Positioning universities based on the preference network of economics department students

Abstract

The research aims to determine the positioning of universities according to the preferences of university students based on the perceptions of stakeholders receiving service. In the study, the number of preferences for each university included in the YKS preference lists of all students placed in the Department of Economics at universities in Turkey in 2019 were evaluated using the integer method. The data were collected separately from the preference pages of each university through the "Higher Education Program Atlas". In the study, "Modularity Based Community Analysis" was applied with the Gephi program. In the research, the universities with the most critical position in terms of the Economics department were determined. In the preference network, it has been determined that clusters are generally formed based on physical proximity in Istanbul, Izmir, and Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia. The study also showed that the positioning of universities in student preferences might be effective in different criteria such as research potential of universities apart from geographical reasons. Since there is no similar research in the literature regarding obtaining the data and the technique used, it is expected that the study will contribute to the studies in this field.