Dominant Factors Influencing New Students to Choose UNAI

Abstract

This paper is a result of a series of surveys conducted on the new students of Universitas Advent Indonesia (UNAI), batches 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, regarding the reasons of the students choosing UNAI to study. The purpose of the study is to see the dominant factors that influence the new students to choose UNAI and their preferred study programs. This information is expected to be a very important information for the decision makers to make a strategic planning of how to achieve UNAI vision that in 2020 UNAI students will be 3000, increasing from around 2000 in 2017, and to become an excellent university among Adventist Universities and colleges in Southern Asia Pacific Division (SSD). The results show that there are three factors that influence new students to choose UNAI, namely: UNAI is a dormitory campus with religious programs (55.77%), UNAI has a good quality and discipline (25.57) and UNAI has student labor or working education program (17.40%), while the rest is because UNAI is near their house or other reasons (12.87%). There are three reasons for the new students to choose the study program, firstly because they are interested or talented in the study program (53.60%), secondly the study program has good quality and easier to get job after graduation (33.5%) and the rest is there is other preferred study programs available in UNAI and their parents asked them to study in UNAI (12.85%). Another important factor for the new students to choose UNAI is because UNAI has a good accreditation level from government. 88.10% of the new students agree and even fully agree that the accreditation level of the preferred study program is very important factor for them to choose the study program. Since this study only surveyed the new students coming to UNAI, not all Adventist children, therefore it is interesting to study in the future why some of the Adventist families in West Indonesia Union Missions (estimated to be around 80%) do not come to UNAI to study.