REASONS WHY FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS SELECTED A BUSINESS COLLEGE AT A UNIVERSITY: POST-PANDEMIC INSIGHTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Recruiting and retaining students is increasingly challenging in a highly competitive higher education arena. Various external factors influence first-year students’ choices of career and preferred higher education provider. Determining first-year students’ prior knowledge and reasons for making these choices could help higher education institutions to understand first-year student cohorts better and inform appropriate marketing strategies and content. This study explores first-year students’ prior knowledge of higher educational institutions, various qualification offerings, reasons for selecting a college at a university as a higher education provider, and reasons for selecting a particular qualification. The study was conducted in a specific business college at a comprehensive university in South Africa. Most of these first-year students are first-generation students from lower-income communities and public high schools. A qualitative research method guided this study. An online survey with 28 open-ended questions concluded the data collection. The findings were analysed through inductive content analysis and indicated that many first-year students make uninformed and unguided choices about their career-based qualification and higher education institution. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a pan-African perspective on first-year students’ prior knowledge of study and career opportunities and higher education institutions, and on their reasons for selecting specific career qualifications and a college at a university as their preferred choice for higher education studies.