ERIC Number: EJ1353313
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
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EISSN: EISSN-2227-7102
Available Date: N/A
Does University Ranking Matter? Choosing a University in the Digital Era
Wut, Tai-Ming; Xu, Jing; Lee, Stephanie Wing
Education Sciences, v12 Article 229 2022
Each year, final year high school students choose the university that they would prefer to attend. Past studies have found that family, friends, course availability, university reputation, distances from home, and job prospects were factors affecting students' choice of university. However, the relative weight of these factors might have changed in the digital era; also, electronic word of mouth was ignored in the past. The purpose of this study was to identify the important factors affecting students' university choice. We distributed a questionnaire which was completed by 472 Form 6 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Conjoint analysis was used to simulate a real situation and what human beings would do: human being usually make up their mind using a few criteria at the same time. The contribution of the study is that it reveals that electronic word of mouth is the most influential factor, followed by peer influence and university reputation, in choosing a university.
Descriptors: Reputation, Universities, Secondary School Students, Peer Influence, Foreign Countries, College Choice, Decision Making, Student Attitudes, Institutional Characteristics, Computer Mediated Communication, School Location, Student Characteristics, Friendship, Family Relationship, Likert Scales, Costs
MDPI AG. Klybeckstrasse 64, 4057 Basel, Switzerland. e-mail: education@mdpi.com; e-mail: indexing@mdpi.com; Web site: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Secondary Education
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Hong Kong
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