Enhancing Malaysia Competitiveness in Edutourism Industry: Push- Pull Factor in Selecting a Higher Educational Institution Mun Soon, Lam 1 , Mohd Ariffin, Ahmad Azmi 2 , Ahmad, Azhar 2 , Bik Kai, Sia 1 1 Faculty of Business and Law, Multimedia University 2 Graduate School of Business, National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) Abstract. The study aims to understand the competitiveness of Malaysia in the edutourism industry and to suggest relevant strategies to attract more international students to Malaysia. This study also seeks to understand the roles of tourism appeals in the edutourism industry. A total of 130 international students who studying in National University of Malaysia (UKM) participated in this study and questionnaire survey was employed as the main method of primary data collection. The research findings have indicated that factors like future job prospects’ and ‘Institution’s image and reputation’ are the most important push and pull factors respectively. The industry players, higher learning administrators, as well as academicians recognise the importance of consumers’ value perceptions. Consumers (the students) are becoming more value conscious and buy the product that will give more benefits for less sacrifice but with higher satisfaction. To meet the demands of value conscious customers, decision makers should understand what defines value of their products or services in their customers’ minds. Although this research is preliminary in nature, it acts as a stepping stone for various industry players, potential academicians and researchers to study further about leisure and tourism behaviour. Keywords: edutourism, push and pull factors and customer satisfaction. 1. Introduction It is stated that global demand for international higher education will grow from 2.2 million in 2005 to 3.7 million in 2025 [1]. This is growth of 71 per cent over 20 years, or compound growth of 2.7 per cent per year [1]. It is expected that educational institutions that have a competitive edge have attracted a large volume of international applicants [2]. The recent research suggests that universities could be promoted to generate revenue especially in smaller developing nations like Malaysia and international students coming in are considered to be education revenues. This may not be a large contribution to the Gross National Product for developed countries like United States of America, but for a small developing nation, this contribution could be the engine for transformation of the economy [3]. To reinforce the attractiveness of Malaysia as a centre of excellence in higher education, there is a critical need to thoroughly understand how the selection process of host country is actually made [4] or what are the underlying factors chosen by the international students to choose Malaysia or its higher institution. Thus, this study could be a guideline for the higher educational institution generally to conceptualise what are the main factors that attract and satisfy international students to study abroad. The objective of the study is to investigate the contributing push and pull factors in selecting a country for international higher education and to measure the satisfaction of existing international students on their overall experiences in host institution services.  Mun Soon, Lam. Tel.: +606-252 3516; fax: +606-2331 8869. E-mail address: mslam@mmu.edu.my. ISBN 978-1-84626-xxx-x Proceedings of 2010 International Conference on Humanities, Historical and Social Sciences (CHHSS 2010) Singapore, 26-28 February, 2010, pp. xxx-xxx