Evaluation of items on instruments of consumer attitudes, word of mouth, and decisions of private universities

Abstract

Early research is motivated by demands and developments in the world of education that are so competitive that universities must be able to carry out professional education so that it suits the needs of the labor market. Factors of human resources (HR) that have high competition are necessary for the era of global market competition and national development as a whole. These conditions increasingly encourage the world of education, including universities, to immediately prepare human resources which have high competence, can innovate and be creative. The rapid increase of higher education institutions has increasingly made the conditions of competition in seizing every market share increasingly tight. However, some research results still found some disadvantages including still using the same instrument but the results are different, there is no valid measuring instrument (instrument) to measure students’ decision to choose to study in private universities that are influenced by consumer attitudes and word of mouth. The study was conducted in Rokan Hulu Regency by using several respondents in private universities in Rokan Hulu regency including Pasir Pengaraian University, Rokania STKIP, ISQ, STAI Tuanku Tambusai, and Open University. The purpose of this study is to obtain a valid instrument in measuring student decisions in choosing to study at private universities so that these instruments are expected to be valid benchmarks that can be used as a measure of consumer decisions. The population in the study were all students enrolled as active students in private universities in Rokan Hulu district. The research sample was taken using a random sampling technique and used the sample criteria. The research data was processed using the Rash Model with the help of the Rasch Ministep (Winsteps) program.