Peer review declaration

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing. • Type of peer review: The peer review process was conducted with double-blind method by 2 reviewers per article. • Conference submission management system: Email address used for manuscript management system is [email protected] • Number of submissions received: 180 • Number of submissions sent for review: 125 • Number of submissions accepted: 111 • Acceptance Rate (Number of Submissions Accepted/Number of Submissions Received X 100): 61.67% • Average number of reviews per paper: 3 rounds of review process • Total number of reviewers involved: 12 reviewers • Any additional info on review process: In detail, the submitted papers were checked for their plagiarism similarity index with Turn it in software. Any manuscript with similarity index above 25% will be returned to the author for revision. The peer-review process was conducted by involving internal reviewers from University of Mataram who has scopus H-index ≥ 3. In addition, external reviewers were also involved from other universities and institution. Selection of the reviewers was conducted based on the suitability of the reviewer expertise and the subtopic of the paper. The first decision whether the paper is rejected or required for revision is sent in approximately 4 days. The comments from the reviewer are concluded by the editor in chief to reject or accept the paper. • Contact person for queries: Eka Sunarwidhi Prasedya, Ph.D. University of Mataram, Mataram, Indonesia [email protected]

PENSION SERVICE INSTITUTION SELECTION BY A PERSONALIZED QUANTIFIER-BASED MACONT METHOD

With the emergence of a variety of pension service institutions, how to choose a suitable institution has become a strategic decision-making problem faced by pension service demanders. To solve this problem, this study identifies key evaluation criteria of pension service institutions through the analysis of the relevant literature. Then, this study proposes a mixed aggregation by comprehensive normalization technique (MACONT) with a personalized quantifier to select pension service institutions, where the personalized qualifier with cubic spline interpolation is used to derive the position weights of criteria, and the MACONT is improved to determine the ranking of alternatives. A case study about the selection of pension service institutions is provided to verify the feasibility of the proposed model. It is found that the proposed method is effective in dealing with heterogeneous evaluation information, and the personalized quantifiers can be combined with MACONT methods to obtain an optimal solution associated with the attitude of pension service demanders. The identified key evaluation criteria are not only significant for pension service demanders, but also conducive to the further improvement of property management related to pension services.

Applicants' institution selection criteria in the higher education: An empirical study in Hungarian higher education management

The purpose of this paper is to show what are the applicants' institution selection criteria in higher education in Hungary and what changes this will imply in higher education management and communication. These questions were investigated based on a review of the most relevant literature and the analysis of 1396 Hungarian higher education University of Pécs applicants in two consecutive years. Exploratory and confirmative factor analyses were used to identify the relative order of the application influencing factors: as a result, the first most important is the vivacity, followed by career and costs, fourth is image and the last one is the low commitment. In this context, the paper has shown that the identification of the application strategies requires renewed management and communication techniques. The results help the institutions to determine the possible actions to be implemented to attract more students and improve the level of offered services. The permanent system change of the Hungarian higher education as a phenomenon versus the applicants' institution selection criteria gives the uniqueness of the Hungarian situation, and this study provides information for researchers in higher education in this field additionally.

Sources of Information Referred for Higher Education Institution Selection

In response to the increase in demand on tertiary education, number of higher education institution raised dramatically over the past few decades. The scenario creates competition environment leading to the needs for understanding how students’ decision were made. Recent literature on higher education has been acknowledging the role of marketing in attracting potential students. This paper explores the decision process of selecting higher education institution within the framework of marketing communication. From the perception of students who are successfully accepted in a higher education institution, the analysis was done to investigate what was the source of information being referred. Analysis was also done to identify which source perceived by the students as their most influential source of information in deciding which institution to apply for. The finding suggests that traditional marketing tools such as news paper and magazine advertisement or publication is still effective as compared with other interactive marketing approach such as websites and education fair. The influence of their significant others such as parents, siblings and peers is also discussed.

The role of demographics in students' selection of higher education institutions

Purpose: To investigate the choice factors students consider when selecting a higher education institution, with a focus on the differences between gender and language groups. Problem investigated: The educational landscape has seen several changes, such as stronger competition between institutions for both student enrolments and government funding. These market challenges have led to an interest in students' institution selection processes as it has implications for the way higher education institutions (HEIs) manage their marketing and recruitment strategies. The research objective of this study was to identify the most important choice factors of prospective South African students. It also aimed to determine if any gender and language differences exist with regard to students' institution selection processes. Methodology: A convenience sample of 1 241 respondents was drawn, representing six South African universities. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect the data. Questions from the ASQ (Admitted Student Questionnaire) and CIRP (The Cooperative Institutional Research Programme) were used and adapted to the South African context after pilot testing. Hypotheses were analysed using the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test with Wilks' lambda as the test statistic. Findings/Implications: Irrespective of gender or language, the most important choice factor for respondents was the quality of teaching at HEIs. The findings showed that males and females differ according to the selection of certain choice factors which suggest that HEIs can consider recruitment strategies for each gender group. Significant differences between the language groups were found for 17 of the 23 choice factors, signalling that different language groups make decisions based on different choice factors. African language-speaking students have, amongst other, indicated that the multiculturalism of the institution is a very important choice factor for them. Conclusion: The findings provide HEIs with an indication of the importance of choice factors considered by students in selecting a HEI. This will enable HEIs to use their limited funds more efficiently to attract the right calibre student (recruitment policies), to create a unique position, to sagment the student market more appropriately and to gain a competitive advantage.

Do Rural Community Colleges Supply Unique Educational Benefits?

Community colleges likely draw to college individuals who would otherwise not attend due to their low costs and open admission requirements. This is labeled as the democratization effect. They may also divert individuals away from 4-year to terminal 2-year college degrees (the diversion effect). This study estimates democratization and diversion effects separately for nonmetropolitan and metropolitan youth using nationally representative data and models that account for endogenous institution selection. We find the democratization effect to exceed the diversion effect of community colleges for both metro and nonmetro youth. The democratization-diversion ratio is slightly higher for urban youth.