ANALYSING FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS' COLLEGE CHOICE DECISION IN SURABAYA IN THE FORM OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Abstract
Nowadays education has become a necessity for people. It is a right and
obligation that must be carried out by every human being as it helps someone to
develop himself and have a good character that contributes success both in career
and social life.
The era has evolved into the era of globalization, where everything in the
world has changed in a more advanced direction. One of them is technology. With
the existence of sophisticated technology now the unemployment rate is getting
higher. Because technology can shift human labor that is replaced by robot.
Therefore oneself’ skills must be explored so as not to lose competitiveness with
the current technology. Thus, being an educated person is very important and one
of the ways is by continuing education to college. In higher education, skills will
develop and be honed corresponding with the chosen major or study program.
Many high school students compete to enter their favorite university, both
public and private universities, which number is always keep increasing. The
market in higher education institution has turned more competitive, causing
universities to reformulate its strategy in getting high rate of enrolment.
The purpose of this research is to reveal which are the most important
variables of Location, Academic Programmes, College Reputation, Educational
Facilities, Cost, Availability of Financial Aid, Advertising, Campus Visit, Parents
Opinion and Social Environment and its indicators too toward students’ College
Choice Decision in the form of Social Media and will be applied to help Universitas
Pelita Harapan Surabaya to obtain better enrolment rate.
This study uses a descriptive approach to the analysis technique of
Structural Equation Model (SEM) and the AMOS 22.0 software. The questionnaire
distributed to 171 respondents in the sample in which the characteristics of
respondents that consists of male and female in the age range 15-18 years old
domiciled in Surabaya, who are seeking to continue their education to higher
education institution. The sampling method used in this research that is nonprobability
sampling.
The results based on the data gathered from senior high school students
shows that Cost is the number one variable that has the most significant effect,
followed by Campus, and then Academic Programmes in the third place that has
significant effect. The rest variables do not have significant effect on students’
College Choice Decision but has positive influence to it and if sorted according to
the highest C.R. value after Academic Programmes are Location, Advertising,
College Reputation, Availability of Financial Aid, Parents Opinion, Educational
Facilities, and Social Environment