Understanding the Role of Social Media on Prospective Local and International Students’ Selection of University
Abstract
Universities globally utilise social media platforms to disseminate information to prospective students. However there's a scarcity of research regarding the role of social media in promoting universities as international education hubs, especially in Asia. This study aims to investigate the impact of social media in promoting Asian universities, focusing on the preferences and behaviours of prospective undergraduate students from Malaysia and Indonesia. A qualitative research approach was employed, involving the recruitment of 12 undergraduate students from both countries. Data collection was conducted through online, in-depth, and semi-structured interviews. The majority of participants rely on social media platforms to gather information about potential universities and courses, citing ease of navigation and appeal compared to traditional websites and other platforms. However, universities demonstrate a lack of engagement with users, hindering the acquisition of comprehensive information about the institution. These findings offer valuable insights for universities to understand the information and social media elements that prospective students commonly seek on social media platforms. Additionally, they provide guidance on effective strategies for engaging with and recruiting students. Ultimately, this research may assist universities in better promoting themselves as international education institutions, particularly in the Asian context.
Keywords: Education; international; promotion; social media; universities
References
Asari, F. F. A. H., Muhamad, S., & Khalid, P. Z. M. (2017). Globalisation and liberalisation of Malaysian higher education. ESTEEM Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 1, 1-14. https://ejssh.uitm.edu.my/manuscript/1vol2017/1nov2017global.pdf
Asderaki, F., & Maragos, D. (2012). The internationalization of higher education: The added value of the European portals and social media pages for the national and the institutional internationalization strategies. In International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education 2012 Proceedings (pp. 498-510).
Banjong, D. N., & Olson, M. R. (2016). Issues and trends of international students in the United States. International Journal of Education, 4(1), 1-14.
Bélanger, C. H., Bali, S., & Longden, B. (2013). How Canadian universities use social media to brand themselves. Tertiary Education and Management, 20(1), 14-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2013.852237
Brech, F. M., Messer, U., Schee, B. A. V., Rauschnable, P. A., & Ivens, B. S. (2017). Engaging fans and the community in social media: Interaction with institutions of higher education on Facebook. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 27(1), 112-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2016.1219803
Camilleri, M. A. (2020). Higher education marketing communications in the digital era. In E. Mogaji, F. Maringe, & R. E. Hinson (Eds.), Strategic Marketing of Higher Education in Africa (p. 1) https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429320934-7
Constantinides, E., & Zinck Stagno, M. (2011). Potential of the social media as instruments of higher education marketing: A segmentation study. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 21, 7-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2011.573593
Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. L. P. (2011). Designing and Conducting Mixed Method Research (2nd ed.). Sage.
Drummond, C., O’Toole, T., & McGrath, H. (2020). Digital engagement strategies and tactics in social media marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 54(6), 1247-1280. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-02-2019-0183
Farinloye, T., Wayne, T., Mogaji, E., & Kuika Watat, J. (2020). Social media for universities’ strategic communication. In E. Mogaji, F. Maringe, & R. E. Hinson (Eds.), Strategic Marketing of Higher Education in Africa (pp. 241-262). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429320934-8.
Galan, M., Lawley, M., & Clements, M. (2015). Social media’s use in postgraduate students’ decision-making journey: An exploratory study. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 25(2), 287-312. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2015.1083512
Hennig-Thurau, T., Malthouse, E. C., Friege, C., Gensler, S., Lobschat, L., Rangaswamy, A., & Skiera, B. (2010). The impact of new media on customer relationships. Journal of Service Research, 13(3), 311-330. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670510375460
Irfan, A., Rasli, A., Sulaiman, Z., Sami, A., & Qureshi, M. I. (2018). Use of social media sites by Malaysian universities and its impact on university ranking. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(4.28), 67-71. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.28.22393
Kapoor, K. K., Tamilmani, K., Rana, N. P., Patil, P., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Nerur, S. (2018). Advances in social media research: Past, present and future. Information Systems Frontiers, 20, 531-558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9810-y
Kimmons, R., Veletsianos, G., & Woodward, S. (2017). Institutional uses of Twitter in US higher education. Innovative Higher Education, 42(2), 97-111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-016-9375-6
Le, T. D., Dobele, A. R., & Robinson, L. J. (2019). Information sought by prospective students from social media electronic word-of-mouth during the university-choice process. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 41(1), 18-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2018.1538595
Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), 357-365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.03.002
Motta, J., & Barbosa, M. (2018). Social media as a marketing tool for European and North American universities and colleges. Journal of Intercultural Management, 10(3), 125-154. https://doi.org/10.2478/joim-2018-0020
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). (2020). Retrieved from https://www.mcmc.gov.my/skmmgovmy/media/General/pdf/IUS-2020-Report.pdf
Ndofirepi, E., Farinloye, T., & Mogaji, E. (2020). Marketing mix in a heterogenous higher education market: A case of Africa. In E. Mogaji, F.
Maringe, & R. E. Hinson (Eds.), Understanding the Higher Education Market in Africa. (p. 241-262). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429325816-18
Palmer, S. (2013). Characterization of the use of Twitter by Australia universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 35(4), 333-344. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2013.812029
Quijada, M. R. B., Muñoz, E. P., Corrons, A., & Olmo-Arriaga, J. (2021). Engaging students through social media. Findings for the top five universities in the world. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 32(2), 197-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2020.1841069
Rutter, R., Roper, S., & Lettice, F. (2016). Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), 3096-3104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.025
Shields, A. B., & Peruta, A. (2018). Social media and the university decision. Do prospective students really care? Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 29(1), 67-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2018.1557778
Siddiqui, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Social media- its impact with positive and negative aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, 5(2), 71-75. https://www.ijcat.com/archives/volume5/issue2/ijcatr05021006.pdf
Statista. (2023). Number of social media users worldwide from 2017 to 2027. https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/
Veletsianos, G., Kimmons, R., Shaw, A., Pasquini, L., & Woodward, S. (2019). Selective openness, branding, broadcasting, and promotion: Twitter use in Canada’s public universities. Educational Media International, 54(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2017.132436
Vrontis, D., El Nemar, S., Ouwaida, A., & Shams, S. M. R. (2018). The impact of social media on international student recruitment: The case of Lebanon. Journal of International Education in Business, 11(1), 79-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIEB-05-2017-0020
Yu, Q., Foroudi, P., & Gupta, S. (2019). Far apart yet close by: Social media and acculturation among international students in the UK. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 145, 493-502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.09.026
Zhu, Y. (2019). Social media engagement and Chinese international student recruitment: Understanding how UK HEIs use Weibo and WeChat. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 29(2), 173-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2019.1633003
Full Text:
PDFDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/ebangi.2024.2102.11
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
-
_________________________________________________
eISSN 1823-884x
Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan
MALAYSIA
© Copyright UKM Press, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia