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The purpose of this paper is to identify, through empirical analysis, the factors affecting, and expectations of, postgraduate students in their choice of postgraduate programme in Greece.

A sample of 523 postgraduate students from various university departments in the Athens area completed the questionnaire (response rate: 70.2 per cent), which contained 14 questions designed to identify the reasons why postgraduate students had chosen their particular postgraduate programme and what their expectations were as to the outcome of their studies, on a self-reporting basis.

Two fields of postgraduate programmes were popular: business administration and educational studies. Quality and preference appears to influence business administration students, their choice was intrinsically motivated and self-determined, without any external pressures. By contrast, students’ choice in educational studies was influenced by the particular characteristics of the programme, their choice was influenced by institutional motivation whereas their options and autonomy support seemed to be less.

This study has some limitations, so data gathered from other Greek regions may be needed for a more thorough investigation and analysis as well as for the confirmation of the results.

There is only a very limited amount of empirical research concerning the identification of the factors affecting, and the expectations of, postgraduate students in their choice of postgraduate programme while the existing literature on the subject does not discuss the matter in substantial detail. Indeed, the present study moves the analysis forward as it considers both economic and psychological perspective in the choice of postgraduate programmes.

Postgraduate business education in the higher educational institutions in Japan was poorly developed, and lagged far behind not only the other advanced economies, but in some of the developing countries until the end of the 1980s. However, during the 1990s it has undergone considerable changes as part of the reform in postgraduate education in Japan. This article attempts to explain why MBA education did not develop in Japan in the first place, and then how these changes came about. It also looks at the changes in social and economic backgrounds that promoted and speeded these changes. Finally it attempts to view the future of postgraduate professional education in Japan.

The purpose of this paper is to promote and analytically verify an advanced assessment design to evaluate service quality (SQ) especially in postgraduate higher education.

This research adopts a quantitative approach through a survey method. A structured questionnaire was designed as a means for collecting data. Data were collected from 182 postgraduate students in an Egyptian higher education university. Data were examined by exploratory factor analysis to pinpoint the main irregularities explained by the extracted factors. Then, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to filter the ratios and empirically test the assessment efficiency of the developed model.

The final model consists of 33 items loaded into eight dimensions for measuring performance-based SQ of the postgraduate higher education. The results are satisfactory in terms of unidimensionality, trustworthiness, and validity tests.

Although the empirical results are significant, a comparative study can identify relative strengths and weaknesses of this model.

For improving postgraduate higher education institutions’ quality, this paper highlights some dimensions and attributes that should be considered.

The literature proposes that there is an opportunity to handle SQ from the point of view of postgraduate students covering different contexts to further build a more comprehensive structure specifically for postgraduate higher education SQ. This paper deals with this research gap with analytical confirmation within the context of postgraduate programs in an Egyptian university.

The purpose of this paper is to surface themes which may influence Chinese students’ decision making in relation to postgraduate study in international universities.

The study utilises a semi-structured qualitative interview methodology (n=15).

The main findings are discussed according to the following themes: financial and time costs; employment prospects; postgraduate education as a cultural adventure; linguistics; visa issues; admissions; climate; influence of referents; and academic image and reputation.

The sample size is small, yet affords greater depth of data and discussion.

The research offers practitioners in universities who are managing postgraduate recruitment of Chinese students, some greater understanding of the reasons behind prospective Chinese postgraduate students’ choice; from which they can evaluate the effectiveness of their institutions’ recruitment strategies.

Extant research has tended to report reasons why Chinese students study overseas, whereas this study offers deeper insight and exploration of the reasoning of Chinese international students in the postgraduate context. The research is of value given the importance of postgraduate Chinese students to international university recruitment.

The rationale for the postgraduate supervision measures for higher education by the call for universities to adopt a systematic practice in postgraduate supervision through new supervisors' exposure to creative ways of monitoring. This paper aims at understanding, improving and validating the content of behavioral supervision measures using the expert review and pretesting analysis.

The authors developed, modified and operationalized the items based on the developmental supervision theoretical concept by Glickman (1980) to measure the behavioral supervision of postgraduate in higher education. The authors obtain comments and verification from experts for content validity and criterion validity. Later, the authors do pretesting of face validity.

The result of the expert review and pretesting, analysis, provides measures (items) for the following seven stages (components) of postgraduate behavioral supervision: listening/clarifying; encouraging; presenting/demonstrating; negotiating/problem-solving; directing; standardizing and reinforcing.

The findings contribute to the rational development of supervision measures and functional transformation in the postgraduate supervision process in higher education at national and international contexts.

These supervision measures, if practiced by the supervisors and postgraduates' students, will accelerate and achieve the aspiration initiative of the Ministry of Higher Education. In general, based on the needs identified, the positive impact of this study can improve national and international postgraduate program educational outcomes.

There is limited number of empirical research which resulted in postgraduate behavioral supervision measures in the context of higher education.

The worldwide expansion of higher education participation has destabilised the value of higher education as a currency of opportunity. An increasing number of graduates are experiencing the precarity of unemployment, under-employment and low salaries. This study aimed to investigate how university students in China understand and respond to the changing relationship between higher education and career opportunities.

The research team conducted 100 in-depth interviews with final-year undergraduates at one elite and one lower-tier university in a metropolitan city in Guangdong Province.

The students were acutely aware of fierce competition in the graduate labour market. When asked “what matters most” for post-graduation career prospects, they identified elite universities and high-status fields of study as “traditional” currencies of opportunity. Nonetheless, to stand out in a competitive environment, they perceived a growing need to supplement higher education credentials through university experiences (internships, student governance, study abroad programmes), party membership, personal connections and (overseas) postgraduate education. Moreover, in a “race to the top”, they discussed how qualitatively distinctive university experiences and elite postgraduate education are “new” currencies of opportunity for high-status professional employment.

The study demonstrates how intensified competition for graduate employment can result in an “opportunity trap”. The students were participating in an “arms race” to accumulate positional advantages for their post-graduation careers. The net impact of such efforts on a systemic level is to create an upward spiral in what students are expected to do in preparation for their post-graduation careers and further destabilise the value of higher education as a currency of opportunity.

The increasing demand for postgraduate education in management in India has resulted in a steep rise in the number of institutes offering such education. However, the quality of education offered in many institutes is seriously being debated by students and prospective employers. The efforts to improve quality appear minimal, resulting in little or no improvement in quality. Provides a summary of status of quality in management education and critically analyses the issue of quality with the backdrop of problems, constraints, and conflicts. Further, the paper describes the structure and pattern of post‐graduate management education as offered in India, along with a description of regulatory agencies existing in the country to monitor the standards of management education. Towards the end, suggests appropriate solutions with several alternatives, to improve quality, discussing also their feasibility. The general objective is to provide help to develop strategies for improving quality of postgraduate education in management.

Whilst there has been some growth in the number of Indigenous Australians completing Higher Degree Research (HDR) over the past decade, the parity rate remains significantly behind that of other domestic Australian students. The bulk of research which investigates strategies to improve Indigenous Higher Education participation and completion tends to focus on undergraduate students, leaving a significant void of knowledge in how the sector can better cater for, and support, Indigenous postgraduate students.

This chapter proposes a set of strategies to seed the success of Indigenous HDR students. It draws on the findings of three separate studies undertaken during 2006 to 2013 in order to provide a detailed overview of the current challenges Indigenous HDR students regularly face.

It outlines various support mechanisms available to this cohort as well as those that are desired, but not necessarily available. An important component of the chapter is the inclusion of the voices of Indigenous Australians who were undertaking their postgraduate studies at the time they were interviewed, as well as a group of Indigenous Australians who had successfully completed their doctoral degrees. Through generously sharing their postgraduate experiences, participants provided important insight into this area which remains significantly under-investigated.

Enterprise and entrepreneurship education (EEE) is seen as a major contributor to economic growth and development in the post-2008 environment we term the “New Era”. The role of EEE in enabling graduates to develop entrepreneurial intentions and career plans is therefore of major importance. The paper explores how EEE can influence postgraduate entrepreneurship and career initiation in the context of the New Era economy at an international level.

The paper explores the learning experiences of a group of 60 postgraduate international students who completed an Entrepreneurship programme at the University of Lincoln which included the development of personal learning narratives and career plans. The students were exposed to the opportunity-centred entrepreneurship approach and the “Entrepreneurial Effectiveness” model in the QAA (2012) guidelines. Their narratives were analysed to assess: prior career intentions, proposed career intentions resulting from the EEE programme, application of learning arising from the EEE programme and a survey of students was used to validate the narratives

EEE has a wider influence on personal development and career planning than simply the intention to create new ventures. The paper builds on a prior study of international postgraduate students’ orientation to entrepreneurship education in their expectations of the UK higher education, which confirmed that career development is a major motivator for international study in the UK (Rae and Woodier-Harris, 2012). The paper contributes new understanding of the relationships between EEE and graduate career intentions, especially at PG and international levels. The paper explores personal growth, confidence and identity development, formation of new career intentions and the application of learning. The international dimension is considerable and this is discussed.

The paper has implications for the marketing, design and delivery of EEE at international and HE institutional levels, as well as for the practices of educators in designing, validating and delivering programmes for entrepreneurial career development, at national and international levels.

The paper contributes new understanding to the role of EEE in postgraduate career initiation at international level in a period of significant and complex economic transformation.