Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities
Year : 2017, Volume : 7, Issue : 7
First page : ( 382) Last page : ( 396)
Online ISSN : 2249-7315.
Article DOI : 10.5958/2249-7315.2017.00393.8

Social media, information processing and potential clients in international higher education market

Wadhwa Rashim

Department of Education, Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India, wadhwarashim@gmail.com

Online published on 17 July, 2017.

Abstract

International student recruitment has been central to Internationalisation agenda of higher education institutions around the world. As competition has increased in the education industry, institutions increasingly view students as consumers and adopted different marketing strategies in order to attract large number of students and establish themselves in the higher education market. In order to attract these potential clients, an understanding of the needs and informational channels used by prospective students with respect to decision making process of going abroad is very important. This paper aims to explore the various information channels prospective international Indian students' use regarding the selection of country, institution and course in general and social media in particular? How does prospective international Indian students' information seeking behaviour vary according to type and level of education? The methodology of the paper involves sample of 362 prospective students from India. Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews have been used as tools for data collection. Findings of the present paper provide international students recruiters a better understanding of choices made by the potential clients and to use different marketing strategies by keeping in view the targeted potential clients.

Top

Keywords

Internationalization, Market, Social media, Information processing and Potential clients.

Top