Difeferences In Candidates Information Needs When Choosing The Faculty To Attend In The Technical Field

Two important issues are currently at the forefront of national and European debates regarding sustainable economic development and access to education: fostering education and employment among the young and reducing attrition rates in higher education. These two aspects are even more important in the context of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds where various aspects such as lack of information or lack of funding challenge graduating from higher education. Romanian universities are currently faced with considerably high drop-out rates, with more than 30% of students not reaching graduation day. Yet, little quantitative analysis has analysed the causes generating such high levels of student attrition. The article takes on this challenge and aims to analyse the differences in candidates information needs when choosing the faculty to attend in the technical field between students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and students not facing such difficulties. The approach focuses on the information search phase of the buying decision-making process by analysing what information is offered and sought at the moment students present themselves to the admissions office for the admission procedure. A number of 430 questionnaires asking first year students to rate the quality and importance of the various information received during the admission phase were analysed with the goals to: 1) identify the information students require in order to make a conscious, informed choice when choosing their specialty and 2) identify differences in information needs between students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and students not facing such challenges. Results show information needs to be tailored according to the different socio-demographic characteristics of the candidates. The article then suggests concrete measures for developing the information phase during the admission process in order to thus contribute to reducing attrition, while at the same time foster higher education enrolment and completion of studies among students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The paper is particularly aimed at higher university professionals involved in the admissions process in the technical field by offering them concrete suggestions for selecting and adapting the information offered based on students backgrounds and interests.