Influential Factors in Higher Education Management: Updated Meta-analyses

Studies on various aspects of higher education management have been conducted extensively. Some of those studies discuss models of the relationships between a number of factors influencing the performance of higher education, providing some insights for higher education management. However, the studies present different factors, depends on the case they analyzed, and the result of the relationship between factors vary and even contradict one to another. Thus, it is confusing for practitioners or other parties to use the results for their case. This study reviews, summarizes, and compiles 29 quantitative studies on higher education management published during 2016–2026 to get a general conclusion about the relationship among influential factors in higher education management, by applying a series of meta-analyses. From the 18 constructs involved in the initial model, the meta-analyses reduce them into 13 significant-influential constructs, that is consisting of: human resources, services, facilities, information technology, students’ behavior, and public relations as the independent variables; academic environment, brand awareness, perceived value, student satisfaction, and reputation as mediating variables; loyalty and decision to choose as dependent variables. The standardized effect sizes resulted from the meta-analyses are in the range of 0.342 to 0.872 with composite reliabilities between 0.772 and 0.954. The interesting finding from the meta-analyses is that marketing and media, which are commonly believed as influencing factors in the higher education management practices, could not be proven to be the significant factors.