University Branding. An Analysis of University Services Delivered via the Internet

• Author: Catalin Vrabie
• Pages: 574-580

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2015

574

University Branding.

An Analysis of University Services Delivered via the Internet

Catalin Vrabie1

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to assess h ow the information can be more easily disseminated on the

Web sites of higher education institutions. Marshall McLuhan saw the language developed in a book as a

proof in favor of knowledge. “When information comes in contact with another information, the results are

sensational and effective”. In terms of talent and how fast they adapt, the youth of today, Generation Net as

Don Tapscott calls them, have the p ower to transform the present. They come up with new approaches on

collaboration, sharing information and innovation in business and governance from around the world. There

is strong evidence that organizations that embrace these n ew ways of working are more efficient registering a

growth and greater success. We selected for this purpose a number of foreign students on master programs

(based on the experience they have already) from two prestigious universities Hacettepe in Ankara, Turkey

and NUPSPA in Bucharest, Romania, and based on some questions and interviews we set up a strategy for

how to improve quality management for university - Web services for students based o n their perceptions.

We started with the assumption that better e-integration, infrastructure, and Web-services will go to better

quality management and from here to better results on intake of international students (with more successful

students, research and education of high quality) - assuming that internationalization yield increase higher

education quality, public benefit, better competition, better access to funds etc. The SWOT analysis will be

the centerpiece of our discussions with the students from those two groups – one from Hacettepe and the

second one from NUPSPA.

Keywords: e-services; universities; e-learning; Web services

1. Introduction

In today’s globalizing world, competition is very intense not only between businesses but also

amongst the public institutions. Of course, not all of those are subject to competition but some of them

are. The competition between public educational institutions, for example, varies around such issues as

the education is an important pole of development for a society, attracting many investments. Among

those, universities are an important center of education and one of the most important consequences of

the economic change is the fierce competition between them (Gordon, 1999; Lever & Turok, 1999;

Mishra & Rolland, 2009; Zhang & Zhao, 2009). The universities especially compete with one another

especially for imposing a brand likely to be obtained from those investments. The fact that investment

in today’s world is active and moving makes this competition all the more severe (Waitt, 1999).

University branding is attracting the attention of university and faculty administrators and the other

stakeholders more and more every day. The reputation of a university is a very important factor in

1Lecturer PhD, Faculty of Public Ad ministration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration,

Bucharest, Romania. Address: 6 Povernei Street, Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania, Tel.:+4021.318.08.97, fax: +4021.312.25.35.

Corresponding author: cataloi@yahoo.com.