what's the point again?
Gaz has posted on university advertising and it got me thinking.
The massive amount of money our universities are currently spending on advertising is definitely ill-spent. We know that students largely decide based on other factors such as reputation, expense, proximity to cheap accommodation and friends, having the right courses, etc. Advertising doesn't seem to sway them much at all. Yet the universities are indulging in this marketing company-fuelled advertising arms race, year after year.
It really grates when student fees go up each year, and institutions claim there is no more fat to cut. While I do agree that staff and facilities are funded on a knife-edge (and imho frequently underfunded in fact) this splurge by management on pointless ads doesn't sit well. It's a hideously inefficient use of our money. Yay for NZUSA taking them on over this.
2 comments:
The same thing probably applies in most areas of business, though.
Isn't reputation just another side of "brand awareness", which is what advertising purports to build?
I think the NZ approach (where most universities try and recruit the maximum number of students who meet the basic entry requirements) is much better than the way it works in the UK (and US I think). Access to university courses in the UK is rationed by (A-level) grade. This means that most students regard the "best" course as the one with the highest entry grades - irrespective of content or teaching quality. So a course with irrelevant content and semi-autistic lecturers can be massively sought after just because it's at a big-name uni that demands 3 'A's for admission.
Some in university management seem to have a similar take to that, in regard to fees. They feel their institution must have the highest fees, in regard to a particular course, so that it will be perceived as the "best" institution in the field. This was the specific argument that the Med School management at UOA used in the late '90s to totally screw their own students over by bringing in differentiated fees.
In terms of "brand awareness" - this is why I worry - it turns into an arms race of advertising, and further undermines the rationality of student decision-making (if it is having much effect at all). Not making decisions based on perfect information...
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