This book examines both the theory and applications of marketing higher education in a global environment. Universities and colleges face new challenges in student recruitment and international competition. This book is designed to offer new insights into international marketing of higher education. With declining domestic enrollments and continuing funding cuts, many higher education institutions are exploring new ways to market and promote themselves to international students. Higher education institutions view international students not only as a source of revenue, but also as an integral part of an overall academic strategy. While international students face many destination choices, they normally choose universities and colleges in developed countries such as the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The international marketing of higher education is of growing importance to universities and colleges today.

This book examines the extent to which social media marketing influences the customer-based brand equity of higher education institutes. Higher education institutions operate in a strong competitive environment due to the homogenous nature of their services and always look for new marketing strategies to be competitive in the marketplace. Therefore, building customer-based brand equity has become crucial for higher education institutions to differentiate themselves from others to attract prospective students. Social media-based marketing facilitated prospective students to communicate and collaborate to gather information relevant to higher education institutions and their respective brand equity. However, many models on customer-based brand equity received limited support in the higher education sector, particularly in emerging Asian countries. As such, drawing from social information processing theory, this book empirically investigates how higher education institutions can develop customer-based brand equity by using social media marketing and subjective norms mediated by brand credibility, taking cross-country comparisons between Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The book goes on to examine the applications and implications of the findings for higher education institutions in developing branding strategies through social media.

Strategic Marketing of Higher Education in Africa explores higher education marketing themes along the lines of understanding higher education markets, university branding and international marketing strategies, digital marketing, and student choice-making. The Higher Education landscape around the world is changing. There is global competition for students’ enrolments, universities are competing within their home market as well as in the international market, and as government funding for public universities is reducing there is pressure on universities to seek additional income by increasing their student enrolment. African universities are not an exception in this competitive market. This book is unique in providing a composite overview of strategic marketing and brand communications of higher education institutions in Africa. It recognises that there is a growing need for universities to understand the stakeholders and develop strategies on how best to engage with them effectively. Highlighting the unique characteristics, nature, and challenges of African universities, this book explores the marketisation strategies of African universities, with focus on the strategic digital marketing and brand management. The book provides significant theoretical and marketing practice implications for academics, higher-education administrators, and practitioners on how best to market higher education in Africa and reach out to prospective students. International practitioners aiming to market to Africans and start a partnership with an African university will also find this relevant in understanding the dynamics of the African market.

Higher Education Consumer Choice provides a comprehensive and highly focused critical analysis of research on HE consumer choice behaviour in the UK and around the world. Ideal for students, scholars and marketing practitioners interested in consumer choice and behaviour in higher education markets, the book explores the background and context to research on HE choice including globalization, changing supply and demand, fees and costs, and concerns about social disadvantage. Focusing on personal factors that influence consumer choice, group aspects of consumer behaviour such as cultural and ethnic differences, as well as theoretical and research models, this book is designed to stimulate new debate and criticism of HE consumer choice.

This volume presents the most comprehensive international discussion yet on the role of markets in higher education. It considers both the political and economic implications of the rising trend towards introducing market elements in higher education. The book draws together leading international scholars in higher education to explore different theoretical perspectives and present new empirical evidence on market mechanisms in higher education in several Western countries.

The introduction of educational markets into public and higher education in many countries has led to competitive environments for schools and higher education institutions. This book presents the works of leading scholars and researchers in the field of educational marketing who handle issues of student retention.

“Deftly avoiding both the zealous idealism of the policymaker and the cynical realism of the practitioner, the contributions to this volume offer empirically grounded, culturally nuanced analyses of university internationalisation in practice. Recommended reading for anyone interested in Japanese higher education today, and a fine example of how to blend engaging ‘insider’ stories with rigorous scholarly analysis.” – Jeremy Breaden, PhD (Melbourne), Lecturer in Japanese Studies, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Monash University “An excellent timely publication! This book brings together critical insights and multi-dimensional understandings of internationalization, and international and intercultural practices in Japanese higher education. It will be an important sourcebook, a must-read for all interested in Japanese higher education and internationalization. It will certainly raise the bar of competencies and knowledge of the field.” – Terri Kim, PhD (London), Reader in Comparative Higher Education, Leader of the Higher Education Research Group, University of East London

This volume brings together internationally comparative academic perspectives, critical accounts and empirical research to fully explore the issues and experiences of education as a commodity.

University branding has increased substantially, due to demands on universities to enrol greater numbers of students, rising tuition fees, the proliferation of courses, the growing 'internationalization' of universities, financial pressures, and reliance on income from foreign students. As higher education continues to grow, increased competition places more pressure on institutions to market their programs. Technological, social, and economic changes have necessitated a customer-oriented marketing system and a focus on developing the university brand. This book is unique in providing a composite overview of strategy, planning, and measurement informed by ground-breaking research and the experiences of academics. It combines theoretical and methodological aspects of branding with the views of leading exponents of branding in different contexts and across a range of higher education institutions. Expert contributors from research and practice provide relevant and varying perspectives allowing readers to access information on international trends, theory, and practices about branding in higher education. Readers are exposed to the critical elements of strategic brand management, gain insights into the planning process of higher education branding, and gain a solid understanding of the emerging research area of branding concepts in higher education. Advanced students, and researchers will find this book a unique resource and it will also be of interest to brand practitioners in both education and public sector markets.