The Effect of University Visibility on Students Enrolment in Private Universities Case Study: Muteesa I Royal University Masaka Branch

Abstract

The study establishes the effect of university visibility on students’ enrolment in private universities of Uganda. A case study design was used. The variable of the study were university visibility with dimensions of: web presence, Academic publication, and University ranking, students’ enrolment with dimensions of number of application, number of admissions, and number of registered students. The study was guided by the objectives: to establish relationship between web presence and students’ enrolment in the university, to determine relationship between university ranking and students’ enrolment in the university and to determine relationship between academic publications and students’ enrolment in the university. A simple random sampling methodology was employed to determine the 263respondents from the University. The data used was quantitative approaches that used questionnaires as the research approaches. It was carried out for three operational years 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The study indicate that university ranking has a strongest significant relationship on students’ enrolment though literature show that its often unclear why a particular indicator was chosen, by whom it was decided, and how open and reflective the decision process was hence unreasonable to evaluate universities with a uniform standard: The findings indicate that, the increase in academic publications has the greatest influence on students enrolment leading to development of more higher education institutions and low academic publications reduces institutions relative visibility; The study findings indicate that web presence has a negative significant relationship between students’ enrolment this might be dueto expensive internet availability that limits users hence rarely used by prospects and this gap calls for further research. The study recommends that further research probably longitudinal should be conducted by university professors to validate the relationship between web presence and university visibility; University management should encourage academic staff to increase their publications since it explains university visibility. University management should improve their network with other local groups in order to provide networking opportunities

The study concludes that academic publication, university ranking have a strong positive relationship on students’ enrolment hence prospects becoming aware of the brand and services or products of the university

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