Factors influencing students’ choice of a federal university: a case study of a Nigerian federal university

The factors affecting students’ choice of higher education is essential for the university’s management. Various research across the world has been carried out to understand how students select their preferred universities for tertiary study; however, there is a shortage of insight from an African perspective. Specifically focusing on a federal university in Nigeria, this study aims to explore factors influencing students’ interest in the school and why they selected it as their study location. A structured questionnaire from 282 undergraduate students based on stratified random sampling was used to understand these choice factors. The study found that personal interest greatly influenced students’ decisions, followed by parental influence, university reputation, university ranking, and fees. The results provide an understanding of students’ choices for universities in a Nigerian context, which is a loose representation of the general influences of students’ choice for study sites on the continent. This would enable stakeholders working in the Nigerian education sector including academics, administrators and practitioners and international collaborators to understand the most effective ways to reach out to prospective students and draw useful lessons for universities' marketing strategies, which could be recommended not only in Nigeria but in Africa at large