CHOICE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION AMONG VIETNAMESE STUDENTS: AN EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS

Abstract

The new Tertiary Education Law, being effective in 2013, has exerted a great pressure on
Vietnamese public and private universities to recruit high school students. This study aims to
identify factors, both personal and institution-based, influencing university selection of
students via exploratory factor analysis. The developed conceptual model consisted of six
determinants that directly moderate university choice including (1) characteristics of students,
(2) influential individuals, (3) features of the University, (4) communicating attempt with the
students of the university, (5) learning opportunities in the future and (6) career opportunities.
After conducting group discussion, a dataset consisting of 382 responses from first year
students from four higher education institutions located in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam was
collected. Final results indicated that institutional characteristics are strongly involved with the
selection of the university. In addition, offering of post-graduate opportunities and marketing
attempts moderately contribute to university choice. Based on these results, some managerial
implications were also suggested.