Conversations in Search of Audiences: Prospects and Challenges of Marketing UK’s Postgraduate Higher Education Using Social Media

Abstract

Abstract. It is no surprise that there are serious disparities between the rhetoric of education and the realities of education. Marketing of university curricula is a challenge that is increasingly becoming a difficult proposition as advances in social media (SM) are enabling prospective students to form opinions and inform their decisions like never before. Whilst the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) plays a central role in matching undergraduate students to courses in universities yet the same does not apply to postgraduate admissions which are sought after by a large number of applicants from overseas as well. As connectivity through the online world has rendered geography irrelevant at the same time access to course information and influence on the use of that information for deciding to register on it has become ubiquitous. This paper looks at some of the areas where SM has been successfully used. The papers then goes onto develop taxonomy of popular SM tools that are being widely used. Using this taxonomy it explores barriers and promoters that exist in the interface between universities and their audiences.

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“…An institutional environment analysis (i.e., SWOT) is done to examine the micro-and macro-environmental factors that could impact student-centered learning (Camilleri, 2019), especially for the need to attract creative students and seasoned professors with high productivity and innovation amid intense competition. Qi and Mitra (2016) posit that "being social may mean being active online, it is obvious that for HEIs to cultivate audiences may require consistent engagement with participants on social media platforms" (p. 91). The SWOT analysis, which can be applied to private universities in Lebanon, indicates the need for HEIs to conduct in-depth and continuous research on the needs of potential students, as well as to attract successful academics to improve the institution"s financial and strategic performance, in addition to other factors (O"Leary, 2015).…”

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