The Educational Marketing between Theory and Practice in the Context of Secondary Education Institutions

Abstract

In the context of the contemporary society, animated by material values, the concept of marketing - in its practical sense: the art of selling and/or the art to persuade customers to buy - becomes more important, crossing its traditional areas defined by economy or industry, and penetrating in various fields, like administration, culture and social life. As such, the concept of educational marketing started to be promoted, justified by the idea that education - together with culture and administration - has to become a profitable field at the societal level. The educational marketing involves: investigating the educational market, the consumption of education, the adaptation of the educational marketing policies to the requirements of the social and economic environment, the sizing of the educational services provided by the educational institutions according to the needs, preferences, expectations and exigencies of the consumers, as well as the goals of educational policies at national and international level, promotion of an efficient management of human resources, which together with the material and informational resources stimulate the synergic effects of the educational values ​​and services, and ensure the achievement of the predetermined objectives. In the paper, using the results of a questionnaire survey, there are identified the opinions of a sample of secondary school teachers - who participated in the European FP7 project IRRESISTIBLE -, concerning a series of theoretical and practical aspects connoted by the implementation of the educational marketing principles, at the level of the educational institutions.