Priority components of the image of the university in the process of choosing a university by a potential consumer of educational services

The purpose of the research is to assess the components of the image of universities by
a potential consumer of educational services and to identify their relevance to the stages of the
university selection process. Within this goal, the authors have the following tasks: to study trends
in the demand for educational services of universities in Ukraine; to rank the priorities for choosing
the components of the university image by a potential consumer of educational services; to identify
sources of evaluation of the quality of education by university applicants and the level of satisfaction
with the quality of education by students.
The subject of the study. The article addresses the problem of forming a positive image of
universities in Ukraine in the context of determining its components, which, according to the results of a
student survey, had the most significant influence when choosing a higher education institution (HEI), as
well as determining the level of similarity of its selection criteria for consumers of educational services.
Work results. The indicators of the attractiveness of higher education institutions were studied
based on the indicators of the number of submitted applications and the average competitive score.
The trends of changes in the specified indicators in the conditions of martial law have been revealed. The
evaluation of the image of higher educational institutions of Kyiv was carried out based on the totality
of its external and internal local components, which made it possible to identify the main priorities of
the choice of the future consumer of educational services.
Conclusions. It was determined that the main components of the image when students
make a decision to enter one or another higher education institution, among those studied,
are scientific cooperation with foreign higher education institutions, international partnership
relations, the scale of educational activities, and the infrastructure of the university. The
proposed research suggests that the image of a university is formed on the basis of general and
specific requirements of applicants, and that for most respondents the priority is to choose a
specialty, and only then a university.