The study is subject to some limitations. First of all, our study has just internal validity as uses data from one of Russia's universities. As with any other survey-based analysis, subjectivity of respondents influences the results significantly. Moreover, the selection of suitable measures is open to question, although the indicators used in this paper have previously been used in the literature. The marginal effect found in this study may be applicable to an average adult student of HSE continuing education program but may fail for each particular person.

Our findings might be useful for university administrators mostly when designing marketing policy for programs in continues education. The evidence that adult students have specific incentives for academic achievements may moreover help to improve continues educational programs.

It has been revealed in this study that students of HSE with the background from other universities have lower academic achievements. That has led us to the conclusion that abilities to adjust for adult students are not strong enough to follow new specific standards of new universities and programs. Still, it is important to take into account that HSE standards are extremely high compared to other universities in Russia. The practical recommendation for the university administration address the following issues:

· Some adaptation courses and meetings are of a particular significance for adult students to make them adjusted for the new academic standards;

· It might worth to assign group coordinators to support students on their academic tracks and help them cope with new challenges;

· Additional web-services, such as “FAQ”, may help both students and university administration to deal with most common misunderstanding which occur when adult students come in HSE.

As for marketing policy, the following practical implications are reasonable:

· The discount policy of HSE has to be reconsidered. As has been found out, those students that decided to enter university joining their friends or family members have less incentives to work and achieve results. Thus, some of the reason to get a discount for study, such as “family discount” or “bring a friend”, require very cautious consideration.

· The networking with some field colleges and universities, such as pharmaceutical and medical schools, liberal art university, pedagogical university, has to be developed. According to our findings, students from these fields are of a particular motivation to study since they realize the potential contribution to their curriculum and carrier.

· Incomers with a very high managerial position or those having previous economic education have less incentives to outperform in HSE. Probably these students might lose motivation because of HSE programs design. That bring us to the idea to propose something more interesting and useful for this cohort of adult students.

· This study demonstrated that for now a main focus has to be done to the students with an average family income and those supported by their employers. The marketing policy have to be directed to these students and at the same time networking with employers is a way to attract good motivated students with a higher financial credibility. Special programs with partners among employers have to be developed to reinforce that.

· One of the issue that is still underdeveloped in Russia is student loans. HSE as one of the key stakeholder should promote this type for students support and develop awareness on this type of financial product among banks and employers.

Still, we believe that the findings established in this study may be valuable for future research on the academic achievement of students and can be considered by policy-makers in universities.

References