Student reservation price: how much will prospective students pay for their undergraduate degrees?

Sutherland, Matthew, Waring, Teresa and Coates, Nigel (2011) Student reservation price: how much will prospective students pay for their undergraduate degrees? In: 10th European Conference on Research Methodology for Business and Management Studies, 20-21 June 2011, Caen, France.

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Tuition fees for home and EU undergraduate students studying at an English Higher Education Institution (HEI) are currently capped at £3,290. However, not all HEIs charge the full tuition fee of £3,290 resulting in some price differentiation in the market. A former Government review assigned to investigate the future of tuition fees in England recommended in October 2010 to entirely remove the fee cap. The UK coalition government have agreed to allow English universities to levy fees up to £9,000 for European and UK students, it is anticipated that this could lead to greater sector wide price differentiation, which may prove to have a significant influence on student behaviour. This paper investigates prospective students’ reservation price for their undergraduate degrees in England. A review of the marketing literature outlines a variety of theoretical approaches to estimating consumer reservation price, including: direct (observational) and indirect (hypothetical) techniques. One rare example of estimating student reservation price for English undergraduate degrees uses a direct approach, however no published study has used an indirect approach to investigate prospective students’ reservation price. The researcher will outline a more detailed understanding of student reservation price through the indirect approach of Discrete Choice Experiments. As part of an experimental research methodology, Discrete Choice Experiments’ believe it is the attributes and levels of a good that determines its utility. The researcher will outline a more detailed understanding of the stages involved in identifying the specific attributes which influence student reservation price for full-time undergraduate degrees. Findings reveal little guidance on how to construct a DCE from a marketing perspective. This paper intends to provide a theoretically alternative approach to estimating consumer reservation price synthesised from the literature and contextualised for the global HE sector.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	N900 Others in Business and Administrative studies X900 Others in Education
Department:	Faculties > Business and Law > Newcastle Business School
Depositing User:	Helen Pattison
Date Deposited:	03 Oct 2012 15:40
Last Modified:	19 Nov 2019 09:52
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/9375

Downloads