Impact of brand equity and service quality on the reputation of universities and students’ intention to choose them: The case of IIUM and UIN

Background: Numerous studies have been carried out on the impacts of brand equity and service quality of higher education institutions (HEIs) on their reputation and students’ satisfaction. This research aimed to compare the impact of brand equity and service quality on universities’ reputations, namely Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) in Indonesia and International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in Malaysia, and Indonesian students’ intention to choose the universities, which is moderated by study expense (price). UIN and IIUM are HEIs with a similar university concept, and Indonesian students have recently shown a high interest in them. The two universities have faculties not only in the field of Islamic studies but in general fields of studies as well, which are usually held by non-Islamic Universities. Therefore, their competitiveness against non-Islamic universities, especially the University of Indonesia (UI) has increased. Methods: The statistical measurement tool used was structural equation modeling (SEM). The number of items stated in the questionnaire was 45. Therefore, minimum data to be collected were 5 × 45 or 225 which rounded up to 228 from Indonesian students at UIN and IIUM (114 UIN students, and 114 Indonesian student respondents from IIUM). Results: The study results show that the universities’ reputations are strongly affected by their brand equity and service quality, which then affect students’ intention to choose the universities. Students had a higher intention to choose IIUM than UIN. The limitation of this research is that the effect of study expense on the intention of Indonesian students to study at UIN or IIUM has not yet been conducted. It will be conducted in the next study. Conclusions: These results are expected to be useful to UIN, IIUM, and especially Politeknik Negeri Jakarta (PNJ) in determining a strategy to enhance their reputations and the intention of Indonesian students to study there.