مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

As the clock ticked down to the start of another new academic year, we gazed over the freshman class and shared a common thought. What circumstances unfolded such that this particular group of students came together at the same time, to the same school, in the same program? Each with their own educational experiences, socio-cultural backgrounds, and extra-curricular interests yet all of whom, in spite of these differences, choosing to attend this university and enroll in our business program. Within the context of university selection, were our students fundamentally the same as students in freshman management classes at other schools, or did they differ in some appreciable way? We decided we wanted to know more, not just because the answers might be of benefit to our university’s recruitment and admissions team, but because fundamentally, students are the lifeblood of our livelihood and to understand them better, helps us reflect on who we are as professors, what our role is as their instructors, and how we might better contribute to the academic mission of our universities.

The research objectives for this article were as follows: 1. To identify the factors millennial university students use in selecting among post-secondary institutions for their business studies; 2. To determine whether respondents of different genders employ the same selection criteria; and To determine whether respondents from the same province employ the same selection criteria as those students applying from out-of-province.

For convenience purposes, we chose to study university and academic program in Maritime Canada. The region consists of the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, for which there are sixteen universities, accounting for 70,817 registered full-time and part-time students in 2011, of which eleven offer undergraduate commerce and administration programs (MPHEC., 2012). Using a focus group of 24 students, followed by a pilot survey and then a general survey, we identified 32 criteria related to the importance in students’ decision-making as to which university to attend. We then asked first-year business students attending four of the sixteen universities in the region to assess the performance of their chosen university, and their business program, according to these criteria. Using factor analysis, we assessed the results of our importance-performance analysis and found differences in selection factors between female and male students, and between students originating from within their province of study and students who relocated from elsewhere within Canada, with our results significant at the 95% and 99% level of confidence. This research topic is of importance to university administrators, deans and recruiters who wish to stabilize or grow their undergraduate business program enrollments based upon a deeper understanding of university selection criteria.