Correlation network analysis of international postgraduate students' satisfaction in top Malaysian universities: a robust approach

Abstract

This paper deals with an analysis of correlation network among the satisfaction characteristics evaluated by the international students of top five Malaysian universities. The method developed in econophysics has been used to filter the information contained in a correlation structure. In this paper, we present a correlation network analysis where the correlation structure is determined based on robust approach. This approach is used to have a better understanding of foreign students’ satisfaction which will be very useful for Malaysian universities. Based on our proposed centrality measure, interestingly, the result demonstrates that the item “pay premium price” is the most influential characteristic that reflects to the highest degree of satisfaction for the international students. The university senior management would benefit by knowing this result in order to gain competitive advantage over other universities. Practical implications are provided accordingly.