An exploratory study of marketing international education online

Abstract

As competition increases in the education industry, public and private schools increasingly view students as consumers and market their institutions. This paper investigates the Internet’s role in communicating educational opportunities from two perspectives: students’ Internet use to facilitate information search and decision making; and educational institutions’ e‐business adoption and implementation. Two surveys of international students and face‐to‐face interviews with marketing executives from nine Australian institutions explored the Internet’s role in marketing international education. Academically, this paper reviews how Rogers’ diffusion of innovations explains individual and organizational adoption of the Internet, and proposes future research areas. Based on this exploratory research, educational institutions gain insights of online customer service and e‐business strategies for successfully recruiting students. The results show that prospective overseas students do indeed use the Internet. Institutions should immediately establish procedures for answering e‐mail and review changing their Web sites to appeal to overseas students.

Citation

Gomes, L. and Murphy, J. (2003), "An exploratory study of marketing international education online", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 116-125. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540310467787