The Impact of Background Characteristics on Graduate School Attendance: Evidence from a Developing Economy
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The Impact of Background Characteristics on Graduate School Attendance: Evidence from a Developing Economy Abdulaziz Abdulmohsen Alfalih 1
& Abdullah
Abdulmohsen Alfalih 2
Received: 2 February 2019 / Accepted: 6 January 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The study analyzed the factors influencing the decision to attend graduate school in an employed group (female graduate assistants) in a setting where culture/religion plays a dominant role. Specifically, logistic regression procedures were utilized to evaluate the influence of these identified factors. The sample was composed of 208 female graduate assistants in Saudi Arabian public universities. Contrary to expectations, and of interest in this study, is the lack of significant influence of the cultural factor on the decision of female graduate assistants to attend graduate school, despite the perceived hostile (maybe negative) attitude to Western influence in the Arab world. Though marginally significant, being a married woman decreased the likelihood of deciding to attend graduate school according to this study, probably as a result of limited opportunities or roles available to this subgroup after graduation in that echelon of society. The findings generally indicate that the impact of background characteristics, even with the inclusion of the cultural factor in the model, is not very pronounced. Higher education planners and managers should place more emphasis on the institutional environment and the influence of global realities on economic and educational trends, as the end result of this aspiration is to acquire additional knowledge for one’s own benefit and is key to the successful creation of a knowledge society with a knowledge-based economy. Keywords Graduate education . National culture . Background characteristics . Saudi
Arabia . Influencing factors . Knowledge economy . Knowledge society . Decision process
* Abdulaziz Abdulmohsen Alfalih [email protected] Abdullah Abdulmohsen Alfalih [email protected]
1
Department of Business Administration, College of Business and Economics, Qassim University, P.O.Box 6633, 51452 Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Business Administration, College of Business Administration, Majmaah University, Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia
Journal of the Knowledge Economy
Introduction Globally, the demand for higher education, especially graduate education, is at an alltime high, with steep rates of growth in this sector (UNESCO 2014) and increased access for women worldwide. Bell (2010) considers that students increasingly aspire to education beyond a bachelor’s degree. Researchers have tried to explain some of the reasons for this increase – e.g., status attainment (Sewell et al. 1980) and its attendant benefits, as well as factors influencing the decisions behind it. Viewed from a broader perspective, higher education is regarded as important for the development of successful economies, as it provides opportunities for all those (male and female) willing
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