Thesis (Ph.D)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Phillip L. Ackerman; Committee Chair: Ruth Kanfer; Committee Member: Gary J. Lautenschlager; Committee Member: Lawrence R. James; Committee Member: Richard Catrambone. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Background: There has been an increasing trend of more Swedish higher education institutions competing for international students in response to international student mobility trends, self-management and budget securement, and government-backed recruitment campaigns. An emerging stream of higher education research is brand personality, and it may represent a robust basis for differentiation between many universities competing for student recruitment. Therefore, the study was built to get a deeper understanding of the impact of university brand personality on international students' choices. Purpose: Given the importance of brand personality for higher education institutions to deal with the international competition or differentiate themselves, the purpose of this study is to explore international student's perception of the university brand personality that affects the selection of a Swedish university. Method: To address the purpose of the exploratory study, the qualitative research approach was applied, combining with interpretivism philosophy. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with 11 international first-year students. By utilizing abductive reasoning, the data was analyzed and interpreted through thematic analysis. Conclusion: Cosmopolitan is perceived as the most distinct brand personality dimension that Jönköping University possesses. Nevertheless, the degree of perception among foreign students regarding each brand personality dimension is different during the decision-making process. In the early stages, the potential students perceive prestige as the most distinct and significant dimension, followed by cosmopolitan. However, when the consumption process nears, cosmopolitan becomes an essentially more important dimension. Further, lively and sincerity are found to partly influence students' choice for higher education.

The aim of this quantitative, descriptive and co-relational study was to analyze the factors affecting students‟ choice to enrol at private higher education institutions in Botswana. The three specific objectives of the study included, to identify the factors influencing students‟ choice to enrol at private higher education institutions, to predict students‟ intention to enrol at private higher education institutions and, to determine the differences in factors influencing students‟ choice among private higher education institutions. Data was collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire through a survey of 560 stratified randomly sampled first year students from four of the higher education institutions in Botswana. Data collection was done through survey using a valid and reliable questionnaire constructed based on the information gathered from the literature review. A five point Likert‟s scale was adopted to measure the students‟ choice of institution and, intention to enrol at private higher education institution. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, multiple regression analysis and analysis of variance. Principal component analysis revealed thirteen factors affecting students‟ choice to enrol at private higher education institutions. Multiple regression analysis revealed that out of the thirteen factors, only seven factors were found to be significant predictors of students‟ intention to enrol at private higher education institutions. These seven factors were characteristics of programs and course offered, campus life, criteria, procedure and policies for admission, quality of teaching and learning resources, physical characteristics of campus, person based outreach and, electronic based outreach. Analysis of variance and Post Hoc Test determined that only seven factors were significantly different among the four institutions in the study. These seven factors included advice seeking, employment prospects, campus life, quality of teaching and learning resources, person based institutional outreach, electronic based institutional outreach and, policies and procedures for admission. Based on the findings, implications for policy and practice were discussed and appropriate recommendations were made. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)

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No. of bitstreams: 1 CarolinaPolicarpoGarcia_Thesis.pdf: 958535 bytes, checksum: 84209a77fa603c2832a2d5d4cf548eae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05-21 / This thesis takes advantage of a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the Brazilian higher education industry to provide evidence on the potential effects of conglomerate mergers, particularly market extension mergers. The first chapter is devoted to assess the effects of such mergers on tuition fees, enrollment rate and quality indicators. The richness of the dataset allows to disentangle the effects of conglomerate mergers and horizontal mergers, showing that both types of mergers impact acquired institutions, but in different ways. The second chapter evaluates the effects of the ownership changes on the labor market of professors, focusing on wages, total number of faculty, workload and the likelihood of contract termination after the acquisition. The last chapter analyzes the determinants of choice in higher education, focusing on estimating to which extent educational groups and brand names influence the choice of potential students. Results show that conglomerate mergers raise efficiency on acquired units and the gains may be partially shared with students, in the form of an increased number of freshmen, and professors, by means of higher wages. These efficiences may come through higher student-faculty ratios, standardized courseware between the units of the group, extensive use of online content in substitution to in-class activities and the centralization of the management and financial activities in a shared services center. Educational groups attract a great number of potential students and have an important role in increasing access to higher education. The ability to recruit potential students may come from international network benefits, attractive prices, funding availability, better quality indexes and brand awareness. Importantly, each educational group has its own strategy when combining these elements and not all of them must be present. The results also highlight the role of government and regulatory constraints in the sector. The first and most obvious consequence is the high number of mergers and acquisitions that took place to avoid the requirements to entry organically in local markets. Second, the availability of public student loans greatly determines the access to higher education. Third, as the students' willingness to pay for higher quality programs is low, the educational groups closely follow the minimum requirements for the quality indexes. / Esta tese explora uma onda de fusões e aquisições no setor de ensino superior brasileiro para fornecer evidências sobre os efeitos potenciais de fusões de conglomerados, particularmente fusões de extensão de mercado. O primeiro capítulo é dedicado a avaliar os efeitos de tais fusões sobre as mensalidades, número de ingressantes e indicadores de qualidade. A riqueza dos dados permite separar os efeitos de fusões conglomeradas e fusões horizontais, mostrando que os dois tipos de fusões afetam as instituições adquiridas de maneiras diferentes. O segundo capítulo avalia os efeitos das mudanças de propriedade no mercado de trabalho dos professores, com foco nos efeitos sobre salários, número total de docentes, carga de trabalho e probabilidade de rescisão contratual. O último capítulo analisa os determinantes da escolha no ensino superior, estimando em que medida os grupos educacionais e suas marcas influenciam a escolha de potenciais alunos. Os resultados mostram que fusões de conglomerados aumentam a eficiência das unidades adquiridas e os ganhos ser parcialmente compartilhados com os estudantes, na forma de um número maior de ingressantes, e professores, por meio de salários mais altos. Essas eficiências podem ser obtidas por meio de um maior número de alunos por professor, material didático padronizado entre as unidades do grupo educacional, uso extensivo de conteúdo on-line em substituição a atividades em sala de aula e centralização das atividades administrativas e financeiras em um centro de serviços compartilhados. Grupos educacionais atraem um grande número de estudantes e têm papel importante no aumento do acesso ao ensino superior. A capacidade de recrutar potenciais alunos pode vir dos benefícios provenientes da rede internacional, preços atrativos, disponibilidade de financiamento, melhores índices de qualidade e reconhecimento da marca. Cada grupo educacional tem sua própria estratégia ao combinar esses elementos e nem todos devem estar presentes. Os resultados destacam o papel da regulação no setor. A primeira e mais óbvia consequência é o elevado número de fusões e aquisições que ocorreram para evitar as barreiras regulatórias à entrada orgânica nos mercados locais. Em segundo lugar, a disponibilidade de financiamento estudantil público determina grande parte do acesso ao ensino superior. Terceiro, como a disposição à pagar por programas de maior qualidade é baixa, os grupos educacionais seguem de perto os requisitos mínimos exigidos para os índices de qualidade.