Key Factors for Student Recruitment: The Issue of University Branding

Abstract

Considering the number of universities and the size of the young population targeted for higher education in Turkey, there is an urgent need for further research studies on university branding efforts. The aim of this exploratory research study is to explore specific factors/criteria that Turkish students consider during the process of selecting a graduate degree program at a university in the USA and to contribute to the limited research in the area of university branding. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is a structured technique for analyzing complex, multi-criteria decisions, has been used for this research. Surveys were applied to students in order to discover specific factors/criteria that Turkish students employ during the process of selecting a graduate degree program at a university in the USA. In this study, there are many decision-criterias that need to be taken into consideration and each criterion must be analyzed with respect to a specific university. The in-depth interviews with professors/education counselors, student survey applications, and the analysis of previous stream of related research has led to identification of criterias to be used in the study. Following the pairwise comparisons, a survey has been designed to assess the relative superiority of the 12-criteria in the model. The most prominent criteria during the process of selecting a graduate degree program was reported as “Post Graduation Job and Career Prospects”. The findings of this study can be used to support those who have the intention to develop a successful university brand.