The higher education landscape in Malaysia has gone through substantial changes. With improvements in the quality of education and better academic performance at the primary and secondary school level, the demand for tertiary education has increased many fold. The increased public demand for tertiary education and the government’s aspiration to position Malaysia as a regional centre of academic excellence have led to the higher education market becoming monopolistically competitive. The purpose of the research was to examine the expectations on higher education institutions among three groups of respondent i.e. prospective students, parents of prospective students and first year university students, and to identify the factors influencing their preferences in selecting a particular higher education institution.