does an attractive campus contribute to student recruitment

Would you be surprised to learn that Facilties Management has an important role in student recruiting?

A recent study by the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers (APPA) Center for Facilities Research reports on the factors that influence students' decisions in choosing their higher education institution.

While the top five characteristics are academic-oriented (indicating that the students are evaluating the quality of their institution of choice based on its academic strength) a full two-thirds of the respondents indicated that the Overall Quality of the Campus Facilities and half of the respondents indicated that the Attractiveness of the Campus were "Essential" or "Very Important".

The study also indicates that students are very discriminatory about their living and learning spaces, and that poorly maintained open spaces also play a role.

Fifty percent of the respondents either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement "When I first saw the campus, I knew this was the right college for me."

You know, that's kind of what we thought all along!