Exploring the Role of Tuition on Students' Academic Decisions: a Meta-Synthesis Study

This research explores tuition's role in students' academic decisions. The results can help improve the effectiveness of tuition policies.

This research was done using the Meta-Synthesis method. Based on this, the specialized keywords of the research in international databases (Science Direct, Springer, Wiley Online, Eric, Sage, Emerald) in The period (1990-2022) were searched. Then, using judgmental sampling, 77 studies were selected for analysis. Next, by using Shannon's entropy analytical technique, it was determined which academic decision has more weight and priority than other academic decisions in this study.

Five academic decisions made by students have been identified accompanied with the other determinants, which are the decision to enroll, the decision in making further academic effort for greater academic progress, the decision to dropping out of university education, the decision to continuing education, the decision to changing the field of study which have been affected by the tuition fees. Based on the Shannon entropy analytical technique results, the decision to continue university education has obtained a greater weight and affectability in comparison with other academic decisions in this study.

In exploring the role of tuition fees in students' academic decisions classified in five categories, we conclude that the students’ decisions are significantly affected by tuition fees and some other factors. In addition, each area of students’ academic decisions comprises of some sub-categories elaborated into eleven primary sub-categories and 506 key concepts.