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This study examined the economic and social impact of Malaysian universities on their communities from stakeholders' perspectives. It analysed whether university stakeholders' spending, human capital (HC) and knowledge exploration (KE) will impact aggregate income (AI), quality of life (QOL) and business growth (BG) in surrounding communities.

A survey was conducted among 540 university stakeholders from the southern, northern and eastern regions of Malaysia, representing the alumni, community and industry. Data were subjected to factor analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM).

Results showed that universities impacted communities' economic development and wellbeing, thereby fulfilling their community-related role.

This study addressed universities' role in communities' economic growth and social development. Universities' contributions towards communities can be improved through the proposed model, which suggests ways to maximise their impact. A more detailed study of a particular university is needed to identify other factors that can strengthen universities' impact, even at national and global levels.

The persistent increase in household indebtedness is an alarming issue that is becoming a major concern for economists and governments in developing nations. Although household consumption is an essential source of economic growth, households’ failure to meet their financial obligations will be one of the causes of economic problems if the increase in consumption is largely financed by household borrowing. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the nexus between households’ indebtedness and consumption and the roles of household characteristics.

This study uses a microdata set of the Household Expenditure and Income Survey in 2019, which contained a simple random sampling of 4,730 households.

Using a simultaneous equations model, our results show a negative nexus between households’ consumption and their indebtedness. We find that household savings and size have an indirect impact on the debt service ratio, while the assets and total debt repayment instalments indirectly influence household consumption. We also identify differences in the relationship between the gender of the household head, rural and urban locations and income groups in consumption and indebtedness.

The implication of this study is that governments should adopt several programmes to increase the awareness of household financial and debt management, especially for those in the low-income group.

This study contributes to the empirical literature by establishing a microeconomic perspective of consumption and an indebtedness model focusing on the differences in household characteristics in explaining consumption and indebtedness.

This study aims to develop an educational tourism demand model, particularly in respect to dynamic effects, university quality (QU) and competitor countries. Educational tourism has been identified as a new tourism sub-sector with high potential, and is thus expected to boost economic growth and sustainability.

This study reviews the literature on the determinants of educational tourism demand. Even though the existing literature is intensively discussed, mostly focusing on the educational tourism demand from an individual consumer's perspective, this study makes an innovation in line with the aggregate demand view. The study uses data that consist of the enrolment of international students from 47 home countries who studied in Malaysia from 2008 to 2017. The study utilised the dynamic panel method of analysis.

This study affirms that income per capita, educational tourism price, price of competitor countries and quality of universities based on accredited programmes and world university ranking are the determinants of educational tourism demand in both the short and the long term. Also, a dynamic effect exists in educational tourism demand.

The results imply that government should take the quality of services for existing students, price decisions and QU into account to promote the country as a tertiary education hub and achieve sustainable development.

Research on the determinants of the demand for educational tourism is rare in terms of macro data, and this study includes the roles of QU, competitor countries and dynamic effects.