A Literature Review on College Choice and Marketing Strategies for Recruitment

Abstract

Recruiting enough qualified students is becoming an important topic for colleges and universities as the competition within the higher education market intensifies. Knowing the reasons prospective students choose which institution to attend is essential to develop effective marketing and recruiting strategies. The purpose of this study is to present current research and literature on the factors influencing the college choice process and marketing practices in recruiting.

Implementing a Big-data Based Strategy to Increase Studentsr Enrollment for Dalian Neusoft University of Information

“…The development of this service has shown similarity to consumer goods marketing [2]. Higher education is becoming increasingly diverse and competitive among universities worldwide [3]. As the widely use of social networks and communication tools, students are exposed to extensive information in terms of the importance of education.…”

Comparison of commercial management practices in higher education institutions based on the differences between the marketing and admissions managers and the students in the process of choosing a professional career perception

“…Likewise, higher education has become more diverse and competitive in this century. Prospective students have a wide range of options to choose Higher Education Institutions (HEI) from, public or private, for-profit entities, technical communities and vocational schools, or virtual colleges that offer only online programs (Han P. 2014). …”

“…Over the past 40 years, the HEI, have been dabbling in commercial management exercises, through marketing practices in order to adapt itself to changes in the environment, in spite of how debatable may be that higher education institutions perform this kind of exercises (Han P, 2014). Due to the current high level of competition for student retention, the HEI must establish, maintain and develop strategic promotion models that include the customer, based on a marketing mix (Bejou D., Bejou A, 2012).…”

“…To identify the segments of the target market by the HEI, leaves room for good practices in commercial management (Han P, 2014).…”

“…When market segmentation is applied to higher education, it allows to colleges administrators to identify groups of students who are more likely to enroll in their institutions, to which all those activities of recruitment must be directed to by means of different communication techniques, provision of information and services tailored to the needs of different groups of students, in order to generate admission's reservations by commercial management of the HEI, and to encourage the enrollment of the future students (Han P, 2014). Anctil (2008), states that the efforts of marketing in many HEI have become highly organized and tightly controlled strategies, as new marketing units were established to create, maintain and promote the image of the Institution.…”