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Public Perception of Higher Education Mergers – Media Review Analysis. Linda du Plessis. Rationale. The perceptions of external stakeholders, comprising the community, potential students and industry are to a large extent influenced by what is reported in the media.
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Public Perception of Higher Education Mergers – Media Review Analysis Linda du Plessis
Rationale The perceptions of external stakeholders, comprising the community, potential students and industry are to a large extent influenced by what is reported in the media. This paper sets out to describe and analyse the merger discourse as reported in the public media in an attempt to identify key themes that dominated media reports and henceforth influenced stakeholders’ perceptions
Rationale Since the merger in the current study was one of the first South African higher education mergers, universities attracted much attention from the media, resulting in extensive coverage of events on campuses during this period. Several studies have identified a significant relationship between trust in institutions and the potential perceived risk and perceived benefit by people who consider further engagement with institutions either as a potential student, alumni, donor or employee.
Higher education The paucity of research and theoretical propositions makes it impossible to explain the potential effects of mergers in South Africa (Jansen 2005). Moreover, existing theories of mergers rely on organisational systems theory. Higher education institutions have institutional identities, are racially fractured, financially unequal and historically recent in formation. The National Plan for Higher Education states that planning, funding and quality will be the three core-steering mechanisms for institutions. The merger process however had at its heart the following objective: ‘creating new institutions with new identities and cultures’ (DoE 2001, 89).
Higher education Institutions not only have to increase their performance to meet national benchmarks, but simultaneously support the creation of a new institutional character. Marketing and branding: Two strategically important mechanisms. Particular message about the organisation is communicated to a target group via a specific source Public also receives information from external sources (e.g. publicity and word-of- mouth), which are not under direct control of the organisation
Market versus media A university is the institution in society most capable of linking the requirements of industry, technology and market forces with the demands of citizenship (Delanty 2001) Increasing links with industry, greater competition locally and globally, increasing marketisation and greater expectations of accountability all fuel the quest for market-like behaviour of institutions (Barkley and Jeffries 2003, Ntshoe 2004). It can therefore be concluded that publicity definitely impacts the market forces relating to higher education
Market vs Media Publicity as an information source refers to information about the organisation disseminated through editorial media, and which is not paid for by the organisation (Collins and Stevens 2005) - typically non-personal mass communication such as newspaper articles and may contain both positive and negative information. Positive publicity is positively related to organisational attractiveness and strengthened the effect of other recruitment sources. Positive publicity, coming from an encompassed source lends a high level of credibility - very effective element of the promotional mix (Zottolo and Wanous 2006).
The influence of negative publicity is difficult to overstate… • A single item of negative information is capable of neutralising five similar pieces of positive information • Negative information results in more strongly held attributions regarding product beliefs than does positive information • The effect of negative information is more enduring than positive information • Negative information more strongly influences attitudes and purchase intention than positive intention, particularly in the service sector
Market vs Media Branding and recruitment At root, a brand is the promise of an experience. The goal of any branding or integrated marketing program is to help stakeholders – both current and prospective – understand the real merits of the institution and the value that it holds for them.
Media … Over the past decade, deliberate efforts to market universities have gone from being a marginal activity to a strategic imperative. Universities adopted an “integrated marketing” approach, by which they try to coordinate all their outreach activities to try to enhance their particular image or “brand” in the educational marketplace.
Recruitment • In a study conducted by Hearne (2009) to determine the most important factors that influence parents and learners’ choice of institution, they created the following three guiding principles for institutions: • Talk about how educational offerings will translate • into career opportunities. • 2. Be transparent in financial-aid procedures and offerings. • 3. Talk about the less tangible attributes of your institutions. Making friends, learning about things that interest them and living in a place they will enjoy are important to students.
Moeketsi Letseka, senior researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council stated, “Historically disadvantaged universities are not doing enough to market themselves or to change how the labour market regards them … academic journals are not on the grocery list of Joe Soap, so how is he going to find out what academics are achieving in tertiary institutions right on his doorstep” (Gower 2008).
Very few universities use the media to their advantage. When a university receives major funding for infrastructure upgrades, often the media are not informed. University management does, however, clash with the media over negative coverage of student protests or staff disputes. There are other opportunities to communicate with the media. It is in the interest of universities to publicise new policy decisions or when an academic makes a major discovery. Professors sometimes revel in getting their groundbreaking research published in international journals, but do not tell local media.
Negative publicity makes it difficult for institutions to win the trust and respect of the public. What is the correlation between the negative publicity and subsequent lack of trust and the number of vacant positions in higher education? “ .. publicity are often initiated by politial statements about higher education …The report by the mistrial task team on social cohesion and transformation was released early in 2009 and lead to renewed emphasis in the media on transformation and racial issues
Few Recommendations • Learn from Politics? • University leaders and marketers should establish trust relationships with the media and use the media more effectively to celebrate achievements. • Universities and marketers should create opportunities to communicate with the media and to make them aware of the priorities that institutions are dealing with.
Can we learn from politics? “…There is another reason, however, and that is the deeply felt impact of Obama. Obama's campaign for the American presidency was the most thoroughly modern campaign in the history of democratic politics. He created a template for running a successful opposition campaign which has been carefully scrutinised by political strategists around the world. The media formats are secondary to the Obama victory, ….. Obama won because he correctly identified the issues that voters most cared about, and offered policies that assuaged their anxieties. He talked constantly about the economy and reassured voters with the promise of a middle-class tax cut and good healthcare. “
UK: London universities merge05 October 2008 Guardian “The merger will combine the competitive excellence of the two current universities across biomedicine, science, social sciences, arts and humanities, and merge support services for students and staff and the management of estates. The new institution intends to contribute to the health of the population of south-west London, working with NHS trusts and other university partners to establish a network of excellence. Students said they supported the moves. “We hope to continue working closely with Kingston. I am sure that this will benefit the NHS in south-west London, as well as medical education." Liz Owen, Royal Holloway's students' union president, said: "We embrace the opportunity to work alongside our counterparts at St George's to create shared facilities, an improved support network and student activities that will enhance the student experience and are of mutual benefit to students from both sites."
Few Recommendations • University leaders and marketers should establish trust relationships with the media and use the media more effectively to celebrate achievements. • Universities and marketers should create opportunities to communicate with the media and to make them aware of the priorities that institutions are dealing with. • News is about conflict, significance and prominence. There is clear evidence that negative headlines have a significant impact and that institutional management may need to work harder to inform reporters about the positive developments in their institutions.
“The best universities succeed because they live and breathe that cardinal rule of branding - that its value exists solely in the minds and hearts of its community. Moreover, the university brand thrives on the persuasive power of received understanding – because a university stands for certain values, it will attract people who share in those values, who in turn perpetuate and strengthen the brand
