Higher Education Marketing to International Students

Due to the fact that, for long, higher education institutions did not have to engage in applying corporate strategies like marketing, the need for academic research into the field was low. However, through several developments in politics, society, and within organizations, higher education marketing has become increasingly important. Additionally, the increased levels of internationalization in higher education and the pressure from a European level and national level to increase this even further, have led to the development of more international education programs throughout the Netherlands. The Erasmus University in Rotterdam is one of those universities prioritizing internationalization, and consequently, many new international study programs are being developed. currently, the Department of Public Administration of the Faculty of Social Sciences is in the process of developing a new international master program to be launched in the academic year of 2015/2016. A combination of the rise of higher education marketing, an increase in importance of internationalization in higher education, and the development of the new master program at the Department of Public Administration led to the formulation of the following research question that was central to this thesis: What marketing tools can the Department of Public Administration at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam use to attract international students for its new international master program? Through exploring the context of the field by looking at trends and developments that have taken place in the sector over the past years; the discussion of theoretical models and their implications for marketing to international students; and the conduct of qualitative expert interviews and focus group discussions with students, it was possible to formulate an advice plan with a set of practical marketing tools for the case program. Central to this plan is the distinction between applying transactional marketing theories in the stage identified as the student recruitment stage, and applying relational marketing theories in the stage identified as the student/alumni retention phase. The tools and ideas that were formulated for each stage can be used by the new international master program of the Department of Public Administration at Erasmus University in the run up to the launch of the program, and once the program has started.