Communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of information

A proper assessment of the usefulness of the sources of information considered by prospective students could enable higher education institutions (HEIs) to allocate funds, time and resources more efficiently and effectively. The main objective of this study was to determine students’ perceptions on...

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Main Authors: Melanie Wiese, Yolanda Jordaan, Cornelius van Heerden
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Johannesburg 2022-10-01
Series:Communicare
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1699
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author Melanie Wiese
Yolanda Jordaan
Cornelius van Heerden
author_facet Melanie Wiese
Yolanda Jordaan
Cornelius van Heerden
author_sort Melanie Wiese
collection DOAJ
description A proper assessment of the usefulness of the sources of information considered by prospective students could enable higher education institutions (HEIs) to allocate funds, time and resources more efficiently and effectively. The main objective of this study was to determine students’ perceptions on the usefulness of sources of information that they used to select a public HEI in South Africa, and further to establish whether differences occur between the perceptions of students from various institutions. A quantitative study with a self-administrated questionnaire was used to obtain information by means of a non-probability convenience sample of 1 241 students from six public HEIs in South Africa. The findings indicated that prospective students find sources of information coming directly from a public HEIs - such as campus visits and open days, university publications and websites – to be of most use, while information from mass media, such as radio, television, magazines and newspaper advertisements are less important. The responses of students from the different institutions varied significantly regarding the usefulness of sources of information in selecting a public HEI. Although university publications, campus visits and open days, and also websites ranked high, the importance ranking between respondents from different institutions varied. The findings can be used to develop student-focused marketing communication that could aid prospective students in making more informed decisions about the public higher education institution they wish to attend.
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institution Kabale University
issn 0259-0069
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language English
publishDate 2022-10-01
publisher University of Johannesburg
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series Communicare
spelling doaj-art-0c1074f2c33144f9a66eab61fe1614102025-01-20T08:53:34ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502022-10-0128110.36615/jcsa.v28i1.1699Communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of informationMelanie Wiese0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0117-3830Yolanda Jordaan1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7540-6070Cornelius van Heerden2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2950-6051University of PretoriaUniversity of PretoriaUniversity of Pretoria A proper assessment of the usefulness of the sources of information considered by prospective students could enable higher education institutions (HEIs) to allocate funds, time and resources more efficiently and effectively. The main objective of this study was to determine students’ perceptions on the usefulness of sources of information that they used to select a public HEI in South Africa, and further to establish whether differences occur between the perceptions of students from various institutions. A quantitative study with a self-administrated questionnaire was used to obtain information by means of a non-probability convenience sample of 1 241 students from six public HEIs in South Africa. The findings indicated that prospective students find sources of information coming directly from a public HEIs - such as campus visits and open days, university publications and websites – to be of most use, while information from mass media, such as radio, television, magazines and newspaper advertisements are less important. The responses of students from the different institutions varied significantly regarding the usefulness of sources of information in selecting a public HEI. Although university publications, campus visits and open days, and also websites ranked high, the importance ranking between respondents from different institutions varied. The findings can be used to develop student-focused marketing communication that could aid prospective students in making more informed decisions about the public higher education institution they wish to attend. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1699prospective studentshigher education institutions (HEIs)sources of informationpublic HEI in South Africastudent-focused marketing communication
spellingShingle Melanie Wiese
Yolanda Jordaan
Cornelius van Heerden
Communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of information
Communicare
prospective students
higher education institutions (HEIs)
sources of information
public HEI in South Africa
student-focused marketing communication
title Communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of information
title_full Communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of information
title_fullStr Communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of information
title_full_unstemmed Communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of information
title_short Communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of information
title_sort communicating to prospective students through appropriate sources of information
topic prospective students
higher education institutions (HEIs)
sources of information
public HEI in South Africa
student-focused marketing communication
url https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1699
work_keys_str_mv AT melaniewiese communicatingtoprospectivestudentsthroughappropriatesourcesofinformation
AT yolandajordaan communicatingtoprospectivestudentsthroughappropriatesourcesofinformation
AT corneliusvanheerden communicatingtoprospectivestudentsthroughappropriatesourcesofinformation