In recent years, there has been an increasing globalization in the higher education sectors.For those who study aboard, the life far away from home will surely face many difficulties. They do not only need to “learn” but also need to “live” in the new environment with different culture, without the support of their original social network. Thus, to adequately understand foreign students’ circumstances, to know if they are satisfied with their learning environment may not be enough, it is important to also know their subjective well-being. The main purpose of this study is to investigate Vietnamese students’ subjective well- being in Taiwan.The study will involve two type of survey: subjective well-being (SWB) and day reconstructed method (DRM). The main components of the SWB include students’ satisfaction about many aspects of their life and their daily emotional experiences. Whereas the DRM will allows us to find out the daily activities that associate with their emotional experiences. Further, to better understand the subjective well-being of Vietnamese students, Taiwanese students’ SWB will also be collected and served as a controlled group.
The most striking and unexpected results in this study was that Vietnamese students’ subjective well-being was significantly better than Taiwanese students. In particular, all indexes in emotional well-being indicated that Vietnamese students were better than local students. The results are surprising because, as compared to local students, foreign students are facing much more challenge in the need to adapt to new environment and being cut off from their social support system.

Abstract 3
Acknowledgement 4
Table of content 5
List of table 9
List of figure 11
Chapter 1 Introduction 12
1.1 Background 12
1.2 Research objectives 14
Chapter 2 Literature Review 15
2.1 Subjective well-being understanding 15
2.2 Components of subjective well-being 16
2.2.1 Life satisfaction 16
2.2.2 Emotional well-being 18
2.2.2.1 Happiness Rating 19
2.2.2.2 Affective Experiences 20
2.2.3 Internal & External Condition 21
Chapter 3 Methodology 23
3.1 Research process 23
3.2 Pilot study 24
3.2.1 Method 24
3.2.2 Results 25
3.3 Formal Study 29
3.3.1 Well-being Questionnaire 30
3.3.2 DRM questionnaire 31
3.4 Sampling Procedure 32
3.4.1 Sampling procedure for subjective well-being 32
3.4.2 Sampling procedure for DRM 32
Chapter 4 Results 34
4.1 Descriptive Analysis 34
4.1.1 Demographic profile of Vietnamese students 34
4.1.2 Demographic profile of Taiwanese students 35
4.2 Summary index for components of subjective well-being 36
4.2.1 Summary index for life satisfaction 37
4.2.2 Summary index for happiness rating 37
4.2.3 Summary index for experienced affects 38
4.2.4 Summary index for internal condition 39
4.2.5 Summary index for external condition 39
4.3 Comparison of Vietnamese students’ well-being among groups 40
4.3.1 Comparison among financial supports group 40
4.3.2 Comparison of Vietnamese students between male and female 41
4.4 Comparison of Taiwanese students’ subjective well-being among groups 42
4.4.1 Comparison of Taiwanese students among year of study group 42
4.4.2 Comparison of Taiwanese students’ well-being between male and female 43
4.5 Comparison of Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ subjective well-being 44
4.5.1 Life satisfaction between Vietnamese and Taiwanese students. 46
4.5.2 Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ emotional well-being. 47
4.5.2.1 Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ happiness rating. 47
4.5.2.2 Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ affective experience. 47
4.5.2.3 Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ internal and external condition. 49
4.6 Correlations of Components of subjective well-being 50
4.7 Vietnamese Students’ DRM results 51
4.8 Conclusion 55
Chapter 5 Discussion 57
5.1 Vietnamese Students’ subjective well-being in Taiwan. 57
5.1.1Vietnamese scholarship students had high level of subjective well-being among financial supports 57
5.1.2 Vietnamese male students had higher level of subjective well-being than female 57
5.2 Taiwanese Students’ subjective well-being. 58
5.2.1 Junior students had high level of subjective well-being among group of year of study. 58
5.2.2 Taiwanese male and female students had same level of subjective well-being .
58
5.3 Comparison of Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ subjective well-being 58
5.3.1 The level of life satisfaction between Vietnamese and Taiwanese students. 58
5.3.2 The level of Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ emotional well-being. 59
5.3.2.1 Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ happiness rating. 59
5.3.2.2 Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ affective experiences. 59
5.3.3 Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ internal and external condition. 60
5.4 Correlations of Vietnamese and Taiwanese students’ subjective well-being. 60
5.5 Vietnamese students DRM results 60
5.6 Conclusion 61
5.7 Limitation and further research 62
Reference 63
Appendix 67
I. Pilot Study 67
II. Formal Study 71
A. Well-being Questionnaire 69
B. Well-Being Questionnaire (Chinese Version) 76
C. DRM Survey 80

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