Sample Selection

Discuss about the Education Research for Globalization.

Globalization has made the world a smaller place and with it education in global top universities has become the aim of students all over the world. Students in different parts of the world are now able to apply in top universities together with analyzing all the various amenities provided by them along with the quality of education that is being given. As a result there has been created a sense of competition among the colleges throughout the world. This calls for proper targeted marketing at the right audience so that they can identify the right talent and make a proper use of their resources. This report makes an attempt to achieve that goal of a particular college named Holmes College. For that a sample of 20 students has been identified who would be questioned about the various aspects of college education and their inclinations towards any particular services which had driven their choice of Holmes College. Although it is small group of people, there is ample opportunity to understand the pros and cons of the college and will provide the management with the opportunity to improve on the aspects which are not that great. With this premise the coming sections of this report would make an attempt to critically analyze the drivers of college selection and rejection(Miyoshi, 2011).

Sample selection for any research purpose is one of the most difficult and elementary activities of conducting a successful research study. Research design plays a crucial part in the success of the research in achieving its goals and objectives. All the work that has been done previously in this arena of marketing has been the result of proper research design targeted at the right audience. Since there is no hypothesis in this research study then the techniques that can be followed for this study might be a deductive one. Deductive study is one wherein the researcher gathers data from the ground level and then structures them properly so that they can be used for interpreting those (Management & Luck now, 2013). These interpretations then lead to the development of hypothesis which can be validated with the help of data and information that is at hand. Such a deductive approach requires identifying the right sample so that the research goals and objectives can be properly investigated and the study can come up with relevant results which will add value to the existing literature. Since the current research is based on the educational domain therefore the students from the Holmes have been chosen for this study. There are a total of 20 students who have been selected for this research and special care has been taken to ensure that these students are from varied backgrounds financially, demographically and all other aspects. This has been done in order to incorporate diversity and the preferences of different segments of the population (Kim, 2010).

Characteristics

As mentioned in the earlier section that care had been taken to incorporate participants from every section of the population so that they can add varied perspectives to the research study. Demography is one aspect of the sample which has profound impact on the choice of educational institute that they make. Some of them were from poor economic background for which education was an avenue for emancipation from the middle class lifestyle and daily drudgery (Punch, 2009). For others it was an opportunity early on in their life to be a part of a prestigious college and enhance their educational qualifications while others were looking forward for the kind of experience that they would possibly get once they enter the curriculum of the college. There were people for whom education was the stepping stone for achieving something bigger in life and was just the start of a long journey and there were others who had joined the college utterly out of their parental pressure. All these aspects were captured in the diversity that was provided in the sample and tells briefly about the future prospects of the students in the college. Once we have an idea about the future plans of the stakeholders in the college then we can chart out a well-defined research method for the further investigation of the reasons behind choosing this college (de P. Shanika, 2006). The demographic and psychographic characteristics have been documented in detail keeping in mind the wide impact it has while choosing a college. These data or information has been subjected to further statistical analysis which will lead to revelation of valuable insights regarding the choice of their college (Livesey & the Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2010).

When all the students were asked questions regarding their choices a lot of aspects came out from the discussion which talks about the efficacy of the education system in the country. Almost all of them had decided a set of premier institutes were they would like to pursue their education apart from a few who had no knowledge about the kind of colleges he or she would have liked to join but wanted to cross the bridge once they reached there. For most of them their decisions were heavily influenced by their parents and the peer group among whom they were preparing. Over the years various repositories create data bank which rank the colleges on various parameters (Park, 2004). These reports had a considerable influence in creating an impression in the mind of the aspirants. Apart from these the teachers under which they were preparing also had a clear idea about the colleges were high quality education was serviced and the standard of faculty present in each of the colleges. They gave a detailed overview regarding the colleges and they were efficiently guided by them. There were few people who no clue about the different colleges and through only after getting the results in their hands. Past performance of all the colleges is now available online and anyone can access that information without any restriction (G. Brewer, Institutes, Education, Ed, & with an introductory essay by… Michael Bassey, 1996). Students can go online and search in detail about their preferred course in order to gain an idea about them. These details given by colleges in their own website also provide enough influence and marketing communication regarding college selection. Last but not the least; a lot student’s choices were driven by the kind of job one gets after getting a degree from the Holmes College (R. Renjith Kumar & Khadir, 2012). They searched up LinkedIn and other such job portals to connect with the individual alumni’s and understand from them the job prospects that are available for them. Therefore job criteria should be given a lion’s share of the weight age for influencing student’s decisions. All these aspects came out after a thorough analysis of the data that had been gathered from the participants of the study (Boulding, 2004).

Consumer Decision Process

The prime factors that have impacted the choice of students while deciding on Holmes College are as follows (Association, Council, Measurement, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 2014):

• Quality of faculty at Holmes which ultimately improve the quality of education in the college
• The amenities provided within the college premises and the hostels that are the prime source of accommodation for outside students
• The environment that is provided for the students is conducive for learning different skills and updating oneself
• The alumni network is quite wide because of the legacy that the college has provided students and therefore the students feel that they can leverage on it in their future endeavors
• The job opportunity and the paycheck that one gets after stepping out of Holmes college is one of the most important drivers of choosing this college over others

These were some of the broad response of the participants and it is justified to assume that similar responses can be expected if the research is emulated in other colleges as well (Rumberger, 2012).

Almost all of them had decided a set of premier institutes were they would like to pursue their education apart from a few who had no knowledge about the kind of colleges he or she would have liked to join but wanted to cross the bridge once they reached there. For most of them their decisions were heavily influenced by their parents and the peer group among whom they were preparing (BOSWELL & BROWN, 2009). Over the years various repositories create data bank which rank the colleges on various parameters. These reports had a considerable influence in creating an impression in the mind of the aspirants. Apart from these the teachers under which they were preparing also had a clear idea about the colleges were high quality education was serviced and the standard of faculty present in each of the colleges. They gave a detailed overview regarding the colleges and they were efficiently guided by them. There were few people who no clue about the different colleges and through only after getting the results in their hands (Schreier, 2005). Past performance of all the colleges is now available online and anyone can access that information without any restriction. Students can go online and search in detail about their preferred course in order to gain an idea about them. These details given by colleges in their own website also provide enough influence and marketing communication regarding college selection. Last but not the least; a lot student’s choices were driven by the kind of job one gets after getting a degree from the Holmes College. They searched up LinkedIn and other such job portals to connect with the individual alumni’s and understand from them the job prospects that are available for them. Therefore job criteria should be given a lion’s share of the weight age for influencing student’s decisions. All these aspects came out after a thorough analysis of the data that had been gathered from the participants of the study (Rumberger, 2012)…

Therefore these are some of the aspects of the college that the administration should focus upon and try to improve so that in future also they can attract similar talented pool of students. Although Holmes College can be considered to have done a pretty good job in providing quality education there is always scope for improvement and this research has provided ample information to the college authorities to improve upon their education system and their infrastructure (Bitektine, 2007).

Factors

Conclusion

This research report deals in detail about the various aspects of educational institute which influence prospective students to take up their college for further education. The various parameters that were gathered from the sample data have been documented in this report and it is expected that the college management will take necessary actions in order to improvise those areas. Moreover it provides ample marketing perspective for colleges so that they can increase their exposure in certain areas of publicity and generate awareness among the students of different sections. At last it is justified to mention that this report has made an attempt to create a structured methodology for the thorough analysis of different aspects of educational institute which can emulated for similar other academic purpose.

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