Student satisfaction, league tables and university applications: evidence from Britain

Stephen Gibbons, Eric Neumayer and Richard Perkins

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We investigate the impact of information about student satisfaction on university choice, using data from the UK's National Student Survey (NSS) and on applications to undergraduate degrees. We show that NSS scores have a small statistically significant effect on applications at the university-subject level. This effect operates via the influence of the NSS on a university's position in separately published, subject-specific league tables, suggesting that information contained in the league table rankings is more salient. The impact of rankings is greater for more able students, for universities with entry standards in the upper-middle tier, and for subject-departments facing more competition.

Keywords: student satisfaction; higher education; information; university choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D8 H0 I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published in Economics of Education Review, 2015, 48, pp. 148-164. ISSN: 0272-7757

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Journal Article: Student satisfaction, league tables and university applications: Evidence from Britain (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:62875

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