Student Loyalty in Higher Education Institutions

Factors that are very effective on students' decisions in choosing higher education institutions should be examined in terms of increasing competition and selective probability, and quantitative developments between these institutions. The most important one among these factors is student loyalty. In this study, variables that have effects on student loyalty are tried to be discussed in the frame of conceptual models in order to guide to higher education administrators and academic staffs by expressing advantages of student loyalty with the literature. As a result of literature survey, it is found that the most important factors effective on student loyalty are the image of higher education institution, service quality and student commitment. In the literature, different conceptual models on the student loyalty and its variables have been established. The reason of this variation is that one model developed for an institution can be valid for an institution but not for others and other cultures. Higher education administrators should carefully examine factors effective on student loyalty, note the students' loyalty to their institution periodically and study for increasing students' loyalty to gain new students and prevent dropout behavior from the institution.