University Branding: Impacting factors for US-bound prospective Nigerian Students

Abstract

Today, Nigeria is becoming an attractive market for international students and this trend is rapidly growing as a result of the competition in the marketplace and its overall benefit, both to the university and the host country. According to UNESCO 2013/2014 report, about 36,260 Nigerian students traveled to the United Kingdom, Ghana and United States of America and in 2015 alone, about 9,494 Nigerian students traveled to the United States of America in search for higher education. It is gradually becoming very important for managers of higher education in Nigeria especially universities to have good understanding of the various factors that influence the decision of these potential Nigerian students to travel abroad for undergraduate studies. In view of this, this study seeks to investigate the major factors that influence the decision of Nigerian students to study abroad, especially in the United States of America for undergraduate degrees. Secondly, the study also examines how Nigerian universities can leverage on this consumer and market information to design and deploy a more effective branding strategy to attract this category of students in Nigeria and, in the long-term, from other countries. The sample population was selected using Judgmental sampling technique and the sample size was 314. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Factor Analysis—Exploratory Factor Analysis, was used in data analysis using SPSS version 20. The data analysis of this study outlined four major factors but two of these factors were considered reliable with Chronbach Alpha (α) 0.733 and 0.74. These two factors are: “University’s Geographic Location and Prestige” as well as “University’s Infrastructure and Environment.” The findings of this study indicate two major factors of consideration in the student decision making process. It also contribute to the understanding of the various influencing factors to study abroad decision as well as providing insight that will help strengthen universities’ marketing strategies.