The Influence of Perceptions of Accreditation, Cost of Education, and Promotion on the Decision of Prospective Students to Pursue Postgraduate Studies at Universitas Harapan Medan

Universitas Harapan Medan is a leading university in Medan with four faculties divided into fourteen study programs consisting of three vocational programs, ten undergraduate programs, and a postgraduate program. This study aimed to empirically examine the influence of perceptions of accreditation, cost of education, and promotion on the decision of prospective students. It used a quantitative approach. The population and samples were 227 and 145 people respectively. The types of data used were primary and secondary data. The data collection techniques used were questionnaires, interviews, literature review, and document review. Tests carried out in this study were validity and reliability tests, classical assumption tests including normality test, multicollinearity test, and heteroscedasticity test, hypothesis tests including F test and t test, multiple linear regression analysis, and coefficient of determination (R2). The result of multiple linear regression was Y = 3.882 + 0.294 X1 + 0.027 X2 + 0.584 X3. In this study, the result also indicated that 62.8% of the Decision of Prospective Students at Universitas Harapan Medan were influenced by Accreditation (X1), Cost of Education (X2), and Promotion (X3), while the remaining 37.2% were influenced by other factors not being examined.