Competition, strategy and critical attributes in higher education in the Slovak republic

Abstract

Higher education sector in the Slovak republic has been subject to a series of fundamental challenges in the past decade. Constantly growing number of universities and decreasing number of secondary education graduates cope with many challenges. Higher education institutions need an appropriate strategy, a necessity reflected in numerous calls for research on strategy in the higher education sector. It is important to realize, that the university in the emerging market is striving to gain sustainable competitive advantage. This paper makes an attempt to study university marketing communication. It presents multiple statistics indexes which are developed in different time periods. It is understood that the choice which university makes in selecting the right way of marketing communication determines the success. Universities with targeted marketing communication demonstrated higher chances of gain competitive advantage. Drawing from these trends, paper describes the main critical attributes that the slovak universities have to challenge. The competition strategy is presented by the case study from the University of Zilina, where sustainable steps have to be realized to keep competitive position at the higher education market. Drawing from these trends, three core challenges are identified, that higher education institutions will face and these have fundamental implications for the research and practice: first, the need to enhance prestige and market share. The paper describes the significance of criterias, accoarding to which potential student make decision when choosing an university. Potential student face a number of criterias: how to select the university that is best for him/her, how is the university reputation, what is the consistence of programs with potential student values and careergoals, conducive environment etc. Potential student determines the order of criteria importance. In a process of selecting, potential student has certain information obtained from various sources, and no each source have the same importance and gravity for this student. Each university have different marketing communication. The paper also answers one of the research questions-which form of marketing communication reach the target group of potential student the most. The paper compare and evaluate the importance of information about the university with potential student expectations. Paper further describes changes in marketing communication with secondary education graduates as well as the changes in demand attributes. Secondly, the necessity to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset — education used to be considered a public good, provided by nonprofit organizations that were unexposed to market pressure and had clear societal missions. Now, education is becoming a global service delivered by quasi-companies in an ever-more complex and competitive knowledge marketplace. This article's purpose is to contribute to this discussion by providing prescriptive quidance to higher education managers in areas of competiton strategy and sustainability of higher education. Paper also describes key trends that will impact higher education in the short to medium terms as well.