Factors influencing the selection of a university among first-year students – A case of a university of technology in South Africa
Abstract
The social and political history of South Africa yielded massive transformation in the higher education landscape, including access to education and the merger of universities. Despite the many successes of transformation, it brought with it challenges such as increasing participation, student retention, throughput, and graduation rates; changes in government funding models; declining student subsidies and providing quality education with limited resources.
The South African higher education sector is multi-faceted, and students have a wide range of higher education options. This study explored factors influencing decision-making of first-year students when selecting a university. Data was collected from first-year students and employees at a University of Technology. Through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, the researchers analysed the complex factors that guide students’ decision-making when selecting a university.
The findings revealed that factors significantly influencing decision-making on university selection are, the reputation and quality of university programmes offered, response time and support provided by staff; location; and infrastructure and facilities. This research is significant in that it will assist higher education institutions, particularly marketing and communications departments to be more responsive to students’ needs by shifting toward active engagement in its marketing and recruitment approaches to attract, retain, and satisfy students.
Downloads
References
Agrey, L. and N. Lampadan. 2014. “Determinant factors contributing to student choice in selecting a university.” Journal of Education and Human Development 3(2): 391‒404.
Alcock, A. 2017. “Positioning ‘the self’: Comparative case studies of first-generation students’ academic identities when home meets campus in a rapidly transforming higher education context.” Master in Education thesis, Rhodes University.
Armstrong, G., S. Adam, S. Denize, and P. Kotler. 2014. Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia.
Badat, S. 2015. “Institutional combinations and the creation of a new higher education institutional landscape in post-1994 South Africa.” In Mergers and alliances in higher education, 175‒201. Springer, Cham.
Baloyi, M. C. 2015. “Mergers in South African Higher Education: Realization of Policy Intentions.” University of South Africa Pretoria.
Barnett, R. 2010. Being a university. Routledge.
Browne, R. A. and H. Shen. 2017. “Challenges and Solutions of Higher Education in the Eastern Caribbean States.” International Journal of Higher Education 6(1): 169‒179.
Budur, T., C. A. Rashid, and M. Poturak. 2018. “Students perceptions on university selection, decision-making process: A case study in Kurdistan Region of Iraq.” International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies 5(1): 133‒144.
Case, J. M. 2015. “A social realist perspective on student learning in higher education: The morphogenesis of agency.” Higher Education Research & Development 34(5): 841‒852.
Council on Higher Education. 2017. “Quality Enhancement Project ‒ Institutional Report Phase: 2.” https://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/RPT_DUT_QEP%20Phase%202%20Final%20Report_20171130.pdf
Cowling, N. 2019. STATISTA. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1262516/number-of-foreign-students-by-region-in-south-africa/#statisticContainer.
Dall’Alba, G. and R. Barnacle. 2007. “An ontological turn for higher education.” Studies in Higher Education 32(6): 679‒691.
Dao, M. T. N. and A. Thorpe. 2015. “What factors influence Vietnamese students’ choice of university?” International Journal of Educational Management 29(5): 666‒681.
DeWitty, V. P. 2018. “What is holistic admissions review, and why does it matter?” Journal of Nursing Education 57(4): 195‒196. SLACK Journals.
Durban University of Technology. 2015. “DUT STRATEGIC PLAN 2015‒2019.” Durban University of Technology. https://www.dut.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DUT-strategic-plan-2015.pdf.
Durban University of Technology. 2020. “ENVISION 2030.” https://www.dut.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Envision-2030-strategy-map.pdf.
Felix, E. 2015. “Marketing challenges of satisfying consumers changing expectations and preferences in a competitive market.” International Journal of Marketing Studies 7(5): 41.
Funeka, L. P. 2019. “The Influence of Corporate Reputation on students’ choice of University: A Case Study of the Durban University of Technology.” Master of Management Sciences ‒ Specialising in Public Relations and Communication, Management Science Durban University of Technology.
Funeka, L. P., N. Govender, and V. Govender. 2022. “Attracting and Retaining University Students through Effective Marketing and Public Relations Strategies.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law 11(4): 155‒179. http://www.ijebl.co.uk/ijebl_subscribersonly.html.
García-Ros, R., F. Pérez-González, F. Cavas-Martínez, and J. M. Tomás. 2018. “Social interaction learning strategies, motivation, first-year students’ experiences and permanence in university studies.” Educational Psychology 38(4): 451‒469.
Hemsley-Brown, J. 1999. “College choice: Perceptions and priorities.” Educational Management & Administration 27(1): 85‒98.
Hemsley-Brown, J. 2012. “‘The best education in the world’: Reality, repetition or cliché? International students’ reasons for choosing an English university.” Studies in Higher Education 37(8): 1005‒1022.
Hemsley-Brown, J. and I. Oplatka. 2006. “Universities in a competitive global marketplace: A systematic review of the literature on higher education marketing.” International Journal of Public Sector Management 19(4): 316‒338. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513550610669176/full/html?queryID=12%2F18036857.
Jansen, Jonathan. 2003. “Mergers in South African higher education: Theorising change in transitional contexts.” Politikon 30(1): 27‒50.
Lewin, T. and M. Mawoyo. 2014. Student Access and Success: Issues and Interventions in South African Universities. The Kresge Foundation. Inyathelo Publishers: Cape Town. February.
Long, D. 2012. “Theories and models of student development.” In Environments for student growth and development: Librarians and student affairs in collaboration, edited by L. J. Hinchliffe and M. A. Wong, 41‒55. Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries.
Ministry of Education. 2001. National Plan for Higher Education. Vol. 230. Vol. 22138: The Ministry. South Africa.
Modell, H. I., F. G. DeMiero, and L. Rose. 2009. “In pursuit of a holistic learning environment: the impact of music in the medical physiology classroom.” Advances in Physiology Education 33(1): 37‒45.
Mohamedbhai, G. 2014. “Massification in higher education institutions in Africa: Causes, consequences and responses.” International Journal of African Higher Education 1(1).
Munisamy, S., N. I. M. Jaafar, and S. Nagaraj. 2014. “Does reputation matter? Case study of undergraduate choice at a premier university.” The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher 23(3): 451‒462.
Nazidin, N. M., Ishak Ismail, and H. Haron. 2019. “The Intention to Enroll among Students of Private Higher Learning Institutions.” KnE Social Sciences: 498–510.
Ncayiyane, D. L. and F. M Hayward. 2007. “Centre for Higher Education Transformation, Governance Series.” Department of Education. Republic of South Africa.
Ngcamu, B. S. 2016. “Conceptualizing transformation in the post-merger and incorporation environment era: A case of the Durban University of Technology.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 36(5/6): 270‒288.
O’Connor, L. and K. Lundstrom. 2011. “The impact of social marketing strategies on the information seeking behaviors of college students.” Reference & user services quarterly 59(4): 351‒365.
Panda, S., S. C. Pandey, A. Bennett, and X. Tian. 2019. “University brand image as competitive advantage: A two-country study.” International Journal of Educational Management 33(2): 234‒251
Parker, K. M. 2016. “Curriculum renewal as a transformational project at the Durban University of Technology: What do the existing data say?” Commonwealth Youth and Development 14(1): 129‒143.
Peer, M. and M. Mpinganjira. 2011. “Understanding service quality and patient satisfaction in private medical practice: A case study.” African Journal of Business Management 5(9): 3690‒3698.
Pillay, T. S. 2010. “Student enrolment planning in public higher education: A South African case study ‒ Durban University of Technology.” DTech, Public Management, Durban University of Technology.
Pinar, M., T. Girard, and C. Basfirinci. 2020. “Examining the relationship between brand equity dimensions and university brand equity: An empirical study in Turkey.” International Journal of Educational Management 34(7): 1119‒1141.
Plewa, C., J. Ho, J. Conduit, and I. O. Karpen. 2016. “Reputation in higher education: A fuzzy set analysis of resource configurations.” Journal of business research 69(8): 3087‒3095.
Pringle, J. and S. Fritz. 2019. “The university brand and social media: Using data analytics to assess brand authenticity.” Journal of Marketing for Higher Education 29(1): 19‒44.
Ramrathan, S. 2018. “Exploring inequality in institutional marketing: Access to higher education by marginalised communities.” PhD dissertation. Durban University of Technology, Durban.
Roksa, J. and P. Kinsley. 2019. “The role of family support in facilitating academic success of low-income students.” Research in Higher Education 60(4): 415‒436.
Sajtos, L., H. Kreis, and R. Brodie. 2015. “Image, brand relationships and customer value: Exploring the moderating role of advertising spending- and labour-intensity in customer loyalty.” Journal of Service Theory and Practice 25(1): 51‒74.
Santos, C. L., P. Rita, and J. Guerreiro. 2018. “Improving international attractiveness of higher education institutions based on text mining and sentiment analysis.” International Journal of Educational Management 32(3): 431‒447.
Shah, M., C. S. Nair, and L. Bennett. 2013. “Factors influencing student choice to study at private higher education institutions.” Quality Assurance in Education 21(4): 402‒416.
Shtudiner, Z., M. Zwilling, and J. Kantor. 2017. “Field of study choice: Using conjoint analysis and clustering.” International Journal of educational management 31(2): 179‒188.
Silverman, D. 2013. Doing qualitative research: A practical handbook. Sage.
Slåtten, T., G. Lien, S. B. N. Evenstad, and T. Onshus. 2021. “Supportive study climate and academic performance among university students: The role of psychological capital, positive emotions and study engagement.” International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences 13(4).
Spiegler, T. and A. Bednarek. 2013. “First-generation students: What we ask, what we know and what it means: An international review of the state of research.” International Studies in Sociology of Education 23(4): 318‒337.
Swartz, R., M. Ivancheva, L. Czerniewicz, and N. P. Morris. 2019. “Between a rock and a hard place: Dilemmas regarding the purpose of public universities in South Africa.” Higher Education 77(4): 567‒583. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10734-018-0291-9.pdf.
Unger, M. and S. D. Hanekom. 2014. “Benefits of curriculum renewal: the Stellenbosch University physiotherapy experience: supplement 1-research.” African Journal of Health Professions Education 6(2): 222‒226.
Wiese, M. 2008. “A higher education marketing perspective on choice factors and information sources considered by South African first-year university students.” PhD dissertation, University of Pretoria.
Woldegiorgis, E. T. and M. Doevenspeck. 2015. “Current trends, challenges and prospects of student mobility in the African higher education landscape.” International Journal of Higher Education 4(2): 105‒115.
Copyright (c) 2024 Lungelo Funeka, Nereshnee Govender, Vaneshree Govender
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
