Facilities Play a Key Role in Students’ Enrollment Decisions, Study Finds

Do dormitories, libraries, academic buildings, and student unions really help colleges recruit — and keep — students? A new study sponsored by the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers says the answer is a clear-cut yes.

However, the buildings that matter most to students may not be the ones college administrators and others would expect.

“Buildings related to academics are the most important,” says David A. Cain, vice president and associate in the higher-education sector of Carter & Burgess, a consulting company. “Students really want to know what type of facilities are in their major.”

According to the survey, 73.6 percent of the respondents named facilities related to their majors as “extremely important” or “very important” in choosing a college. Other academic-oriented facilities — the library, technology, and classrooms — followed. Each of those was identified by about half the respondents. Residence halls, which have been an integral part of the recent campus building boom, were a key part of the selection process for 42.2 percent of students.

Students at 46 institutions in the United States and Canada participated in the online survey that produced the data for a report, “The Impact of Facilities on Recruitment and Retention of Students.” The survey, conducted in the spring of 2005, drew 16,153 respondents. But data from only the 13,782 students at American colleges were included in a recently released summary of the study.

The report’s authors, Mr. Cain and Gary L. Reynolds, facilities director at Colorado College, say their work updates a 1980s study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. That study, considered landmark at the time, found that 62 percent of students surveyed said the factor that most influenced them during a campus visit was the appearance of a college’s grounds and buildings.

The new study done by APPA, as the facilities group is commonly known, reinforces the notion that the facilities students see — or do not see — on a campus can mean the difference between whether they enroll or not.

On students’ must-see list during college visits were buildings housing their major, said 56.8 percent of respondents. Rounding out the top five were residence halls at 53.1 percent, the library at 48.4 percent, classrooms at 46 percent, and technology facilities at 40 percent.

Nearly three out of 10 students spurned a college because it lacked a building or amenity they thought important. Chief among those were buildings that house or support the student’s major, and open space.

Inadequate or poorly maintained facilities, particularly dormitories, were almost as important as the absence of a facility. Twenty-six percent of respondents rejected an institution because an important building was inadequate, and 16.6 percent nixed a college because an important facility was poorly maintained.

Role of Race and Gender

The study also revealed how demographic differences, such as race and gender, play a role in how students view campus facilities. For instance, female respondents wanted to see dormitories, facilities related to their majors, the library, classrooms, the student union, and open space during a campus visit. However, male students were most interested in seeing an institution’s computer and technology capabilities, research and lab facilities, and varsity athletics facilities, Mr. Reynolds says.

The survey’s respondents, who ranged from freshmen to graduate students, were 68 percent female and 32 percent male. (A few questions were tested using a gender-balanced subset of respondents, which gave the researchers “some assurance” that the gender imbalance did not significantly skew the results.) Nearly half of the respondents were enrolled at public institutions with more than 25,000 students.

Over all, 66 percent of students said they were “extremely satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the facilities on their campus.

Mr. Reynolds says senior college officials could find the study useful when deciding how to maximize the impact on enrollment of a limited facilities budget. For instance, “if you’re trying to recruit chemistry majors and you have a run-down chemistry building, you might want to put some money into fixing that,” he says. Admissions and housing officials could benefit from the study, too, the authors say.

Meanwhile, presidents armed with data from the report can make a case to their trustees, or even their legislators, for “developing policies around what students want,” Mr. Cain says. “The students have spoken.”

At any rate, colleges that have neglected their facilities can no longer afford to ignore their importance, the report’s authors say. “Long-range planning for new construction and the repair and replacement of existing facilities and infrastructure must be a guiding principle within the context of the institution’s strategic plans and overall academic mission,” wrote Mr. Cain in an e-mail message.

http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Volume 52, Issue 40, Page A27