The factors that affect the students` selection of a college: a case study in the Twintech International University College of Technology

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the students’ selection of the Twintech International University College of Technology. The factors affecting students’ selection are the social, economic, physical, academic, institutional and administrative factors. The input from the study consists of useful data for educational administrators because it is a study of the ‘needs of students’. It is a prerequisite for educational administrators to adopt strategic management. Besides providing useful information for strategic planning, the data is essential in marketing plans. Finally, the data also provides information for the evaluation of the quality of services of the college. The population of this study consists of 130 students, of which 100 are local Malaysian, while 30 are international students. Each of the factors are grouped into social, economic, physical, academic, institutional, and administrative factors. The questionnaire is aimed at eliciting students’ perceptions on the importance of all the factors of selection of a college. Descriptive statistical analysis is adopted in this study to interpret the student’s choice of selection. The overall findings revealed that students chose more institutional factors followed by academic factors. Of the institutional factors the most popular factor is the ability of the institution to offer employment opportunities to graduates. For the students the academic factor is the second in importance. The most important academic factors is the quality of lecturer’s instruction and interpersonal communication. Other factors of less importance are; the availability of government loans, for the economic factor; library resources for the physical factors; and, website information and efficient communication for the administrative factor which affected the student’s choice of selection of the college. For the international students, their future aspirations is the dominant factor of their selection of a college.