ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH IN
IDENTIFYING FACTORS INFLUENCING
UNIVERSITY CHOICE OF STUDENTS
Sreejith Balasubramanian, UOWD
Institutional Research Officer
sreejithsubramanian@uowdubai.ac.ae
Shalini Manghat, UOWD
Policy & Audit Coordinator
shalinimanghat@uowdubai.ac.ae
Introduction
 Increasing number of universities worldwide
 Diverse course offering and specializations
 Student college choice is a complex decision making process
involving various factors.
 Developing a framework for quantifying and hence understanding the
decision making process.
 Develop marketing strategy based on the results.
Research Questions ?
• Which are the various factors that influence the student college
choice process?
• What are the contextual relationships among the factors?
• How to breakdown these factors into simple constructs?
• How to classify and prioritize these constructs based on their
criticality and importance?
Developing the Framework
Different steps involved
Identification of Factors such as Influence of marketing and advertising,
University characteristics,country characteristics etc
Developing a questionnaire and conducting survey research
A 5 point likert scale is used for the research and the survey is launched
in the first semester of the student and can be coined as “Incoming
Student Survey”
Using the right statistical test such as factor analysis,
regression,ANOVA or t-test.
Step 1-Identification of Factors
Marketing and Advertising
Newspaper
Magazine
Banners
Radio
TV
Brochure
Flyers
University website
University open house
Parents
Friends & Relatives
Step 1-Identification of Factors (Contd)
University Characteristics
Class Timings
Faculty profile
Availability of transport
Availability of scholarships
Good reputation
Accredited degree
Foreign degree
Migrate to western countries
Easy transfer to parent university
Availability of preferred program
Overall cost of study
Step 1-Identification of Factors (Contd)
Country Characteristics
Tax free salary
Part time job
Good job market
Opportunity to get full time job upon completion
Safe country
No racial discrimination
Multicultural environment
Political stability
Easy access to home country
Factor Analysis
Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA) & Confirmatory
Factor Analysis
Reduction of number of variables, by combining
two or more variables into a single factor
Powerful Statistical test
Available in SPSS Statistical Software,STATA etc
Results
Rotated Component Matrixa
Rotated Component Matrixa
Component
2
1
Newspaper
Magazine
Brochure
Flyers
Banners
Radio
TV
Online search
through
university
website
Parents
Friends
Relatives
Exibition/fairs
Component
1
3
.723
.727
.72
.82
.733
.768
.792
.87
.789
.760
.61
.756
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 8 iterations.
Availabilty of prefered
course
Resonable cost
Good reputation
Accredited degree
Foriegn degree
Class timings
Faculty profile
Easy accesibilty of
location
Availability of transport
Migrate to western
countries
Availability of scholarship
Easy transfer to parent
univ
2
3
4
.700
.791
.790
.868
.611
.721
.578
.669
.891
.748
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 5 iterations.
.851
Results(Contd)
Rotated Component Matrix
a
Component
1
2
Safe country
3
.79
Tax free
.555
Part time job
.833
Easy to get student visa
Good job market
.764
Opportunity to get job
.667
Easy accessibility to
.876
home country
No racial discrimination
.549
Multi-cultural enviornment
.867
Political stability
.830
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 5 iterations.
Results(Contd)
Constructs Factor
(Mean value)
Variable (Mean
value)
External
Advertising(1.81)
Newspaper(2.06)
Magazine(1.80)
Variable(Mean value)
Perceived student
benefits(2.70)
Class Timings(2.66)
Availability of transport(2.62)
Radio(1.77)
Availability of scholarships(2.56)
Brochure(2.37)
Perceived value of
the degree(3.61)
Flyers(1.92)
University
website(2.76)
Parents(2.82)
Friends(2.66)
Good reputation(3.63)
Accredited degree(3.72)
Foreign degree(3.48)
Career
advancement(2.62)
University open
house(2.53)
Word of Mouth
publicity(2.83)
Faculty profile(2.96)
Banners(1.83)
TV(1.61)
Internal
advertising(2.40)
Constructs Factor
(Mean value)
Migrate to western
countries(2.44)
Easy transfer to parent
university(2.80)
Availability and
cost(3.20)
Availability of preferred
program(3.36)
Overall cost of study(3.04)
Results(Contd)
Constructs(Factor Mean
value)
Variable(Mean value)
Financial and job
prospects(3.20)
Tax free salary(3.37)
Part time job(3.04)
Good job market(3.09)
Opportunity to get full time
job(3.30)
Political and cultural
stability(3.33)
Safe country(3.52)
No racial discrimination(3.10)
Multicultural environment(3.39)
Political stability(3.24)
Easy access to home
country(3.20)
Easy access to home
country(3.20)
Identifying the Gender differenceFormulation of Hypothesis
H1a
Influence of External advertising(EA) is same for male and female
H1b
Influence of Internal advertising(IA) is same for male and female
H1c
Influence of Word of mouth(WM) is same for male and female
H2a
Influence of Perceived student benefits(PSB) is same for male and
female
H2b
Influence of Perceived value of the degree(PVD) is same for male
and female
H2c
Influence of Career advancement(CA) is same for male and female
Final Model
Conclusion
• Potential of the framework to be extended with more factors
• Structural Equation Modeling,Confirmatory factor analysis, Path
analysis can be used to further test the framework.
• Easy collection of data as the response rate is higher for New
students.
• Can be used as source of market intelligence.
• Significant managerial and marketing implications.