Factors Shaping the Students’ Enrollment Decision in Private Universities for Higher Education during the Pandemic Environment

Abstract

To pursue higher studies students are engaging with private universities in modern times as the acceptance rate of public universities in Bangladesh is low. Students are acquiesced for private universities by some influencing factors while taking enrollment decision. After extracting the knowledge of previous literatures, the study developed a conceptual framework of enrollment decision factors that can influence students’ choice selecting private universities in Bangladesh. The four broad choice factors of the study were: Decision Influencers (DI), E-learning Indicators (ELI), Economic Factors (EF), and Career Prospect (CP) under which 19 variables were developed that were assumed to have a positive relationship with students’ enrollment decision in the private universities. The students of Varendra University, Rajshahi, Bangladesh from different departments participated in an online structured survey questionnaire and enrolled themselves in private universities during the COVID pandemic in between 2020 to 2021. The study developed a structured online questionnaire and circulated the questionnaire to 360 students and received 352completed questionnaire with a response rate of 97.8%. The study performed a non-probability convenient sampling method during the year 2021 and analyzed in MS Excel to find the percent and cumulative percent of the decision variables. The result of study indicated that as a private university, Varendra University meets most of the academic, career, and faculty credential attributes and market rations that attract more students to study in private universities and besides this universities can expand more visibility for the students if their promotional efforts are amplified in a wider scope.