A model of university choice: an exploratory approach

In order to attract the best students, institutions of higher education need to understand how students select colleges and universities (Kotler and Fox, 1995). Understanding the choice process of a university is an instrument with high potential for developing universities marketing strategies (Plank and Chiagouris, 1997). Although many studies have tried to investigate which criteria students use to select a college or university, few have tried to analyse this trough a model that allows the interaction of all these criteria. This study presents a model of university choice, analysed through structural equations modelling using the Partial Least Squares approach.