Higher education has often been accused of its anti-social character, represented by the metaphor of the 'ivory tower'. However, the idea of the pursuit of knowledge per se, which is associated with the ivory tower, has not been widely recognized as a public ideal of higher education. In this study, by drawing on the 20th-century British…

Whilst technology may have been the 'saviour' of HE from the immediate challenges of the pandemic, the opportunistic dialogue emerging in response is imbued with notions of the pandemic as a catalyst for change. Empowered by the apparent success of technology's deliverance, the door has been opened to unprecedented investment into a pervasive and…

As marketization and privatization strategies become commonplace in higher education, it is essential for institutions to understand how students make decisions about college choice. Students as consumers engage in complex college choice decision-making that is often impacted by institutional and personal characteristics, such as cost, location,…

Subvertising, traditionally linked to counterculture and anti-consumption, is utilized in education to reveal the manipulative strategies of corporate messaging to students. Classroom use of cut-and-paste methods deconstructs advertisement messages, fostering an understanding of how needs and desires are constructed through appropriation,…

Despite the ubiquity of global university rankings coverage in media and academia, a concerted attempt to investigate the role of social media in ranking entrepreneurship remains absent. By drawing on an affect lens, we critically examine the social media activities of two commercial rankers: Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds…

While student class involvement (i.e. engagement in classes) has been studied thoroughly, student educational involvement (i.e. willingness to take education) is rarely studied. Such research is essential due to decreased student enrolment in education. A survey of 425 participants was conducted to explore the influence of self-congruence and…

Research on branding is an established sub-discipline in the higher education literature. However, studies in this field have somehow produced contradictory results: some studies point at isomorphism, others find differentiation. Our study wants to offer a possible explanation for this paradox, by proposing a more nuanced view on brand…

Social media technologies (SMTs), online brand communities, and social customer relationship management (SCRM) Capabilities play an indispensable role in the engagement and loyalty-building of university students to achieve a sustainable university reputation. This study provides pioneering input for higher education institutions (HEIs) by…

The COVID-19 pandemic has required new marketing strategies for leveraging brand equity among Higher Education Institutions. Previous research has uncovered the impact of electronic word of mouth in the Higher Education Institutions' service industry, so this research extends our knowledge of the effects of electronic word of mouth on Higher…

This article defines a public good, arguing that higher education should be considered a public good. This requires moving away from an orthodox economistic understanding of public goods. It also requires understanding the relationship between higher education as both a private good and a public good to the extent that it promotes individual…

This article analyses the economic impact of inbound student mobility in Hungary. The research is based on an innovative approach not only showing the geoeconomic impact based on expenditures of the different groups of incoming students (Erasmus+, degree mobility of self-funded or scholarship holder students), but also links the data to specific…

In the numerous studies of segmentation for higher education marketing, the primary focus has been on segmenting students. In fact, universities serve a diverse audience that includes parents, employers, alumni, donors, and other members of society. The primary purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which universities must attempt to…

Purpose: Higher learning institutions (HLIs) need to have quality service facilities to achieve customer satisfaction and positive word of mouth (WoM). The purpose of this study is to assess customer satisfaction as a mediator of service facility and WoM in the context of Tanzania's HLIs. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-methods approach was…

This paper provides a critical interrogation of government-led reform of higher education (HE) in England. Its focus is marketisation, and in particular, the concepts of 'value for money' (VFM), teaching excellence, and students as educational consumers. Hitherto, research on VFM in HE has been largely quantitative in nature and primarily focussed…

We examine listed tuition and institutional aid practices within the US private sector, a sector where market pressures are relatively strong and consequently influence organizational behavior. We present a conceptual framework that highlights three psychological aspects of pricing--the price-quality heuristic, ego-expressive aspects of aid, and…