Building Marketing Strategies in Higher Education Institutions of Pakistan

Building Marketing Strategies for Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper provides a review of Higher Education Services in Pakistan and the strategies and directions for its improvement.

Higher education, like any other commodity or service, has been viewed in a variety of economic frameworks. Little of this work has been done to define carefully the boundaries of the relevant market for higher education as a service in Pakistan, which is the subject of this particular inquiry. Market definition is an essential step before any academic or policy investigation can properly be made into the forces that determine the behavior of the buyers and sellers of higher education, those who provide inputs into the education process, or those who fund or otherwise subsidize it.

Key Words: higher education services, strategies, direction for improvement.

Introduction

In higher education, students are the customers; some areas that touch the students are the registration processes, transcript services, career counseling and academic support services. Graduating high school seniors today have a wide variety of choices in higher education; competition for their business is keen, especially in a tight economy. Students can choose four-year degrees like engineering, technical schools in a face-to-face or online learning environment while the academic reputation of a school is a major factor in determining its selection, other performance indicators that prospective students may examine include pass rate of licensure examinations, improvement in critical thinking and communication skills, alumni satisfaction with their college experience, and the percentage of graduates who find employment (Cleary, 2001)

A country can ignore the importance of higher education only at its peril. The government of Pakistan has therefore set up the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan in 2002 in order to revamp the higher education system in Pakistan. The Higher...