Subject Specific League Tables and Students' Application Decisions

Arnaud Chevalier and Xiaoxuan Jia ()
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Xiaoxuan Jia: Anglia Ruskin University

No 8869, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Do applicants to higher education rely on expert judgement about the quality of the course when applying? Using application data across UK universities over a period of 8 years, we investigate how league tables affect prospective students' application decisions. We use subject specific ranking rather than the commonly used institution level ranking. We find that a one standard deviation change in the subject-level ranking score of an institution is associated with on average a 4.3% increase in application numbers per faculty. This effect is particularly pronounced among faculties with the best scores, and overseas applicants. Limits to the number of applications have increased the preponderance of league tables.

Keywords: higher education applications; league tables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2015-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Manchester School, 2016, 84, 600-620

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Related works:
Journal Article: Subject-Specific League Tables and Students' Application Decisions (2016)
Working Paper: Subject specific league tables and students'application decisions (2015)
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