International Branding of Higher Education Institutions towards World-Class Universities: Literature Study in 2017-2022

Abstract

Struggles initiated to accomplish the target of higher education institutions as World-Class Universities required the support of an international branding strategy. Brand positioning that fits the target enables the higher education institution to be a public "Top of Mind". Higher education institutions must develop and improve the standard of branding. Thus, higher education institutions can handle the rising competition in the educational field, not only at the local and national levels but also at the international level. The researchers conducted a qualitative study with a literature study based on the Publish or Perish program to discover research trends on international branding of the higher education institution to achieve and maintain the title of World-Class University. The search results for journal publications on Google Scholar in 2017-2022 were subsequently processed using the Vos Viewer program to generate data visualizations that could elaborate on the development of research trends related to the abovementioned topic. The 89 most relevant terms were obtained and divided into six clusters. The most dominant research topic, especially in 2020, was the impact of Covid-19, which caused changes in various fields. Specifically, the teaching system, which was initially conducted offline, had changed to become more online in the education sector. "Covid" was also the word that arose the most in the results of this literature study.