International students need to consider multiple constraints simultaneously in their decision-making for university admission. However, most of them face the problems of lacking knowledge of the decision-making process and making decisions on where to go before they become familiar with the university. This study focused on international students who planned to study at a Japanese university, proposed the factors influencing career decision strategies, and examined each factor via exploratory factor analysis. Based on the exploratory factor analysis results, we construct a decision-making model and employ SEM analysis to investigate how international students in Japan overcome constraints and ultimately make decisions, identifying common behavioral patterns among them.
Wu et al. (2025) studied this question.