External information search: students and Australian universities

Student decision making processes when selecting universities are often complex, involving formal and informal search using various external sources. This paper presents the results of research into students decision making processes and their information search activities when it comes to university choice. The results demonstrate that some students actively search for information about the university 'product' when making their decisions. They also rely heavily on interpersonal and experiential sources of information, including the vicarious experiences of others. Importantly, they actively seek and rely on information provided by the higher educational institution; thereby shifting the emphasis for marketing communications from creation of advertising per se to development of interactive engagement opportunities.