Empirical Analysis of Attractiveness Factors, Satisfaction, and Loyalty of Portuguese Higher Education Students
Abstract
Purpose: The goal of this study is to investigate the factors that led to the enrollment into Higher Education by students. The changes in the higher education sector pertaining to the last years re-enforced the need to develop effective strategies to attract students in order to ensure that Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have enough funds to guarantee their subsistence in increasingly competitive market.
Methodology: Aside from the initial literature review, there was the employment of a quantitative methodology through the use of a questionnaire to a sample of 144 higher education students to achieve the goal of the study. Subsequently, the results were exposed and analyzed using descriptive statistics and a series of recommendations were made according to the results.
Findings: The results reveal that the students within the studied sample valued the prestige and image of the institution and professional reasons. The factor that weighted their decisions the less was the opinion or third parties' pressure.
Research Limitations: By analyzing the perceptions of students who already attend higher education, we are basing on the belief that they remember the factors that impacted their decision a few months or even years ago. The sample size is another imperfection of the study, since a sample of 144 students cannot be representative of the population under analysis and, therefore, the conclusions cannot be generalized.
Practical implications: This study may have practical implications in the sense that, by knowing the factors valued by students, one can rethink recruitment policies to increase applications, which in parallel will increase funding and contribute to organizational success. Concluding that students value prestige, reputation, and employability, it might make sense to implement strategies that enhance these organizational characteristics to attract students and ensure institutional sustainability.
Originality/Value: Although competitiveness in HEI has become a topic of immense debate in the academy, there are still very few studies that focus specifically on the mobilization of efforts towards attracting students, especially in Portugal. Thus, the present study sought to fill this literary gap.
Keywords: Higher Education Institutions; Competition; Attracting Students; Students Satisfaction and Retention.
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