Choosing a University Course: First year students' expertise and information search activity

Higher education policy in Australia is increasingly based on the assumption that prospective students are able to operate as empowered decision-makers operating in an open choice environment (Baldwin, 1994). However, little research has been undertaken to evaluate students' capacity to undertake decision-making about their courses and institutions in an informed and empowered manner. Informed and knowledgeable (expert) consumers are expected to experience less cognitive dissonance after purchase of a product or service (Selnes and Troye, 1989). For students in transition to university, cognitive dissonance might be generated if the students expectations of the institution are not ful. lled (Avis, 1997; Wiese, 1994). Consequently, the understanding of students' expertise, and therefore their ability to undertake the highly complex decision-making task of choosing a university, is important to marketers and university administrators alike. Research into student decision making is still in its infancy in most countries and is the focus of this research note.