A look at USEK positioning strategy
Universities aspire to be pinnacle institutions in the generation of modern ideas; without these institutions today, rapid progress in the 21st century would not have been possible. Initially, these institutions provided only general knowledge but, as time progressed, there was a need for specialization.
This situation formulated new specialist colleges and departments, sowing the seeds for future higher education institutions. The trend in universities today is shifting towards an engagement in marketing and branding programs. The purpose is often to enhance the university's reputation and to have a positive influence on university ranking. Greater competition, existing today, is to attract the best and brightest students. Thus, a university is no longer just an establishment of higher learning but also a business. Millions of dollars are spent by tertiary institutions trying to burnish their image and enhance their position in the university rankings. This article should be of value to education leaders and planners, as well as university professors and administrators, to help them all better understand student behavior and implement strategies that boost the university's image and consequently develop student satisfaction. It is thus important to investigate the relationships existing between physical, emotional and overall university image to students' satisfaction.
Satisfaction and its Implications In a competitive marketplace where organizations vie for customers, client satisfaction becomes an important differentiator of marketing strategy.
Customer satisfaction largely depends on the degree with which a product supplied by an organization meets or surpasses customer expectation. By measuring customer satisfaction, organizations are able to get an indication of how successful they actually are in providing products to the market.
The Image Perspective
Consensus states that an organizational image can only be held or assessed by its stakeholders or constituents (Avenarius, 1993). Messages about the organization delivered by the media and other observers, such as family, friends, or employees of a firm, also influence images of organizations held by those who evaluate the organization. Any individual can have many positive, negative and indifferent images of the organization, the organization's product, the organization's reputation and so on. One institution that absolutely depends on its image, in order to prosper and even survive, is the university.
Kennedy (1997) distinguishes two components of image: functional, related to tangible stimuli that can be easily measured, and emotional, associated with psychological conditions that become apparent in feelings and attitudes. Functional qualities refer to physical properties, such as range of goods or services, price and layout, while the psychological attributes refer to the consumer's sense of belonging, feelings and to his sensation of good or bad taste.
The overall image is formed subjectively though a system linking cognitive (physical constituents) and affective (untouchables, related to feelings and emotions) components.
Relationship between Image and Satisfaction
The literature hasn't obviously identified a clear relationship between satisfaction and image. The studies in the field of university education investigated the most relevant factors of expectation or satisfaction and related them with perceived quality. High level of customer satisfaction does not necessarily lead to a favorable corporate image.
Results
Our study is based on a self-administered questionnaire in a survey of 171 students enrolled in different faculties and institutes of USEK University.
First year students are not included in our sample, due to their lack of experience, and since they cannot assess their satisfaction with their university.
The results have proven that when a university is prestigious and has a reputable history, student life on campus becomes dynamic and students can easily get jobs .On the other hand, students tend to express affection to-
wards their university and consider it as another refuge outside of their homes. Students are more concerned about the prestige and reputation of their educational institution rather than value for money.
Furthermore, students' satisfaction is mainly affected by the university's relations with society; for example with companies, which in return provides decent jobs for fresh graduates, as well as internships for current students.
Conclusion
Nowadays, competition in the higher education sector is growing tremendously.
Thus competition for students, teaching and research staff, and new sources of funding has become very fierce. In this context, universities that have a strong distinctive image will be in a better position to successfully face the competition taking place in the near future. Based on our work, university administration should pay more attention to developing policies regarding communication and management. Thus they should focus on the quality of student life on campus while promoting forums, conferences and student associations. Moreover, partnerships and strong relationships with professional institutions are very important, since students consider a university as a bridge or passageway to shape their future careers. Their end goal is to end up in a reputable institution, while contributing to the advancement of society. About THE AUTHORs Dr. Nehme AZOURY is Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration and Commercial Sciences at Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) nehmeazoury@usek.edu.lb.
Lindos Daou is a lecturer and a researcher at the Faculty of Business Administration and Commercial Sciences at USEK lindosdaou@usek.edu.lb
© Capital ME 2012
