The Effect of Social Media on Student Perceived Value on Higher Education in North Cyprus

In general, the studies confirm that social media improves the brand perception. Thus in this study, it is aimed to find out what effects the social media have on consumers. More specifically, this thesis investigated whether the social media improved the consumer perceived value through the perceived quality and perceived price. The sector analyzed is the higher education (university) sector and social media’s effect on student’s value perception about university education is investigated through perceptions of education quality and price. So, consumers of education can be regarded as students and the firms that provide education service can be regarded as universities in this thesis. The survey questionnaire of 5-point Likert Scale was used in order to measure and gather the data. Questionnaire consisted of 21 items which belonged to different aspects of social media content and value measure. The questionniare were distributed to university students studying in North Cyprus. The results were computed using SPSS. It has been shown in this study that, university-created social media (UCSM) content is less effective than student-generated (user-created) social media (SCSM) content on students’ perceived quality on education (SPQ), students’ price perception on education (SPP) and in-turn students’ value perception on education (SPV). Keywords: Social Media, University created social media content, Student created social media content, Perceived quality, Perceived price, Perceived value, Higher Education, University