An investigation on factors affecting students' university choice

The main objective of this study is to provide recommendations to the students about what they pay attention to what factors in the university preferences and to determine how they are perceived by students and to be able to get in a position to build awareness in the sector of growing universities. The subject of the study is consisted of factors affecting the students' university preferences. The students' perceptions on the potential factors which affecting the students' university preferences were examined. The researchers of the study consists of high school seniors preparing for the university entrance exam and graduated students in Turkey. The research tries to identify the factors affecting the students' university preferences by applying questionnaires to these students in Turkey's seven regions and each region's largest provinces such as; Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Erzurum, Samsun, Gaziantep university based on the stratified sampling method, the current total of 1112 questionnaires were obtained, and the obtained data are analyzed on SPSS program. The T-test, Anova, Correlation analysis, Factor analysis and Cluster analysis were performed. As a result of the research, the concerns of the students who preparing for university entrance exams are grouped under six headings; the university's image and brand value, the university's facilities that it offers, the basic needs that the university covers, social school and the prep school's guidance for the university choices, the influence of the family on university choice, including the sports facilities and circle of friends. As a result of correlation analysis of the research it revealed that there is a relationship between the demographic characteristics of students with their thoughts on university preferences. As a result of the differential analysis It was found significant differences between the thoughts of the students' preference on universities and demographic characteristics. In the study, the most important factors affecting the students' choice of university have created some elements such as; the universities in the city, the job security that university provide, to have a good image of the preferred sections in the university. It is for seen that the obtained results will benefit to the universities which are in competition matters about strategy development. Key words: University image, student preferences, institutional opportunities, family and circle of friends.