| Abstract: | Private higher education institutions (PHEIs) rely on tuition fees to meet
their operational costs. This being the case, they tend to be more
expensive than public ones that run on state taxes. Interestingly, in spite
of the fact that PHEIs are generally expensive, they attract many
students. This is the case because PHEIs are perceived to be offering
better education system. However, due to inflation and other factors,
private universities are forced to increase tuition fees often times.
Engagement with key stake holders in the business has shown that each
upward adjustment does not only result into the withdrawal of some
continuing students, but also makes it difficult to recruit the desired
numbers of new students. The purpose of this study was to explore
possible interventions to the dilemma. The study has shown that there is
correlation between upward adjustment of tuition and decline in student
enrollment. This being the case PHEIs should, as much as possible, strive
not to be adjusting tuition fees upwards. Instead, they should turn to cost
efficiency and expenditure control mechanism as a way of saving money.
In addition, PHEIs managers should be creative enough to identify other
income generation strategies. |
