Education Beats at the Heart of the Sustainability in Thailand: The Role of Institutional Awareness, Image, Experience, and Student Volunteer Behavior

Abstract

The grim effects of COVID-19 have widely obstructed every sector of life, and the education sector is not an exception. The physical meeting restrictions, lockdowns, social distancing, and movement control orders increased the dropouts of students in educational institutes. These dropouts compromised the contribution of the educational sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) and worsened the economic situation. The spike of COVID-19 shaped a curve of fears, and students are clueless as to how to mitigate its affects. Therefore, this study proposes an implication of a rare phenomenon termed as student volunteering behavior. Student volunteering behavior has the capacity to turn existing students into advocates of the institute, a great assistance to attract potential students and bring back the dropout students. This study suggests that educational institutes in Thailand should provide a better experience to students, strengthen the institute’s image, and make students aware of their services. Their memorable experiences of institutional services will enhance students’ loyalty and urge them to exhibit volunteering behavior. The result of this study indicates significant fallout of institute experience and image to student loyalty and to the student volunteering behavior. However, the study unveiled insignificant results of the relationship between institute awareness to the student loyalty and student volunteering behavior. Furthermore, the study proposes directions for further studies based on the rarer limitations.