Date of Award

1-1-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Master of Business

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Public Management

First Supervisor

Professor Geoffrey Soultar

Abstract

The business of tertiary education has become more and more competitive in recent years due to reductions in government funding and higher study fees. As the nature of the environment grows more competitive the role of marketing, previously non-existent in most universities, has grown significantly. One of the key pieces of information that would assist the marketing effort of any university is an understanding of what determines university preference. This study examines university preference in Western Australia. A form of conjoint analysis, known as Adaptive Conjoint Analysis (ACA), was used to investigate the relative importance of a number of attributes to university preference. The study involved presenting 259 Western Australian school leavers (Year 12 students) with a combination of paper and disk based questionnaires. Results indicated that the four most important determinants of university preference for Western Australian school leavers were course suitability, academic reputation, job prospects and teaching quality. The results are compared to previous research findings and their implications for the marketing of universities are discussed.

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