Does a name change attract better students? Evidence from Chinese universities

Abstract

A number of Chinese universities have changed their names in recent years, providing an opportunity for an empirical analysis of whether a name change could attract students with higher admission scores. Using panel data from 522 universities in China (2005 to 2015), this paper examines the effect of a university's name change on student admission scores. The results indicate that, in general, a name change did not significantly improve the admission score of the university. However, after examining four types of name changes it was found that different name change methods had different effects. Specifically, renaming an institution from a college to a university and incorporating the name of a large regional area lead to a significant improvement in the admission scores; in contrast, choosing a more “fashionable” name and eliminating references to historical industrial affiliations have no significant effect, and may even have a negative impact.