Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia Economics and Finance 32 (2015) 850 – 854
Emerging Markets Queries in Finance and Business
The main factors that influence the decision in choosing a path in Tertiary Education Emilia ği܊anª, Andreea Ardelean ª*, Daniela Maneaª,b, Cristina Bobocª,b, Burciu Andreeaª a
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, postal code: 010374, Romania b Institute of National Economy, Bucharet, postal code: 50731, Romania
Abstract Choosing a college may be a difficult and sometimes an unpredictable process, but it is mainly seen from one
perspective. We can find a lot of articles that give advice on how to make the best decision, but we do not know exactly the final result: what made a person choose a college over another one. So, a college can also be seen as a product. It is important to know the candidate’s expectation and to determine his / her motivation. Many would say that the main influence is the passion for a particular field, but there are few who know exactly what they want to become when they graduate High cchool which lead us into thinking that there are other significant motives. Therefore the purpose of this study is to determine the most important characteristics which take part in the process of the decision. In order to understand how people make choices between universities, a survey was conducted (collecting the quantitative information from young Romanian citizens) from which we extracted the ideal profile of a college and the satisfaction concerning the choices made by students. The results give a general view on what the candidates / students expect from the universities. © 2015 Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Emerging Markets Queries in Finance and Business Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Asociatia Grupul Roman de Cercetari in Finante Corporatiste
local organization.
Keywords: survey, tertiary education, statistical techniques, market research
* Corresponding author: E-mail address:
[email protected]
2212-5671 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Asociatia Grupul Roman de Cercetari in Finante Corporatiste doi:10.1016/S2212-5671(15)01531-2
Emilia Ţițan et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 32 (2015) 850 – 854
1. Introduction The aim of this paper is to present college as a product. Although choosing one can be hard, we should also take into consideration which one would be popular based on people’s opinions. There are plenty of articles that serve as a guide, but many don’t have an important research background on how things really are. In 2007, a study called “Choosing a faculty: social conditioning or rationality” approached this subject, but in a different manner. The purpose of the survey was to reveal the importance high school students pay to education and to present sources of information when deciding a particular college. The social analysis determined the fact that higher education is correlated with economic status of their families and with the level of education of their parents. The teenagers chose something between what suited them and what had good prospects, according to what their families, friends or teachers suggested, in the absence of professional counseling programs. In order to determine the decision-making process, the ‘funnel of causality’ model was used. Our paper goes a little further than the other one and tries to capture people’s preferences regarding to faculty choices. We tried to determine how tertiary education is perceived and we made delimitation between private universities and public ones, because we wanted to make a comparison. We also created a criteria list which would identify the most popular profile for a college.
2. Data and Methods The market research took place in Bucharest and Constanta in June-July 2013 by direct interview or by sending emails. To define the population we used information provided by the website of the National Institute of Statistics. We took into account the population over 18 years of Bucharest and Constanta which is approximately 1.8 million people, without omitting the proportion, focusing more on young people that haven’t yet finished college. The main statistical technique used is conjoint analysis. It determines how people value different features of a product or service. The objective is to establish what combination of limited number of attributes is most significative on decision making. So, a controlled set of products or services is displayed to respondents and by examining their preferences, the implicit appreciation of the outlines making up the product or service can be defined. A research using this method usually needs a minimum of 40 respondents, so the current research is conducted as any traditional conjoint research, however surpassing a bit the number with a total of 84 people. Of these 59.5% were women and 40.5% men. At the development of the questionnaire we used the presentation process of the questions and we took into consideration the general principles of drafting such a tool for gathering information. We used specific questions to draw up a conjoint questionnaire, so that combinations of attributes and questions to capture the subtle differences of opinion or attitude. Statistical data processing was conducted using SPSS software. 3. Results and discussion This research aims to determine people's preferences in choosing a college based on the most important criteria. First we tried to establish the main objectives: information on people's attitude or appreciation about
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Romanian higher education and satisfaction, as well as various influences and classifications regarding faculty and portray ideal choice. Most people believe that higher education is necessary for getting a job in Romania. Yet there was a fair percentage of about 23 % to consider otherwise. Most of them had high incomes. In assessing the quality of Romanian higher education public universities have achieved an average of 7.13, while private universities an average of 5.7. Clearly, in Romania, public universities are better rated, with a higher confidence level. Then we tried to determine whether those with higher grades at the Baccalaureate Examination were influenced to better assess public universities and vice versa. After applying a simple regression, it was observed that there was no relevant link between the two variables. The correlation coefficient (R) had a very low value of 0.139. The highest percentage was recorded at those who chose to study in another city than the one in which they live (56%). 41.7% of respondents chose to study in their hometown and only 2.4% in another country. The percentage was higher in men choose to learn outside native town. Most people (57.1%) were not influenced by anyone when they chose college. Of those who took into account the opinions of others, the family had the greatest influence with a percentage of 23.8%. Table 1. Influence * Gender Crosstabulation Count Gender When choosing college: Influence from family
F 11.9
M 11.9
Total 23.8%
friends
6.0
3.6
9.5%
teachers
4.8
2.4
7.1%
nobody
35.7
21.4
57.1%
0
1.2
1.2%
others unresponsive Total
1.2
0
1.2%
59.5%
40.5%
100%
For most people college reputation mattered in their choice, with a high percentage of 72.6% and almost all (94%) had some information about the chosen college before admission. The desire to find out about the influence of certain factors on candidate preference, we chose: • type of admission (exam or file) • type of university (public or private) • field (sciences or humanities fields) • motivation (driven by passion or by higher chances of employment after graduation)
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Table 2. Card List Card ID
Admission
University
Field
Motivation
1 File
Public
Humanities Demand on labour market
2 Exam
Private
Humanities Passion
3 File
Public
Humanities Passion
4 File
Private
Sciences
5 Exam
Private
Humanities Demand on labour market
6 Exam
Public
Sciences
Passion
7 File
Private
Sciences
Demand on labour market
8 Exam
Public
Sciences
Demand on labour market
Passion
The 8 cards containing product profiles are ranked by the subjects. Most preferred product gets rank 1, the least preferred product gets rank 8. As shown in table 2, most subjects prefer a public university in the humanities fields with admission based on file, being motivated by market demand. Second choice is a private university also in the humanities fields, but with admission based on exam, motivation being passion. The least preferred is public university in sciences track with admission based on exam, motivated by market demand. If we take the criteria separately, then the results will be completely different. Most (77.4%) prefer to give exam and public universities are more desirable than private ones with a percentage of 78.6%. The preferred domain is on sciences track, while the most powerful motivation is the passion for that field, with a percentage of 59.5%. Those with higher grades at the Baccalaureate examination had the tendency to choose exam over admission based on file, while income did not influence in choosing mainly public universities. Women had the tendency to choose humanities fields, while men choose especially the sciences track. Motivation made women to mainly choose according to their passion, while men were more balanced, with approximately equal percentages. When asked if they are pleased with the chosen college, most were satisfied with the choice. Taking gender into consideration, women were less satisfied with their option. Table 3. Satisfaction with chosen college Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Very dissatisfied
Valid
5
6.0
6.0
6.0
Dissatisfied
10
11.9
11.9
17.9
Satisfied
54
64.3
64.3
82.1
Very satisfied
10
11.9
11.9
94.0
Unresponsive
5
6.0
6.0
100.0
84
100.0
100.0
Total
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Most of the respondents (67.9%) considered equally important attendance at course and seminar. But we should also take into consideration the percentage of those who chose only seminars. 25% it’s a bit high. Most complained that the course can be too abstract or difficult to understand, while the seminar is based more on real examples, applicable in everyday life. Table 4. Attendance Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Course
Valid
3
3.6
3.6
3.6
Seminar / Laboratory
21
25.0
25.0
28.6
Both
57
67.9
67.9
96.4
None
2
2.4
2.4
98.8
Unresponsive
1
1.2
1.2
100.0
84
100.0
100.0
Total
4. Conclusions The results of the study indicate that in Romania people still confide in public universities and that many still prefer the hard way that consists in taking an exam. Private universities should reconsider changing some policies for people to take them more seriously. Many still make choices based on what they like, not by what the labor market requires. Yet they are more inclined to follow sciences track. Romanians seem a little disappointed of what Romanian education can provide, though they do not lose hope that in the near future both courses and seminars will be more practical and interactive. Acknowledgement This work was cofinanced from the European Social Fund through Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013, project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/132406. References Ivan L., Pricopie R., Frunzaru V., 2008. Decizia de a alege o facultate: rationalitate sau conditionare sociala, in Revista romana de comunicare si relatii publice Nr. 14/2008, Bucuresti, p. 83. Jaba, E., Grama, A., 2004. Analiza statistica cu SPSS sub Windows, Polirom, Iasi, p. 52 Visinescu C., 2006. Ghidul viitorului student, Teora, Bucuresti Despois D.J., 1998. Ghidul viitorului student, Humanitas, Bucuresti Rotaru T, Ilut P. 1997. Ancheta sociologicã si sondajul de opinie, Editura Polirom, Iasi, p. 44 Chelcea S., 2001. Metodologia cercetarii sociologice, Editura Economica, Bucuresti, p 59 Radu R., 2008. Sociologie, Bucuresti, Editura ASE, Bucuresti, p. 294 Nathan N. Alexander, Teacher’s Guide – Getting started at http://www.google.ro/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source =web&cd=1&ved= 0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iitgn.ac.in%2Fmcm%2Fcd%2FMathematical%2520Modelling%2520Handbook%2Fpdf %2F05_Choosing_A_College.pdf&ei=xgQkUtDuE4GctQa0qYCACw&usg=AFQjCNF0kEP2az126MhCXJYddxe2ATKNg&sig2=Eeea0kgMnonUAd6dQIKJmQ&bvm=bv.51495398,d.Yms
