Successful completion of a degree program by international students and noninternational students at Uttaradit, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai Rajabhat Universities in Thailand

The purpose of this study was to compare the successful completion of degree programs by international and noninternational students at Thailand's Uttaradit, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai Rajabhat Universities, as measured by completion rates by noninternational and international students in each institution. Framed by the research setting, the problem, and purpose, the research question asked what factors affect the persistence of international and noninternational students at Uttaradit, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai Rajabhat Universities in Thailand.;A quantitative method was used to collect and to analyze the data. A survey instrument was developed in this study by adapting the questionnaire (see Appendix A) from the College Persistence Questionnaire (Davidson, Beck, & Milligan, 2009) and a demographic form developed by researcher. The questionnaires were administered to international and noninternational students who were enrolled at Uttaradit, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai Rajabhat Universities. In this study, the sample consisted of 216 students, the total number of international and noninternational students enrolled in international programs in the three selected universities. Descriptive statistics were analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) by the researcher, according to sex, age, and country of origin. A t test was used to compare frequencies occurring in different categories for the research question and for measuring student completion.;The study determined that the two variables of academic integration and academic conscientiousness affect students' completion of international programs at three universities in Thailand. In contrast, this study found a lack of important influence by the other four variables: social integration, institutional commitment, degree commitment, and support services satisfaction. Finally, this research provided an understanding of factors that affect student persistence in the three selected universities and revealed that their successful completion appeared to be linked with various factors, especially those related to academic integration and academic conscientiousness. Specifically, students who have a high level of academic integration and academic conscientiousness tend to have a subsequent goal of college graduation.