ledford &Gast, 2018).

Research hypothesis

Research strategy

Relevant information was collected from the students of the universities from face to face interviews and apart from that various secondary source of information were utilized for preparing the literature review.

Research approach

There are two types of research approach that are widely accepted, and those are deductive and inductive. Deductive approach of research enables the researcher to evaluate all the existing impressions and relate those with the topic of the research (Lewis, 2015). Whereas, the inductive approach of research allows the research scholar to focus on the improvement of the patterns of the theories which are prevalent and allows him to recreate the main focus of the research from the aims and objectives of the research according to the analysis of the research. For this particular research work, the research scholar should choose inductive approach of research as it would allow him to supply accurate evidences for attaining the truth in the concluding part of the research and by choosing this method; the research scholar would be able to shift from the generalized statements to the accurate individual instances.

Data collection methods

In order to complete the research work in an appropriate manner, it is utmost important to collect all types of information. Information collection is the most important element of the research work and the methodology depends on the types of the data that has been collected by the researcher.

Sources of Data

Data is mainly of two different types which are generally used to collect different kinds of information for the research. There are primary as well as secondary sources of data that are used to collect the different kinds of information needed to complete the research (Flick, 2015). Primary information is collected directly from the conduction of different kinds of online surveys and other observations and interviews. On the other hand secondary data is collected by the means of different books, journals, researches and works of other researchers that have been completed much earlier than that of the present research.

Data Analysis and interpretation

The information for conducting the following research will be basically collected by means of assembling quantitative data. The quantitative data analysis will be collected by some online or offline survey results which will be done using different survey tools. Both primary as well as secondary data will be used to make the research work more effective and compact in nature.

Sampling Method and Sample Size

The random method of sampling will be used to identify the sample and there would be no such specific choices for selecting the sample. The sample size on the other hand has been limited to the size of 50 participants. The sample size will be kept low because of the limitations in the research budget.

Ethical Considerations and security of data

The research will be completed ethically and no wrong doings will be promoted or implemented during the course of the research.  The researcher will ensure the safety of the participants and will also ensure the complete confidentiality of the survey response of the participants. Apart from such measures the researcher must also ensure the freedom of the participants to leave the survey at any given moment of time and must not apply any pressure on the individuals to change their responses (Taylor,  Bogdan&DeVault, 2015). Last but not the least the researcher will also be honest in every means during the course of completion of the total research.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Project Analysis of Students in USA regarding housing	91 days	Mon 1/8/18	Mon 5/14/18
Choice of the topic	1 day	Mon 1/8/18	Mon 1/8/18
Submission of the Topic	1 day	Mon 1/8/18	Mon 1/8/18
Approval of the Topic	5 days	Tue 1/9/18	Mon 1/15/18
Primary Data Collection	10 days	Tue 1/16/18	Mon 1/29/18
Primary Analysis	10 days	Tue 1/30/18	Mon 2/12/18
Assembling the Report	15 days	Tue 2/13/18	Mon 3/5/18
Submission of the First Draft	1 day	Tue 3/6/18	Tue 3/6/18
Identification of the Survey Sample	10 days	Wed 3/7/18	Tue 3/20/18
Selection of the Survey Sample	10 days	Wed 3/21/18	Tue 4/3/18
Conducting the Interview	8 days	Wed 4/4/18	Fri 4/13/18
Assembling the outcomes of the survey	5 days	Mon 4/16/18	Fri 4/20/18
Preparing the result	10 days	Mon 4/23/18	Fri 5/4/18
Review of the Research	5 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/11/18
Submission of the Final Report	1 day	Mon 5/14/18	Mon 5/14/18

Significance of the research

 
Table 1- Time Schedule to complete the research

Source: (As created by the Author)

Figure 1: Gantt chart

Source: (As created by the Author)

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