Authors: Mihail Diakomihalis, Alina Hyz, Grigorios Gikas

Title: THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE CHOICE OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES IN ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE: A CASE STUDY OF GREECE

Abstract

The paper examines the criteria that determine the selection by the students of a higher educational institute department in Greece. The study is grounded in the current and potential criteria and sub-criteria influencing the choice of the prospect students on their way to the tertiary education.

The methodology applied in order to satisfy the research aims is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This is a flexible and functional tool for investigating multi-criteria decision making problems that allows the determination, evaluation, and comparison of major criteria by stakeholders.

The case study concerns the evaluation of the variation of the criteria that influence two groups of students, who have been admitted in the accounting and finance departments of different Technological Educational Institutions (TEI) in Greece: a) students of the Piraeus TEI and b) students of the Epirus TEI).

The quantitative research analysis is based on a sample of data collected via a questionnaire answered by a sample of active students.

The article is structured as follows: Section 1 refers to literature review, Section 2 presents the methodology, Section 3 exhibits the empirical results obtained from the case study, and Section 4 summarises the main conclusions drawn from this research.