A MODEL OF STUDENT UNIVERSITY CHOICE

Education has very complex programmes and products. Also the role of the Institution is not just a simple matter of identifying and attributing value to producing activity. In fact, today it is very difficult to get students from the Universities. For this reason, it is very important to have a very good image, solid reputation and feedback with all stakeholders. In this paper, authors present a new model of student choice about the stakeholders who are involved in the process of the choice of University. This model presents different stakeholders. The most important agent is the role of the parents in this decision and the development of the student in the last four years in the secondary level. The model of student choice justifies why the role of the parents is important in this decision, but also it is important in student´s characteristic, external influences, and parents' influences. Furthermore, all stakeholders have interrelationships each other and each different level depend on the student, parents, and Universities implicated.
This model suggests that the student University choice is influenced by a set of variables of family background like parental education, the occupation, and others. Other set of variables of student´s characteristics such as the level of educational aspiration, high school performance and secondary school performance. Other set of variables are the external influences such as parents or close friends. Finally, the last set of variables are University efforts to communicate with students, such as words of mouth, communication, visits to campus, speech in the secondary school and the web page of the University.
This study is supported by secondary data and survey in the Faculty of Economics and Business in the University of Granada (SPAIN) to students in their first year of degree. The University of Granada has over 70.000 students from all nationalities and cultures, and the Faculty of Economics and Business has over 7300 students in last year.