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The decision to select one amongst many choices of higher education institutions (HEIs) is a complex process. At a theory-building level, this study investigates the determinants of students' decisions as they consider investing in a long-term credence service higher education (HE) contract in pre- and in-pandemic and the implications for education managers. The second aspect is how disruptive global events influence such choice-making.

The study hypothesized that there would be significant differences in the driving factors and their weight in students' decisions seeking admission into B-schools (Business schools). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and t-test validate the determinants and test hypothesized differences.

Results reveal that core faculty quality, industry exposure, institutional brand name, placement offered, return on investment and specializations offered are the preferred choice criteria. The results reveal that choice criteria in the pre-and in-pandemic differ significantly.

The application of the SEM approach on a large primary database of students during the pre and in-pandemic periods to understand the changes in the choice of B-school for admission is the original aspect of the paper. Insights from the four hypotheses which got rejected provide value to stakeholders. As the pandemic is rearing its head once again across the globe, this study would be able to inform admissions managers on how to navigate for admissions success.

The current research aims at investigating the mediating effect of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on the link between entrepreneurial education and choice of the university among students. The main focus of this paper is that when entrepreneurial education is properly-implemented at universities, it leads to several positive outcomes such as positive eWOM. Therefore, if the entrepreneurial education is used as a marketing model, it can be considered as the innovative model for attracting more students. By implementing this model, the university can enhance its approach to cultivating a positive image, potentially leading to increased student enrollments.

The study used a sample of 483 undergraduate students in different universities. As well, it used a structured questionnaire during the data collection. Additionally, the study used partial least squares (PLS-SEM) in analyzing direct and indirect relationships.

The findings of this study suggest that entrepreneurial education and eWOM are critical factors for student selection to the universities. This is because eWOM significant mediates the link between entrepreneurial education and university choice.

This study used cross-sectional design. Therefore, future research can use a longitudinal design in examining the link between independent and dependent variables so as to look into the changes over time.

The study presents potential strategies that universities can employ to market their programs more effectively. By strengthening their entrepreneurial education initiatives, universities can enhance their reputation and create positive eWOM, which can lead to higher enrollments.

This study offers innovative marketing approaches for universities and their programs. Instead of heavily investing in advertising, the study suggests that strengthening entrepreneurial education initiatives can be a more effective marketing strategy. The findings suggest that a positive reputation generated by strong entrepreneurial education initiatives can lead to positive eWOM, which, in turn, influences university selection. Therefore, universities can consider enhancing their entrepreneurial education offerings to attract more prospective students. The study also highlights the notion that quality speaks for itself, while a lack of quality requires advertising.

This paper aims to assess gender bias in Italian university student mobility controlling for the field of study. It uses data from the Italian National Student Archive (Anagrafe Nazionale degli Studenti – ANS) for the cohort of freshmen enrolled in the 2017 academic year. The macro-regional comparison unfolds across the following areas: North and Centre, Southern Italy and main Islands (Sicily and Sardinia).

The analysis is firstly carried out at the national level, and secondly, it focusses on macro-geographical areas. University mobility choices are thus investigated from a gender perspective, conditioning upon other theoretically relevant characteristics collected for the prospective first-year university student population enrolled in 2017. The authors analyse data in a regression setting (logit models) within the multilevel framework, which considers students at level 1 and the field of study at level 2. Gender differences in the propensity to be a mover – conditional upon the choice of the field of study – were captured by introducing random intercepts to account for clustering of students in fields of study and random slopes to allow the gender effect to differ among them.

Findings show that university student mobility in Italy leads evidence of gender bias. This has been detected using a multilevel random slope approach that allowed the authors to jointly estimate a slope parameter for gender within each field of study. Moreover, using a regression setting allowed the authors to control for heterogeneity in geographical, educational and socio-demographic characteristics across students. In line with previous empirical findings, the authors' data highlight the presence of a relevant mobility flow of university students from the South toward the North-Centre of Italy and lower mobility of female students compared to male students from the South and Islands.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no studies in Italy, which investigate if families' investment in higher education in terms of selection of no-local universities are affected by gender bias and if geographical differences in this behaviour between macro-areas are in place. Thus, investigating students' choices in tertiary education allows the authors to shed light on the presence of gender bias in families' education strategies addressed to increase the endowment of students' assets for future job opportunities.

University students are a unique population with great potential to adopt eating habits that promote positive human and planetary health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the current perceptions of sustainable eating behaviours among the students and to examine the determinants of sustainable eating behaviours.

Data were collected from December 2020 to May 2021 through focus group discussions among university students in Ontario, facilitated through synchronous online sessions. There were 21 student participants during the course of five focus group sessions (4–5 participants per session) from various departments within the university. The discussions were transcribed and analyzed for main themes and concepts using open coding; deductive coding based on the framework by Deliens et al. as well as the literature; and inductive coding for emerging themes.

The students had different perceptions about what constituted sustainable eating behaviours, some of which were not based on fact. A variety of individual, environmental (macro, micro and social) and university characteristics were mentioned as factors influencing sustainable food choices, with “food literacy” and “campus food” being the top two factors.

This study presents a novel and holistic overview of how sustainable eating behaviours and sustainable foods are perceived among university students and identifies the perceived determinants of adopting sustainable eating behaviours. This study helps with identifying opportunities to promote sustainable eating behaviours among university students and the design/implementation of informed interventions and policies aimed at improving eating behaviours.

The post-pandemic crisis has reshaped work dynamics across industries, leading to a widespread reliance on technology for remote work and business continuity. Operations have shifted to the digital space, altering job requirements and creating new career opportunities. The expansion of the digital industry has generated numerous career choices. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between self-efficacy, social media, career outcome expectations and career choices among fresh graduates in Malaysia amid the pandemic crisis.

Research data were collected from a sample of 318 fresh graduates from both public and private universities in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data in this study.

The empirical findings revealed significant correlations between self-efficacy, social media usage and career outcome expectations and the career choices of Malaysian fresh graduates.

The present study offers an empirical framework to explain career choices among fresh graduates in Malaysia during the pandemic crisis, based on a review of related literature on careers. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on career choices among Generation Z fresh graduates and provides practical implications for organizations and individual employees. It suggests developing relevant Human Resource Development (HRD) interventions to retain the young workforce within organizations.

This study enriches the existing literature on self-efficacy, social media and career outcome expectations in the context of a pandemic crisis. It offers a new interpretation of how individual and contextual factors impact career choices, shaping the career management attitudes of fresh graduates in the post-pandemic era. The empirical findings also give valuable insights into higher education institutions, organizations and government authorities in Malaysia to develop relevant interventions to assist undergraduate students in their career choice exploration.

The skillsets of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates are widely recognised to be important for economic prosperity. At the same time, it is broadly accepted that in England there is a need to increase the number of people studying STEM degree courses and working in STEM. However, despite decades of interventions post-16, STEM participation rates remain lower than projected requirements. Some research reports suggest a lack of positive attitudes towards these subjects and aspirations amongst some social groups. As these debates continue, official reports such as those released by the Department for Education show these patterns from the labour market and higher education (HE) extend to both attainment and participation in science and math in school.

In this paper, the authors summarise the authors' findings from the analysis of official reports, policy documents and major research reports focussing on attainment in school science and math and post-compulsory STEM participation.

The authors identify the problematic ways in which STEM subject choices are made across the student life cycle and then discuss how the leaky pipeline metaphor can be ambiguous and needs to be used with caution.

Some aspects identified here warrant further research and will be of particular interest to researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

In this new report, the authors identify the problematic ways in which STEM subject choices are made across the student life cycle in England and then discuss how the leaky pipeline metaphor can be ambiguous and needs to be used with caution.

Our goals were to explore the pedagogies applied by instructors that supported Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) student learning in a leadership course and the leadership behaviors BIPOC students identified as being applicable after the course.

Through survey research and qualitative data analysis, three prominent themes emerged.

High-quality, purposeful pedagogy created opportunities for students to learn. Second, a supportive, interactive community engaged students with the instructor, each other and the course material to support participation in learning. As a result, students reported experiencing big shifts, new growth and increased confidence during their leadership courses.

We discuss our findings and offer specific recommendations for leadership educators to better support BIPOC students in their leadership courses and classrooms and for further research with BIPOC students.

The objective of the study was to explore the factors influencing the career decisions of students doing the students' undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) programmes from urban private universities/colleges in the Indian context.

Career decision-making is determined by different factors and is contextual. The present study explores and identifies the prominent factors influencing career decision-making. A pool of 33 questions was developed, and these questions were initially administered to a sample of 233 students. Principal component analysis with Varimax Rotation identified salient factors. In the second study, confirmatory analysis was performed based on the opinion of 304 students.

The study shows that the student's career deciding factors include (1) career clarity, (2) career exploration, (3) career reward and recognition and (4) career initiative for professional and personal growth.

The study focussed on career-deciding factors for UG and PG students from urban universities/colleges in the Indian context and the findings can be used for planning career counselling interventions.

This study investigates theoretical relationships among personality characteristics, preferences for different types of rewards and the propensity to choose a job in auditing by management-related higher education students. Specifically, the authors consider motivation, locus of control (internal and external) and self-efficacy (SE) as personality characteristics and financial, extrinsic, support and intrinsic as types of rewards.

Data were collected through a questionnaire targeted at management-related higher education students in Portugal. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.

The full sample results show that different types of motivation, locus of control and SE are related to different reward preferences. The authors also find a positive association between a preference for extrinsic rewards and the propensity to choose a job in auditing. Moreover, when the authors consider the role of working experience in the model, the authors find that the reward preferences that drive the choice of an auditing job differ according to that experience.

This study enriches the literature by assessing preferences for different types of rewards, considering multiple personality characteristics and a comprehensive set of rewards. Furthermore, the authors identify the reward preferences that drive the choice of an auditing career. This knowledge empowers auditing firms to devise recruitment strategies that resonate with candidates’ preferences, which boosts the capacity of these companies to attract new auditors.

This practitioner-focused article highlights a collaborative, school-wide project at a PDS that showcased elementary students’ strengths and talents. Based on the children’s book, The Smart Cookie (John, 2021), teachers and the university professor-in-residence developed professional learning communities, which inspired the creation of a space for all students to demonstrate ways in which they were “smart cookies” that aligned with our comprehensive mission of promoting inclusive practices.

Rooted in professional learning communities, teachers at our PDS spent the first half of the school year learning about chosen topics of social–emotional learning, stamina and neurodiversity. The Smart Cookie Project was created to demonstrate the connections between these topics. Students at the PDS were given the opportunity to create an original project that showcased their creativity, interests and talents. Projects were then displayed during a schoolwide showcase.

The impact of the project and the showcase demonstrated the importance of creating opportunities for both teacher and student innovation. The project brought the community together, allowed students to be viewed through strengths-based perspectives, helped teachers see how their own learning can positively impact their practice and emphasized the need for honoring student choice in the classroom.

The project discussed here can lend itself to fellow PDSs looking to adopt innovative instructional approaches, honor inclusive practices and situate students in places of strength.