Students' decision in choosing universities by international rankings

Abstract

All over the world, the rankings play an important role for any potential student who chooses his own university. Given that, more and more young people are interested in investing in their education, wanting to pursue a rigorous specialization. It is of great importance to consider how students choose which university they will join. Thus, not only students use international rankings, but universities are also showing a greater dependence on them as well. Thereby, in recent years, there has been an increase in the interest of higher education institutions around the world to be classified in international rankings. This paper aims to identify the impact that international rankings have on students' decisions to choose a university. At the same time, it aims to identify the ways in which universities try to differentiate themselves in order to be as attractive as possible among students. Withal, the authors of this paper will detail the factors that influence the choice made by students. Finally, the paper will focus on the future perspective of performing a mathematical modelling to identify the share of influence of these factors on students' decisions for choosing the university.