Statistical Analysis to Determine the Most Important Factors Affecting the Student’s Choice of University

: This study aims to identify the most important motives and factors that drive students to choose a university. What are the factors that influence students in choosing a university, what are the opinions of students in determining the order of the most important factors in choosing a university, and does the gender of students have a relationship and influence on the reasons for choosing a university. Furthermore, to determine the most important factors for choosing a university in terms of gender. For this purpose, I used a questionnaire form to collect a data from 425 students at Erbil Polytechnic University in 2023 using a simple random sampling method. SPSS version 24 was analyzed using descriptive statistics to analyze the data and (chi-square) to determine the difference between the male and female students’ attitudes. In this regard, factor analysis was used to order the most important factors. Accordingly, it is revealed that the most important factors for choosing a university are the university reputation, the relationship between the department and university with labour market, Advice and suggestions of others, and Treatment of employees and faculty members. It is uncovered that females are more influenced than males by the prosperity of the


Introduction
In recent years, there have been many changes in the management, structure, and conditions of higher education institutions around the world.These changes have led to increased competition at the university level, especially international universities, in order to attract as many people as possible.In this respect, they have continuously tried to develop the education process in the direction that plays an important, influential, and strong role in societal issues, innovation and connection with labour market (Nicolescu, 2009).Many universities and institutions on countries' level are constantly trying to be based on the needs and requirements of society and students.To this purpose, through research, changes in curricula and doing academic activities, enhance the university reputation and academic levels to promote the ranking of universities.For example, Ming (2010) points out that strong competition in higher education sector in Malaysia has caused many universities to consider the factors and motives that influence students' decision in choosing colleges and universities.Therefore, they planned to attract students at the national and international levels according to a number of criteria such as the university's location, university reputation, curriculum, and tuition fees.Hence, the interests and motives of students should be taken into account when they choose a university, and they are linked to a number of factors such as the reputation of the location or university, the security of the city or university, tuition fee, student transportation, facilities of the institution, and sporting and cultural activities.Moreover, with regard to the university's brand (Valitov, 2014) having competition among universities in trying to do various cultural and sporting activities, facilitating the admission of students, how to welcome students and provide medical services, and provide with accommodation.Other factors such as extracurricular activities; for instance, cultural and scientific activities also influence student attraction.We can say that the choice of university by students has many dimensions and reasons.When a student chooses a university, factors such as tuition fees, accommodation, and reputation of the university, as well as the response of employees and university staff, facilities and innovation in using technology play a role to student's attraction and retention.As Joseph and his colleagues show in their study, the comparison of the criteria used by students of public and private universities while selecting the colleges/universities applied for.The importance of university selection criteria differs between those enrolled in public and private institutions.Private university students take reputation, facilities, tuition fees, and personal interests into consideration; while public university students evaluate curricula, sporting activities, reputation, tuition fees, and accommodation.Public and private university students are currently looking for a university that is equipped with the latest technology and includes an attractive campus environment (Joseph et al., 2012).
Students choose universities, departments and colleges for different reasons, which can vary according to personal preferences and circumstances, such as social and economic circumstances, tuition fees, and location of the university or college can play an important role in students' decisions.Students take factors into consideration such as the proximity of the university in the same city, they also consider the attractiveness of the location, the campus climate, financial considerations, and financial ability are important factors for many students.Choosing universities that are close to students' workplace or being able to waive college tuition fees which is often a reason for choosing a university and helps students reduce their financial burden.In addition, students' personal relationships, as well as recommendations of family, friends and teachers, can also influence students' decisions, and it is important to note that students may have different views on choosing universities and colleges based on their circumstances and preferences.Therefore, this study aims to identify the most important factors in choosing a university by students, as well as knowing the differences and effects of gender on choosing a university and determining the order of the most important factors in choosing a university from the viewpoint of the gender of the students .
Research Objectives: This study attempts to reach the following results: 1. Identify the most important factors that drive students to choose a university.

Results: Table (1): Percentage frequency with regard to the factors for choosing a university
The source: Was prepared by the researcher based on the statistical program Table (1) shows the frequency percentage that the factors have most influence on students in choosing a university are advice and suggestions of others (77.2%).The relationship of department and university with labor market (76.5%).%), the prosperity of the cities around the university (71.3%), the peace and security of the city in which the university is located (59%), the level of building and road services (55.6%), and the treatment of employees and faculty members (54.3%)Table (2): Association between gender and factors influencing students to choose a university The source was prepared by the researcher based on the statistical program Table (2) shows the result of chi-square test to know the association between gender and factors influencing students to choose a university.There was no statistically significant difference and impact on gender of the students, but the availability of prosperity of the cities around the university has a correlation and impact on the gender of students with a value of (P=0.0000).This effect is more on females, as they stayed at home more in the pre-university stage, and are more inclined to go to universities which were built in cities that are more open in terms of living, and with regard to cultural activities (P = 0.033); Thus, there is a relationship and impact between the gender of learners, and this impact have more on the females.This difference may be due to the fact that the female in this type of activity shows their talents more and has greater opportunities to express their abilities.There is no statistically significant difference between men and women on the availability of other scientific activities, the availability of university libraries and laboratories, the proximity of the university to the accommodation, and the university's relationship with foreign universities.The source: Was prepared by the researcher based on the statistical program Table (3) shows the factor analysis used to select the strong factors that influence students' decision to choose a university, which are the 10 influential variables identified in Table (3): These factors are classified into three factors that have an influence rate of (63.938) on choosing a university.The first factor, which is extremely important, includes the order of variables that have an influence rate of (24.467) (university reputation, the relationship of departments and universities with the labor market, advice and suggestions of others, and treatment of employees and faculty members).The second factor which is very important in choosing a university (the total variance) is equal to 22.501.The order of the factors is as follows (the university library and laboratory, the quality of education that the university provides with students, the university's ability to introduce students to the work environment, and the university's ability to provide facilities to learners).The third factor, which is very important (the total variance) and equals 16.971, is (the effect of peace and security of the city in which the university is located, and the proximity of the university to accommodation.Conclusions: In this study, with regard to the most important factors that influence students in choosing a university, the advice and suggestions of others and the relationship between the departments and universities with labour market are considered factors affecting students.To what extent do the departments, colleges and universities consider labour market to open departments and colleges.The reputation of the university has its own impact on students, the prosperity of the cities around the university is also important to attract students from other cities.As are the factors of peace and security in the city in which the university is located, the level of building and road services, and the treatment of employees and faculty members, they have varying degrees of effectiveness in retention and attraction.Regarding the impact of university reputation and the difference in reasons for choosing a university between men and women.The treatment of employees and faculty members on university choice did not have impact and difference on the gender of students, but the availability of prosperity of the cities around the university has a correlation and effect on the gender of the learners that the value (p= 0.000014).This effect is greater on females, and with regard to the performance of cultural activities (P = 0.033210).Thus, there is a correlation and effect on the gender of students that the effect is greater on females.While there is no statistically significant difference between males and females in choosing a university with regard to the reasons of availability of other scientific activities, university libraries and laboratories, as well as the proximity of the university to accommodation and the university's relationship with foreign universities.
Using factor analysis to select the strongest factors that affect students' decision to choose a university, the factors were classified into three factors that affect students in choosing a university by (63.938) as a total variance explained.
The first factor is the most important factors with total variance of 24.467 that influenced students to select the university which included the following reasons like university reputation, the relationship of the department and the university with labour market, prosperity of the cities around the university, treatment of employees and faculty members, advice and suggestions of others The second very important factor in choosing a university with total variance of 22.501 including university library and laboratory, quality of education which university provides for students, the ability of the university to introduce students to the work environment, and ability of the university to provide facilities for learners respectively.

2 .
Determine the influence of participants' gender in determining the factors for choosing a university 3. Determine the order of the most important factors for choosing a university from the point of view of males and females.The Problem of Study: When it comes to the process of choosing universities, colleges and fields of study, there are different perspectives among students in their interests and desires in choosing different universities and colleges, even between men and women.These differences can be influenced by several factors, such as the reputation and location of the university, family and community, traditions, personal and individual expectations, interests, and many other factors.In attracting international students, Australia has become the third largest country admitted international students.Compared to the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia has managed to maintain hosting a high number of learners.For Australia, attracting international students will be an important part of the commercial and cultural diversity of Australian universities.The factors that have been most influential in attracting students from other countries to Australia in the need and acquiring of academic qualifications, employment opportunities, getting a job, university environment, culture and tradition, and the opportunity to learn a profession (Zhai et al., 2019: 3).Ghanaian universities have used various commercial motives to stimulate demand for universities.The factors that had the greatest impact on local and international students included the influence of family and friends, proximity to accommodation, university ranking and reputation, tuition fees, and teaching methods.In light of the research objectives, the research problems are to identify the most important factors of choosing a university by the students, the differences and the influence of the gender of participants in determining the factors for choosing a university, and order of the most important factors in the viewpoint of gender.(Ghansah et.al., 2016: 147-157).Data collection and research methodology: This research is considered descriptive research, and it is suitable for such research using a survey form to collect data.The form contains 16 questions in paper form, to express the participants' opinion about the factors influencing students' choice of Erbil Polytechnic University.425 participants were randomly selected and survey forms were distributed.To ensure the stability of the data, a small selection of 20 students was assigned to ensure the validity and design of the questions, and Cronbach's alpha was used to determine the suitability of the data to the sequence questions of the survey form (Faraj et al., 2022: 4), (Blbas et al., 2017: 48).According to Cronbach's equation, the value was found to be (0.810), which indicates the high degree of reliability of the sequence questions of the survey model.Data analysis presented the use of these rules and tools to achieve the objectives of the study, which are: Mean, Standard deviation, Chi-Square, and Factor analysis.Chi-square is used to find the association between two categorical variables (Aziz et al., 2023: 5) (Saadi et al. 2023: 43), (Aroian et al., 2017: 113), (Blbas; 2019.210).Factor Analysis is used to select the strong significant reason for students to choose university which was divided all factors into three component using factor analysis (Blbas, and Kadir, 2017: 260).

Table ( 3
) Rotated Factor Matrix and Communities for the factors influencing students to choose a university