Abstract
PurposeThe increasing competition among higher education institutions (HEI) has led students to conduct a more in-depth analysis to choose where to study abroad. Since students are usually unable to visit each HEIs before making their decision, they are strongly influenced by what is written by former international students (IS) on the internet. HEIs also benefit from such information online. The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the drivers of HEIs success online.Design/methodology/approachDue to the increasing amount of information published online, HEIs have to use automatic techniques to search for patterns instead of analysing such information manually. The present paper uses text mining (TM) and sentiment analysis (SA) to study online reviews of IS about their HEIs. The paper studied 1938 reviews from 65 different business schools with Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation.FindingsResults show that HEIs may become more attractive online if they financially support students cost of living, provide courses in English, and promote an international environment.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the use of a major platform with a broad number of reviews from students around the world, other sources focussed on other types of HEIs may have been used to reinforce the findings in the current paper.Originality/valueThe study pioneers the use of TM and SA to highlight topics and sentiments mentioned in online reviews by students attending HEIs, clarifying how such opinions are correlated with satisfaction. Using such information, HEIs’ managers may focus their efforts on promoting international attractiveness of their institutions.
Highlights
Throughout the last decades the promotion of international student mobility (ISM) has been one of the top priorities of the European Commission
The current paper only studied opinions wrote in English, which could lead students to address that particular interest in their discussions, findings are aligned with the literature that shows that the desire to learn English as a second language is a strong motivation for studying abroad (Bourke, 2000; Counsell, 2011)
There were no significant differences in satisfaction on the remaining topics
Summary
Throughout the last decades the promotion of international student mobility (ISM) has been one of the top priorities of the European Commission. ISM strongly benefits both academic institutions and host countries (The European Commission, 2013; Beine, Noël and Ragot, 2014). Students who go through an international experience often remain in the host country after their studies, which contributes to the escalation of highly qualified workers who boost the country’s growth (González, Mesanza and Mariel, 2011; Beine, Noël and Ragot, 2014). Middle East, Asia and Latin America’s competition in this field is becoming increasingly more aggressive which leads to a rapid modification of ISM’s flows (The European Commission, 2013) To succeed in this competitive environment, Europe should increase HEIs attractiveness even further by effectively promoting ISM. According to Bourke (2000), academic education works as a mirror of each country’s culture, students tend to believe that countries with good reputations provide higher quality education services
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