Some significant differences between the responses of male and female applicants are found on individual items (Table 7.1). In assessing the influence of various considerations on their choice of university, women indicate that they are less concerned than men with starting salaries for graduates, where their friends are planning to go (for school-leavers), and the information technology used in teaching. They are more concerned with the atmosphere of the campus and the opportunities for higher degree study.

Among mature-age applicants women are less concerned than men with the availability of classes outside working hours, perhaps an indication that more mature-age women are intending to study full-time or that their other commitments are more flexible.

Applicants’ socioeconomic background was classified for the purposes of the study by the highest education levels reached by their parents (see Chapter 3 and the appendix). On the basis of this measure, socioeconomic background does not seem to show a strong relationship to applicants’ reasons for choosing a particular university, but there are some differences between the higher and lower socioeconomic groups. Overall, there are no statistically significant differences between these groups on the ‘Institutional characteristics and reputation’ and ‘Personal "fit"’ scales, however, as Table 7.2 shows, higher socioeconomic applicants are more influenced than the lower socioeconomic group by the prestige of the university and the social and cultural life on campus.

Note: * 5 point scale
5=very strong influence to 1=no influence at all

Taken together, these findings suggest the dominance of short-term practical issues over long-term status and prestige for lower socioeconomic applicants. The focus on immediate needs versus the value of the university experience itself may be a fundamental contrast between those who have cultural capital and those who do not.

7.3 The influence of location

There is a clear, statistically significant difference between urban applicants and rural/isolated applicants on the ‘institutional characteristics and reputation’ scale. Urban applicants indicate that status considerations have more influence on their choice of institution—a mean of 2.95 for urban applicants, compared with 2.68 for rural/isolated (statistically significant at p=0.001). In contrast, there is no statistically significant difference in the extent to which these two groups look for personal ‘fit’ (means of 2.48 and 2.55 respectively).

Predictably, some of the differences on individual items are related to considerations of distance (Table 7.3). Thus, rural/isolated students are more concerned with the availability of housing at or near the university. Other differences point to variations in attitudes and values, the causes of which can only be the subject of speculation. Rural/isolated students are less concerned than their urban counterparts with the opportunities for higher degree study, the information technology used in teaching, starting salaries for graduates, the image of the university—some of which may point to lack of knowledge—and their parents’ views of the best university for them.

Within the mature-age group, urban students are more influenced by their employers’ views, the availability of classes outside working hours and the ease of access to the university from their workplaces. The lower means of rural/isolated students on the last two of these items may indicate that they are more likely to be planning to study by distance.

Table 7.3 Influences on applicants, selected item means and frequencies by applicants’ location

SL = responses of school-leavers only

MA = responses of mature-age applicants only