Md Millat Hosen, Md Nazmus Sakib
Abstract
International student mobility from Bangladesh is a significant feature of South Asian higher education, yet India's National Capital Region (NCR) remains underexplored as a destination for outbound Bangladeshi students. This exploratory single-destination study examines push-pull factors among Bangladeshi students enrolled at private universities in India's NCR. A structured online survey was administered to students at Sharda University, Noida International University, and Galgotias University (n = 63; n = 56 after quality filtering). Descriptive statistics, K-means clustering, and binary logistic regression were applied within Lee's push-pull framework. Political and administrative disruption in Bangladesh's academic calendar was the leading push factor (M = 3.73). Geographical and cultural proximity was the strongest pull factor (M = 3.80), closely followed by visa accessibility (M = 3.73), with no significant mean difference between them. Australia and Germany were the most frequently considered alternative destinations (33.9% each). Advisory networks influenced 73.2% of respondents under a broad threshold and 66.1% under a stricter threshold, mainly for university and course selection. Satisfaction and recommendation intent were positively associated, and infrastructure satisfaction showed the strongest association with high recommendation intent in a five-predictor logistic model (OR = 2.54, 95% CI [1.09, 5.89]). K-means clustering produced three exploratory decision-profile groups: Comprehensively Motivated, Proximity-Led Enrollers, and Low-Salience Enrollers. The findings suggest that geographic nearness, cultural familiarity, and visa accessibility may operate as a composite accessibility advantage in this short-haul intra-regional corridor.