Higher Education Consumer Choice

J. Hemsley-Brown,I. Oplatka

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137497208
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business internazionale
• Index: Business

Higher Education Consumer Choice provides a comprehensive and highly focused critical analysis of research on HE consumer choice behaviour in the UK and around the world. Ideal for students, scholars and marketing practitioners interested in consumer choice and behaviour in higher education markets, the book explores the background and context to research on HE choice including globalization, changing supply and demand, fees and costs, and concerns about social disadvantage. Focusing on personal factors that influence consumer choice, group aspects of consumer behaviour such as cultural and ethnic differences, as well as theoretical and research models, this book is designed to stimulate new debate and criticism of HE consumer choice.

1

Context and Concepts of Higher Education Consumer Choice

Abstract: The first chapter presents basic theories and concepts of higher education (HE) consumer choice behaviour, elaborates on the context of consumer behaviour and choice in higher education, and discusses the rational underpinning research on higher education choice. The section on the context of higher education covers concepts such as choice, globalisation, internationalisation, student mobility, and supply and demand (first section). The rationale for research on HE consumer choice is analysed in the second section, and the theoretical and practical justification for understanding the relationships between a wide variety of variables associated with students’ choice and decision-making are highlighted.

Keywords: competition; diversity; globalisation; internationalisation; supply and demand

Hemsley-Brown, Jane, and Izhar Oplatka. Higher Education Consumer Choice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. DOI: 10.1057/9781137497208.0004.

The context of higher education choice behaviour

There has been a paradigm shift in the governance of higher education (HE) across the world in the last two decades following relaxation of government control coupled with a shift towards marketisation (Jongbloed, 2003) and a reduction in government regulations in some former communist countries (Dill, 2003; Hemsley-Brown & Oplatka, 2006). As a result of these significant changes, the expectation among students that they have a wide choice about where to study has been increasingly taken for granted. At the same time, HE institutions are facing increasingly complex challenges such as substantial local and global competition, changes in funding regimes and greater emphasis on graduate employability, which demand a greater understanding of the reasons for the choices prospective students make when applying to a university (Simoes & Soares, 2010). As a consequence, HE institutions need to operate in a competitive market, a stark change compared to the past.

The paradigm shift towards marketised HE inevitably generates considerable research in the field of HE consumer choice to enable researchers further to understand choice processes, factors or antecedents to choice of institution and course programme, and factors which influence university attendance per se. Authors of texts on consumer choice of HE, however, rely on a range of themes to provide a rationale for focusing on consumer behaviour in HE in their research. Analysis of a substantial number of articles and texts in the field of HE consumer choice by the authors of this book identified the following contextual themes: globalisation; internationalisation; policy change and student mobility; supply and demand issues, including changes in student numbers, recruitment and social change; and market competition, including marketing, access to information and communications. These concepts are elaborated upon in the following sub-sections.

Globalisation context

Although some authors observe that there are no coherent theories of globalisation and internationalisation in HE (Maringe, 2010), there are many definitions of both concepts, including definitions which apply to HE. However, clear definitions are not easy to find and the concepts of globalisation and internationalisation are frequently used together as though there they were “two sides of the same coin” (Maringe, 2010, p. 1). Globalisation is the worldwide integration of economies over recent decades (King, 2014), and emerged through the victory of liberal capitalism as the dominant economic model. Globalisation is also viewed as the increasing collaboration between nations through economic, business and trade activities alongside the progressing alignment of political, social, cultural and ideological aspects of life across different countries (Maringe, 2010).

Perhaps the clearest definitions of globalisation are found in the writing of Steger and James (2013, p. 19) who argue that globalisation incorporates both the “global spread and intensification of social relations across the world”, and more “subjective changes” such as shared “meanings and understandings”. They claim that the “ideology of globalisation pervades social life” just about everywhere in the world (p.19). The march of globalisation has frequently been used by authors to justify the need for research on choice of HE institution, particular choice of institution for students seeking to study outside their home countries. Oplatka and Hemsley-Brown (2010) argue that in the HE arena, elements of globalisation are widespread and multifaceted and the HE market is now well established worldwide, particularly in the major English speaking countries: Canada, USA, Australia and the UK (Binsardi & Ekwulugo, 2003; Dill, 2003; Taylor, 2003).

The process of the globalisation of HE is “accompanied by a process of marketisation, because universities have to compete for students and resources by adopting market-like ideologies and diversity policies” (Oplatka & Hemsley-Brown, 2010, p. 65). This is the context and setting for research and articles by many of those who conduct research in HE consumer choice. As a result of the social, political and economic forces of globalisation the number of students seeking to study across country borders has increased exponentially over the last half century (Wilkins & Huisman, 2011), and this has resulted in universities in some parts of the world, particularly the USA, Canada, UK and Australia (Hemsley-Brown & Oplatka, 2006), making themselves attractive destinations for international students and developing partnerships with other universities to develop their global reach (Abu Bakar & Abdu Talib, 2013). For example, authors claim that the globalisation of HE is largely based on increasing student mobility, which has seen significant growth in the last forty years (Beine, Noel, & Ragot, 2014). Shanka, Quintal and Taylor (2005) for example, in their article on factors influencing international students’ choice of destination countries, provide a comprehensive list of statistics and a table of international student numbers from ten different countries to provide the context for their research study. They argue that overwhelming demand for HE comes from Asia, and claim that between 2000 and 2025 demand for HE in Australia is set to increase nine-fold (Shanka, Quintal, & Taylor, 2005). The reason for the increasing pressure within universities to recruit international students, however, is not simply globalisation, although this phenomenon is undoubtedly important. Authors have observed that the drive to recruit international students in increasing numbers is also based on the reduction in public funding in some western countries, such as the US, UK, Canada and Australia (Shanka et al., 2005; Hemsley-Brown & Oplatka, 2006), that forces HE institutions to rely on tuition fees more than in the past.

Pasternak (2005) cites globalisation as one of the economic processes which affects western democracies and which has had an impact on HE. Her argument is that globalisation impacts on perceptions of the quality and level of knowledge required to be successful in the labour market. She argues that although prior to such widespread globalisation universities were able to enjoy substantial independence from social and economic pressures – particularly economic pressure – universities are now subject to market forces and expected to produce outcomes which contribute to greater growth in the economy and more tangible outcomes for students, particularly improved employment outcomes. Thus globalisation and privatisation result in student-consumers in the new HE market-place. Pasternak (2005, p. 191) argues that widespread globalisation has led to “knowledge becoming a private good, rather than a public good”, which raises questions about “both costs and benefits to the individual” and therefore research is needed to examine choice factors in HE decisions. These factors play a key role in the internationalisation of HE worldwide.

Internationalisation

Knight (1999, p. 14) provides a clear distinction between globalisation and internationalisation for HE. She points out that globalisation affects each country in a different way depending upon its “culture, history, traditions and priorities”; globalisation refers to the “flow of technology, knowledge, people, values and ideas across country borders”. In contrast, internationalisation in HE is defined by Knight (1999, p. 14) as “one of the ways the country responds to globalisation yet, at the same time respects the individuality of nations”. In this way it is clear that the two concepts are closely linked although the relationship continues to be debated (Ennew, 2012). More specifically in the case of HE there are four approaches to internationalisation, according to Knight (1999), on the basis of: activities, such as student and staff exchange and international students, competencies, such as developing new values, attitudes skills and knowledge, for example language skills, ethos changes including promoting a more international culture on campuses, and process changes which demand alignment of policies and procedures.

Authors of research articles on HE consumer behaviour most frequently use internationalisation as the rationale for conducting research on international student choice of destination. Chen’s (2008) research focuses on understanding how internationalisation and international marketing influence international students to choose to study in Canada. The background and context to the study focuses on the shift from viewing international students as a type of “foreign aid” (2008, p. 2) to more recent approaches to recruitment of international students based on increasing marketisation and more aggressive marketing.

Articles using internationalisation as the basis for research frequently also provide background data on the numbers of students crossing borders, particularly from east to west, and the financial benefits to the destination countries of this mobility (Kemp & Madden, 1998; Pyvis & Chapman, 2007; Chen, 2008; Park, 2009; Wilkins & Huisman, 2011). Chen (2008) focuses on the revenue generated by attracting international students to English speaking countries including the USA, UK, Australia and Canada, and the economic benefits this has for universities in these countries. However, she also points out the benefits to a university of integrating students inside and outside the classroom, and to raising the institution’s international profile. Nonetheless, internationalisation is provided as background and context for research on international students’ choice behaviour when choosing a Canadian university and the author concludes that both internationalisation and marketing act in combination in this context.

International students

Australia is also an increasingly popular destination for international students. In a research by Kemp and Madden (1998) the background and context to the paper reports on the substantial increase in the number of students studying abroad over sixty years ago compared with foreign student enrolments at the time of the research. The authors also report the reasons provided by international students for their desire to study outside their home country; this context is relied upon for their study on Taiwanese and Indonesian students’ choice behaviour when choosing to study in Australia. A similar approach to presenting context and background data is used by the authors Maringe and Carter (2007), Park (2009) and Wilkins and Huisman (2011). Park (2009) sets out worldwide figures for student mobility across the world since 1975 and provides predictions for 2025, with a focus on Korean students and their most popular destination countries. The data are used to justify the research question which focuses on reasons why Korean students choose to study outside their home country (reasons such as, academic excellence and improving second language proficiency). Maringe and Carter (2007) also use international student numbers to set the context for research conducted in Africa: internationalisation is used as a context for research on the choice behaviour of students migrating to English speaking countries. A study that focuses on branch campuses abroad (Wilkins & Huisman, 2011) also uses figures showing the exponential growth in students travelling abroad, and research on outgoing UK students (Brooks & Waters, 2009) relies on providing international student mobility numbers more widely as the context for the study. There is clear evidence to show that the internationalisation of HE is increasing dramatically all around the world.

The challenge for researchers is identifying pertinent figures to underpin their research and to identify statistics which are sufficiently up-to-date for the relevant countries, to provide a useful context and background for the study. Many authors use a single figure to indicate growth in numbers but fail to provide details such as the types of student by programme or the mobility of students within regions as opposed to mobility from Asian to Anglophone countries, for example. Differences between subject majors are also important with some disciplines such as FAME subjects (finance, accounting, management and economics) in addition to all engineering subjects – which have grown significantly since 2009 compared to other subject areas (TopUniversities.com, 2014). Trends show that in the last five years although the main four English speaking countries remain most popular they are losing dominance, Germany is gaining increasing prominence and is now the fourth most popular destination country (1st is USA, 2nd is UK, 3rd is Canada, 4th is Germany, and 5th is Australia) (TopUniversities.com, 2014).

The top ten countries of origin for international students studying in the UK have changed significantly since 2000, but this is often not reflected in the data provided by authors to justify research on HE consumer choice. In 2000, the top three source countries were Greece (13.1%), Ireland (6.4%) and Germany (6%), but by 2010 this had changed to China (14.1%), India (9.7%) and Nigeria (4.2%) (HM Government (UK), 2013). The largest source country worldwide for graduate/post-graduate programmes, by far, is China – Chinese students represent about one in six of all international students, a total of 723,000 in 2011. One in four of mobile Chinese students study in the US (UWN, 2014). The second largest source country worldwide is India, with 223,000 or 5.2% of the overseas market (UWN, 2014). These numbers are changing year by year, for example the number of incoming Indian students to the UK has recently seen a downward change due to government regulation and border controls. It is therefore crucial for authors of articles to ensure that up-to-date figures are used because the global picture changes rapidly.

There are some variations in the background and context provided to support consumer behaviour research which focuses on other internationalisation factors, apart from the growth in international student numbers and international student mobility. These include policy and political change, immigration issues, cultural factors, exports and geographic travel factors. It is perhaps not surprising that the Bologna Agreement (Bennett & Kottasz, 2011) has been used to justify research on international student mobility, and in particular choice of degree, and significant changes in some European universities to meet the convergence requirements in Europe (Lopez-Bonilla, Barrera Barrera, & Rodriguez Serrano, 2012). In many ways, given the opportunities that degree convergence provided through the Bologna Declaration (1999) it is perhaps surprising that more articles have not cited this change as a key basis for conducting research on HE choice in Europe. Politically focused papers, however, such as Parker and Jary (1995) speculate on the consequences of HE change in the UK and conclude that political change and new funding arrangements have transformed the organisation of HE which has increased the power of management and reduced the autonomy of academics. Conceptual papers and opinion pieces also focus on political concerns when debating the shortcomings and limitations of a market-driven approach to HE choice and increasing privatisation of HE (e.g. Oplatka & Hemsley-Brown, 2010; Hemsley-Brown, 2011; Lowrie & Hemsley-Brown, 2011). Among these concerns are a possible decrease in the quality of teaching and learning, the challenge of less-than-competent candidates, and the commerciali...