The pie charts illustrate five key factors that influenced students to select an institution in the United Kingdom in the years 2008 and 2017.
Overall, it can be clearly seen from the charts that the number of learners choosing higher education institutions based on sports facilities and academic reputation has increased, whereas the proportion of applicants prioritizing course suitability, teaching quality, and proximity to home has declined.
If we look at the upward trends extracurricular facilities accounted for 7% of overall choice in 2008, which then increased slightly to 17% in 2017.7% of total selections in the UK were determined by institutional prestige in the first year, and this figure rose moderately to 12% in the latter year.
Regarding the downward trends, in the first given year, the largest proportion of selections, at 39%, was linked to the suitability of academic programmes. However, this figure saw a notable decline, dropping to 25% by the end of the period. Likewise, the percentage of applicants who made their decision based on the quality of teaching fell from 17% to 12%. A similar downward trend was observed in the factor of proximity to home, which accounted for 12% in 2008 but decreased slightly to 10% in 2017. These declines suggest that by the latter year, those choosing institutions placed less importance on academic alignment and geographical convenience than they had previously.