ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH IN IDENTIFYING FACTORS INFLUENCING UNIVERSITY CHOICE OF STUDENTS
Sreejith Balasubramanian, UOWD Institutional Research Officer
[email protected]
Shalini Manghat, UOWD Policy & Audit Coordinator
[email protected]
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.
