Over the past 40 years the international education industry has seen rapid growth and English-speaking countries such as America and Australia, where the bulk of international students go, have been reaping the benefits. However, recently it has become evident that these countries have a growing reliance on China and India for students, which make up nearly half of their international students. This is concerning education institutions across the world, who are now looking at how to increase the diversity of their international students. Taiwan is a traditionally high exporter of international students, and is one of the many markets that can be further developed.

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the important factors for Taiwanese in selecting a country to study. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA; Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010) was used as the theoretical base for this study with antecedent variables being derived from the 4C Framework (Chiou, 2014). The research examined the Attitudes, Subjective Norms, and Intentions to study in Australia and America through a questionnaire. The antecedent variables for the Attitude construct were derived from the 4C Framework. Survey participants were found using a snowball method via both online and offline channels and a total of 336 complete surveys were collected. The results found that similar factors are important for Taiwanese intending to study in Australia and America: Education Quality, Understanding, Career Prospects and Social Norms. However, it was found that those intending to study in Australia are more susceptible to social influencers compared to those who intend to study in America. The findings from this study are relevant to stakeholders in the Australian and American education industry, and can be used in marketing to target Taiwanese international students.

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