Abstract
The current Private Higher Education Institution (PHEI) landscape in South Africa is developing at a rapid rate, with over ninety private tertiary institutions, registered with the Council for Higher Education (CHE). However, stakeholder perceptions of these PHEIs are generally negative, largely as a result of the negative perceptions of the qualification, obtained from the private institutions by both parents and students, and questions around the sustainability of the institutions in the long run. Media reports, lack of Department of Education (DHET) support and funding, as well as minimum, if any, marketing and advertising from the PHEI are factors, cited for these firmly entrenched perceptions from the general public. The article was driven by both current and emerging branding models as a benchmark for value-added branding of PHEIs in South Africa. International markets, in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, India and Brazil are included; not as a comparative study, but more as a review of literature on how tertiary education is branded in the private sector in these countries. In addition, developing countries and emerging markets needed to be taken into consideration in the light of their experience in sustaining private education entities. The subsequent investigation of these models proved invaluable in respect of providing similarities and, in some instances, huge differences, which contributed to the establishment of a generic value-added branding model critical for sustaining PHEIs in South Africa. The knowledge of which dimensions the branding of a PHEI should focus on to nullify the negative perceptions associated with a PHEI is paramount.
Highlights
Demand for tertiary education in South Africa has led to new markets and more and more local private education institutions being established
Parents’ response rate of 88 % indicates more awareness of the so called “fly by night” institutions, and from a financial perspective, they would need to know the brand equity of the Private Higher Education Institution (PHEI). Their interest would lie in the acquisitions of PHEIs by large corporates who have been moved into the field of higher education – examples Adcorp, ADvTECH, Educor and Pearson Ltd
From a PHEI perspective these brand equity attributes were directly applicable to the formulation of the proposed branding model, since the findings indicated that stakeholders will respond to the brand name and brand performance that builds sustainable brand equity, and not consider the brand as a commodity or generic service
Summary
Demand for tertiary education in South Africa has led to new markets and more and more local private education institutions being established. Most of the larger PHEIs have made use of marketing opportunities to try and assure their future and sustainability, focusing more on the needs of the 2 1st century Higher Education (HE) student in South Africa. The aim of the study will be to firstly, assess the current state of PHEIs in South Africa, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses and to use these concepts as well as prominent theorists to formulate a generic value-added branding model. This would be attributed to either contact with a marketing representative of a private college during their final school years or social media posts they were aware of This indicates that (2021), «EUREKA: Social and Humanities» Number 3 the majority of students are acutely aware of the institutions they would like to study at and would have an overriding say in their higher education study direction
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