Determinants of Students' ?University Choice: The Mediating Role of Parental Involvement

Selecting a higher education institution represents one of the most consequential decisions in a student’s academic journey, as it shapes not only immediate educational experiences but also future career opportunities and broader personal development. Although prior research has identified a range of factors influencing students’ decisions to pursue undergraduate study, this topic remains underexplored in the Vietnamese context, particularly among first-year undergraduate students transitioning into university life. This study therefore examines students’ retrospective ?perceptions of factors influencing their ?university choice. ? A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 268 first-year undergraduate students enrolled in private universities in Hanoi, Vietnam. The findings reveal that financial aid exerts the strongest positive influence on students’ university choice, followed by university ranking and university facilities. In addition, parental involvement significantly moderates the relationships among financial aid, university ranking, and university choice, indicating that family influence continues to play an important role in shaping students’ educational decisions. Overall, the findings extend current understanding of the factors that shape students’ academic trajectories and highlight the need for more nuanced and context-sensitive educational policies and institutional strategies that reflect students’ diverse needs, expectations, and aspirations, particularly within centralized higher education systems such as Vietnam. Received: 30 April 2026 / Accepted: 26 October 2026 / Published: November 2026