An investigation of undergraduate choice behaviour of a preferred program, discipline and university: a conceptual model

This thesis investigates the choice behaviour of first year undergraduate students through proposing and testing a conceptual model. The psychological constructs of personal values, motivation, selection criteria, demographic and socioeconomic factors introduced as underlying drivers provide invaluable insight into the pathways of influence and relationships between student types and their preference towards a particular degree program at a particular university. Questionnaires from 304 first year undergraduate students from the three academic portfolios of Business, Science, Engineering and Technology and Design and Social Context were analysed.

A series of hypothesis were proposed within a causal methodology to facilitate the prediction of student types in terms of their significant drivers. The conceptual model was tested by a structural equation model (SEM) for the significance of the relationships between particular pairs of variables. Significant pathways amongst psychological constructs were initially proposed in a hierarchy model. To generalise the findings of analysis from the SEM analysis, multinomial linear regression (MLR) was used to conduct analysis on statistically significant effects amongst drivers of choice behaviour. A discrete student choice model determined the strength and significance of the hypothesised drivers facilitating the prediction of student types. The causal analysis supported the proposition that the significance of the psychological constructs to students across the three portfolios accounts for the variability driving choice behaviour.

The empirical findings of this thesis contribute to an in-depth understanding of how fundamental constructs drive preferences and explain significant levels of variability in tertiary students’ choice behaviour. By developing a causal methodology for investigating the drivers of choice behaviour within a proposed conceptual framework, important and timely contributions resulted at both an academic and marketing level. At an academic level, this thesis demonstrated a hierarchical relationship amongst the proposed psychological constructs and identified significant predictor variables in helping to explain group membership. At a marketing implication level, the development of a discrete student choice model provides marketers with an invaluable insight into student profiles.

Clearly, there is no long term gain for universities in attracting students better suited to other degree programs. Accordingly, in terms of designing marketing strategies, the contribution of this thesis facilitates an in-depth understanding of significant drivers influencing choice behaviour, which becomes considerably relevant in appealing to and retaining the students most suited to particular academic programs and universities.