Postgraduate study preferences of business administration and economics students from Colombia, Ecuador, and Spain

Abstract

We analyse the preferences of students of Economics and Business Administration regarding the characteristics of a postgraduate programme, and estimate their willingness to pay for each one. We carry out a discrete choice experiment involving students of Economics and Business Administration at five universities in Spain, Colombia, and Ecuador. The method applied is a latent class model, and the main conclusions indicate that for Spanish students the most important characteristic of a postgraduate programme is the possibility of an internship, while for Colombian and Ecuadorean students it is the reputation of the university. Another result indicates that Colombian and Ecuadorean students attach a much higher importance to the opportunity to study abroad than do Spanish students.