Logistic regression for determining factors influencing students’ perception of reputation of an ODL institution

• Main Authors: Latifah Abdol Latif, Ramli Bahroom, Ng, Man San
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: LC5201 Education extension. Adult education. Continuing education
• Online Access: http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/397/1/logistic.pdf; http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/397/
• Institution: Open University Malaysia

In today’s competitive higher education environment, an institution needs to be pro-active in generating higher revenue and also to remain ahead of its competitors. There are basically two ways to increase revenue, that is, to increase new intakes and to retain a maximum number of existing students. In the case of the former, one of the best strategies to adopt is to utilise the institution’s own students to attract others to enroll. The strategy will be successful if the students believe very strongly in the reputation of their university. The objective of this study is to determine the satisfaction factors that contribute positively to students’ perception of reputation in OUM, the first ODL institution in Malaysia. The study employs logistic regression technique. Based on a sample of 2,662 students in 2007, the study found that the significant predictors for institution’s reputation were “Teaching and Learning”, “Learner Centredness” and “Student Affairs Management”; the odds ratio indicated that “Teaching and Learning” has the highest impact on the outcome variable, followed by “Learner-Centredness” and “Student Affairs Management”. However, the logistic regression model adopted in this study explained only 19.0% of the variation in the outcome variable, indicating that there is a need to identify other variables in future research in this area. (Authors' abstract)