The attractiveness of programmes in higher education: an empirical approach

ABSTRACT

Higher education institutions have experienced an increase in student enrolment over the past decades. At the same time, universities increasingly attempt to attract students by offering a variety of study programmes. Using a Dutch panel data set of 1300 programmes in 50 institutions, this study investigates what explains the attractiveness of study programmes. We hypothesize that the distance of study programmes plays a major role in student decisions to attend. Based on an instrumental variables identification strategy, we demonstrate that the closest distance between similar programmes offered and competition between programmes have significant effects on the enrolment of students in higher education. The results indicate that a one-kilometer increase in the closest distance between similar programmes decreases the number of students to enrol in a programme by – seven students after controlling for programme type and other characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• attractiveness
• distance
• competition

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank participants at the 2016 Workshop on Education Economics at Maastricht University for their useful comments on previous versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ferdi Widiputera was born in Hamburg, Germany, on April 9, 1978. He completed a Bachelor Degree in Economics at Trisakti University between 1996 and 2000. He also holds a Master Degree in Economics from University of Indonesia, graduating in 2004. He has several years of working experience in multinational company from 2001 to 2009. Since 2010, he worked in the government sector at the Ministry of Education and Culture of The Republic of Indonesia. Ferdi has received a scholarship from his institution and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Top Institute of Evidence Based Education Research, Maastricht University.

Kristof De Witte is a tenured associate professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business at KU Leuven, Belgium, and he holds the chair in ‘Effectiveness and Efficiency of Educational Innovations’ at Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research (TIER) at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Kristof De Witte is further an affiliated member of the CESifo Network (Ludwig-Maximilians-University and Ifo Institute).

Wim Groot is Professor of Health Economics since 1998 and Professor of Evidence Based Education since 2008, both at Maastricht University. In 1986 he received a M.A. degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam and in 1992 a Ph.D degree in Economics from the same university. He is the co-founder and scientific-director of the Teachers Academy of Maastricht University and the Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research. Since 2015 he is also Professor of Evidence Based Education and Labor Market Policy at the University of Amsterdam.

Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink is professor of Economics (Education, Labor Market and Economic Development) at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the Department of General Economics at the University of Amsterdam and professor of Evidence Based Education at Maastricht University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Economics (cum laude) at the University of Amsterdam in 1994. Since 2008 she is the Scientific Program-Director of TIER (Interuniversity Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research). Since 2015 she is Chairman of the Education Council of the Netherlands. Her research interests are in the areas of education, labor and health economics. Her publications can be found on www.tierweb.nl.

Notes

1. Calculations based on the stata module, known as ‘nearstat’, generated the closest distance between neighbour programmes based on geographic co-ordinates (latitude and longitude).