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ABSTRACT
This research was completed in order to identify factors that influence a student's decision-making process when deciding to enroll in the Aerospace Program at Indiana State University. Many research studies have identified factors that influence a student's decision process when choosing between universities. However, very little research dealt with the factors that influence the decision- making process of a student when selecting a collegiate aviation program. A convenience sampling was taken of 133 students who were completing a degree in aerospace administration or professional piloting. Nineteen different factors were ranked in descending order of mean value. Additionally an independent sample one-way analysis of variance was completed to identify any statistically significant differences between the two aerospace majors.
INTRODUCTION
Many state universities face a new financial reality where more is expected while less money is given. This pressure is being felt at the departmental level. With the ever-mounting pressure on faculty to maintain enrollment numbers, identifying ways in which educators could increase or at least maintain high enrollment numbers has become imperative. As found by Bowen, Carstenson and Hansen (1999), "Aviation faculties must be proactive and must maximize efforts to use all available tools to recruit aviation students" (p. 15).
Fund-raising efforts are but one measure used to stem the loss of capital. In addition, enrollment numbers are linked directly to revenue and are used to gauge the health of a program. Bowen, Carstenson and Hansen (1999), found that "For an academic program to successfully compete for resources today, it must keep its enrollments up by actively marketing its courses" (p. 18). Therefore, a program could be in danger of elimination for chronic low enrollment. For these reasons, there must be an awareness of the factors which influence a student's decision. There is a direct relationship between these factors and student enrollment.
There has been very little research completed identifying factors that influence a student's decision when selecting a collegiate aviation program. However, there has been considerable research performed that identified the factors that influenced a student's decision when choosing which university to attend. These factors have relevance to this study since some are synonymous with the ones that influence a student when determining what collegiate aviation program to attend. Therefore, it is...