Analysing Significant Factors Considered by General Public in Selecting Higher Educational Opportunities in Private Institutions

Abstract

Gaining higher education is vital for a person to find more lucrative careers pursuing a better professional and personal life growth. In the modern world, private education institutes play an imperative role by opening up many more opportunities for those who are seeking higher education aspirations. The study was carried out with the objectives of identifying the potential students for a particular programme of a private higher education institute in Sri Lanka and to identifying the salient factors which are considered by the students when selecting higher education opportunities in the private institutions. Due to the unavailability of secondary data source, primary data was collected through a questionnaire survey and descriptive analysis has been carried out to check the relationship between the response variables and other explanatory variables. Due to the availability of colliniarity between explanatory variables and as those variables, factor analysis has been carried out. Hypothesis testing has been carried out for ordinal data using Kruskal Wallis test. As per the major findings, higher studies are more preferred by male students those who have done mathematics for their Advanced Level studies. The main sources, referred for gathering course information are friends and the websites. With reference to the education background and occupation of the respondents�?? parents, the most have advanced level qualification, most fathers are government servants and businessmen and mothers are house wives. Parents are the main source of financial contributor for their higher studies. Majority of the respondents live and have studied at Colombo, Sri Lanka and have gone to national schools. According to the factor analysis, Education quality, Institute, Location of the institute, Total Cost, Peer/Adult Influence, Family Tradition, Availability of accommodation and Social Atmosphere are the determinates considered by students those who are pursuing higher education.