1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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?

4. 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.

5. Step 1-Identification of Factors Marketing and Advertising Newspaper Magazine Banners Radio TV Brochure Flyers University website University open house Parents Friends & Relatives

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Results

10. Results(Contd)

11. Constructs Factor (Mean value) Variable (Mean value) External Advertising(1.81) Newspaper(2.06) Magazine(1.80) Banners(1.83) Radio(1.77) TV(1.61) Internal advertising(2.40) Brochure(2.37) Flyers(1.92) University website(2.76) University open house(2.53) Word of Mouth publicity(2.83) Parents(2.82) Friends(2.66) Constructs Factor (Mean value) Variable(Mean value) Perceived student benefits(2.70) Class Timings(2.66) Faculty profile(2.96) Availability of transport(2.62) Availability of scholarships(2.56) Perceived value of the degree(3.61) Good reputation(3.63) Accredited degree(3.72) Foreign degree(3.48) Career advancement(2.62) 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)

12. 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)

13. Identifying the Gender difference- Formulation of Hypothesis H1aInfluence of External advertising(EA) is same for male and female H1bInfluence of Internal advertising(IA) is same for male and female H1cInfluence of Word of mouth(WM) is same for male and female H2aInfluence of Perceived student benefits(PSB) is same for male and female H2bInfluence of Perceived value of the degree(PVD) is same for male and female H2cInfluence of Career advancement(CA) is same for male and female

14. Final Model

15. 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.