What is the Relationship between University's Financial Resources and Student Perception of Institutional Attractiveness?

Hana Flusková, Karel Šafr
Statistika, 106(2): 228–240
https://doi.org/10.54694/stat.2025.44

Abstract
We examine how pay and staffing conditions relate to the attractiveness of public-university faculties in Czechia. Using harmonised faculty-level administrative data for 2017–2024, we fit a covariance-based
structural equation model (CB-SEM) with four latent constructs: structural conditions, research drive (including a time trend), wages and student interest. Student interest is positively associated with structural conditions and with research drive. The relationship between wages and student interest is not statistically significant once the other constructs are included. Research drive is also related to wages and structural conditions. Taken together, the results suggest that teaching capacity and research visibility are the main factors associated with faculties’ attractiveness, while wage policy appears, if at all, related through those channels rather than directly. These insights can inform discussions of public funding formulas and institutional staffing strategies by emphasising teaching capacity and research visibility rather than undifferentiated wage increases.

Keywords
CB-SEM, higher education institutions, institutional attractiveness, administrative data, academic staff workload, faculty-level funding