Purpose – The purpose of this systematic review was to explore the nature of the marketing of higher education (HE) and universities in an international context. The objectives of the review were to: systematically collect, document, scrutinise and critically analyse the current research literature on supply‐side higher education marketing; establish the scope of higher education marketing; identify gaps in the research literature; and make recommendations for further research in this field.Design/methodology/approach – The approach for this study entailed extensive searches of relevant business management and education databases. The intention was to ensure that, as far as possible, all literature in the field was identified – while keeping the focus on literature of greatest pertinence to the research questions.Findings – The paper finds that potential benefits of applying marketing theories and concepts that have been effective in the business world are gradually being recognised by researchers in the ...

https://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/480/1/fulltext.pdf

Universities in a competitive global marketplace

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the design and use of a questionnaire to measure student satisfaction at Liverpool John Moores University's Faculty of Business and Law.Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilised the concept of the service‐product bundle to design the survey questionnaire and then used SPSS and Quadrant Analysis to analyse the results to determine which aspects of the University's services were most important and the degree to which they satisfied the students.Findings – The most important aspects were those associated with teaching and learning, while the least important were those associated with the physical facilities.Practical implications – The concept of the service‐product bundle is a valid and reliable tool for the design of a satisfaction survey and segments a University's service offering in such a way as to allow management to target resources at those areas that are perceived to be low satisfaction and high importance. The questionnaire can be utilised...

Measuring student satisfaction at a UK university

Purpose – Higher education environments have become increasingly competitive and institutions have to compete for students in the recruitment markets With the introduction of student fees, it is hypothesised that potential applicants to HE will increasingly become consumerist The research upon which this paper was based was aimed at finding out the factors students consider important in their decision making related to choice of university and courses of studyDesign/methodology/approach – Five sixth form schools and colleges in the Southampton University Partnership Scheme participated in the study Three hundred and eighty seven students (186 male and 201 female) voluntarily participated The study involved a survey questionnaire based on a 10 point Likert scale and included 35 university choice factors which students were to rank accordingly It also included 10 items similarly ranked to identify factors influencing university subject or course choice Simple descriptive statistics were used to ident

University and course choice: Implications for positioning, recruitment and marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model that integrates the different groups of factors which influence the decision‐making process of international students, analysing different dimensions of this process and explaining those factors which determine students' choice.Design/methodology/approach – A hypothetical model is presented which shows the purchase intention as an independent variable dependent on five factors: personal reasons; the effect of country image, influenced by city image; institution image; and the evaluation of the programme of study. The consideration, whether conscious or unconscious on the part of the prospective student, of the different elements making up the factors included in this study will determine the final choice made by that student.Findings – The limitations of this study stem from the nature of the study itself. As a theoretical model, it aims to integrate the factors identified in the existing literature. Thus, future research must try to ex...

/pdf/international-students-decision-making-process-525wf30nec.pdf

International students' decision‐making process

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate how students perceive the services they are offered at a German university and how satisfied they are with them.Design/methodology/approach – An evaluation study using a new tool to measure 15 dimensions of student satisfaction at an institutional level that covers most aspects of student life was used. It was decided to develop a new measurement tool as many existing surveys are poorly designed, lack standardization and give no evidence concerning reliability or validity. Questionnaires were handed out in eight lectures for the pilot study and 18 lectures for the main study. The response rate was 99 percent. A total of 374 students (pilot study) and 544 students (main study) filled in the newly developed questionnaires using Likert scales.Findings – The study gave a valuable insight into how students perceive the quality of the services offered at a university and how satisfied they are with these offerings. The results show that students' satisfaction with their ...

/pdf/examining-student-satisfaction-with-higher-education-2rdq1lsoy6.pdf

Examining student satisfaction with higher education services: using a new measurement tool

Despite rhetoric of added value, facilities management suffers a dearth of objectively researched, publicly available information concerning the impact of facilities on businesses at the level of market sectors or individual organisations. This paper aims to correct that situation for UK higher education institutions. A survey of undergraduates starting university in 2001 has confirmed, to high levels of significance, earlier research with the 2000 intake. For many institutions, facilities factors, where provided to a high standard, are perceived as having an important influence on students’ choice of institution. Year‐on‐year comparisons show strong agreement at the global level and, where data could be gathered, at the institutional level. Individual institutions show marked differences, significant at levels of confidence of over 95 per cent. A comparison of “reputational pull” and “facilities pull” is suggested as a means of differentiating the “brand” of different institutions.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED474613.pdf

Helen Agahi

Papers

The impact of facilities on student choice of university