HIGHER EDUCATION BRANDING

Abstract

Background. The increasing intensity of competition in the international market for higher education services leads to an increase in the importance of brands of higher education institutions (HEIs) and the branding of national higher education in general. The aim of this study is to determine the target setting and the main objectives of the country’s higher education branding in the international market of educational services. Materials and methods. Methods of comparative and critical analysis, analytical processing of the collected data, graphical display of trends and interrelations, synthesis, etc. are used to achieve the purpose and accomplish the assigned tasks. Results. Analysis of the dynamics of appeals to the Google-system with queries to search for such words and phrases as: "Brand"; "Higher education"; "Uni­versity" showed that after a sharp decline in the number of brand and branding queries in March 2020, the trend of increasing attention to this concept among Internet users began to grow again. At the same time, in the last months of 2021, there is a trend towards a decline in requests for higher education and universities. The risk of such a situation for the deve­lopment of existing universities lies in the fact that the latter is happening against the back­ground of the periodic introduction of quarantine restrictions and the loss of the opportunity to establish constant offline communications with students and youth audience. On the basis of a critical analysis, comparison and systematization of the existing definitions of the concepts of "branding of higher education" and "brand of higher edu­cation", it is proposed to understand the process of "branding of higher education" as a process aimed at implementing the strategy for the development of higher education, strengthening the identity of the higher education system of the country in the international market of educational services, support competitiveness of the higher education sector by establishing effective communications with all stakeholder groups both within the country and abroad. It has been substantiated that the "brand of a higher education institution" should be understood as a specific model of ideas and value characteristics about the HEI and its educational services in the minds of stakeholders. It is emphasized that the process of the higher education branding should be aimed at forming the value of the brand. This requires the following tasks, the implementation of which: 1) will create a strong competitive brand of higher education in the country, which will help solve educational problems and meet the needs of the labor market, especially within the country; 2) provide preconditions for further geographical diversification in the provision of educational services of the country’s HEIs; 3) will increase the volume of foreign and domestic investment in the educational and scientific space of the country. Along with this, the factors that should be paid attention to in the process of higher education branding and which were formed under the influence of Globalization 4.0 and the manifestation of the consequences of the COVID crisis were identified. Considering the level of development of the higher education system in the country, the choice of one of the following branding strategies for higher education is envisaged: internal orientation; internal-external orientation; external-internal orientation. It is established that Ukraine must now implement a strategy of internal-external orientation of higher education branding. It was noted that it would be better to track the results of higher education branding through special assessment and monitoring of changes in the Global Tertiary Education Brand Index and by region. Conclusion. The problem of the higher education branding, as evidenced by the results of the study, is far from simple and requires the setting of specific tasks, the completion of which should contribute to the achievement of the goal of maximizing the value of the country’s higher education brand. In the process of higher education branding and specific HEIs branding the interests of various groups of stakeholders as well as changes that taking place in the international market of educational services (including due to Globalization 4.0 and the effects of the pandemic) should be taken into account. The results of the study can be further used to develop and substantiate metho­dological approaches to determining the Global Tertiary Education Brand Index and the corresponding country indices, by which it will be possible to track imbalances and competitive advantages in the development of higher education in the regions of the country. Keywords: branding, brand management, higher education, brand of higher education institution, risks, strategies of higher education branding, digitalization, the market of educational services.