This year at SAMIBC2020 we are pleased to announce another of our presenters, Rick Holaway from Lipscomb University. Rick will be presenting his paper Pricing for Higher Education and the Market’s Perceived Quality.
Presentation Abstract: Higher education battles with how much to increase tuition on a consistent basis. One of the concerns with increasing tuition is the negative effect it will have on their prospective student market. The literature review establishes an understanding of the Price-Quality (PQ) relationship as it pertains to pricing strategies and consumer behavior, its role in higher education, and identifies gaps in the research. The summary of the literature review serves to recover main points of interest through the previous sections and determine a need for further exploration into how the PQ relationship affects higher education. Budgetary needs, market positioning, new student enrollment and retention are only part of the discussion when trying to decide where to set tuition prices for the following year. Ensuring that the institutions establish their value statement in the minds of students and parents becomes a crucial aspect of pricing in higher education. A discussion of how the literature engages the process of raising tuition helps the reader comprehend the higher education environment and culture. Quality perception and rising tuition costs continues to influence decisions on campuses across the country. This study seeks to discover the relationship between price and quality perception (represented as 20 dependent variables related to higher education) of eight institutions that are CCCU members or affiliates. Correlation (to gauge the strength of the variables), descriptive statistics, and multiple regression (to form predictability measures from the historical data) were employed. The study shows significant findings related to how price (tuition and fees) correlates with changes in enrollment figures, retention, financial aid, alumni financial involvement, class sizes, student to faculty ratios, and acceptance rates.
Join us in Nashville, Tennessee to see this great paper and many more March 19 – 21, 2020. For registration information visit www.samnational.org/conference.