Effect of Institutional Factors on Competitiveness of Universities

Higher education sector in Kenya has evolved and progressed tremendously from a record of one public university in the 1980s to a total of 49 universities (both public and private) in the year 2012. The rapid expansion of University opportunities and proposed change of government student funding policies, has led to stiff competition for students (customers) at levels that were previously unknown. With this expansion, students have a much wider range to select from. This trend of increasing competition is expected to continue in the foreseeable future. Due to this big number of universities in the country offering various market driven programmes and with the liberty to join any university, students are left with the challenge of making up their minds on which university to join due to the improved conditions of services, programmes, facilities, reputation and location of campuses availed by universities. The main objective of the study was to carry out an investigation of the effect of institutional factors (academic programmes, campus location, reputation and university facilities) influencing competitiveness of a University.