“…The ranking of these different factors importance varies across these studies, but some common factors are found within most of the studies such as, location, university reputation, academic programs offered and their quality, infrastructure and educational facilities, cost and financial aid and future job opportunities as indicated in Al-Fattal (2010) in his study that was conducted in the private Syrian universities. Other international context (non-middle-eastern) studies include (Alfattal, 2017;Chapman, 1981;Dao and Thorpe, 2015;Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka, 2015;Henry, 2012;Hossler, Braxton and Coopersmith, 1989;Hoyt and Brown, 2003;Kallio, 1995;Kusumawati, 2013;Migin et al, 2015;Petruzzellis and Romanazzi, 2010;Obermeit, 2012;Tin, Ismail, Othman and Sulaiman, 2012;Mahmoud et al 2019). Additionally, Weiler (1996) states that there is a significant relationship between students' preferences and institutional characteristics in determining where students ultimately decide to attend.…”