Student recruitment strategies in higher education: promoting excellence and diversity?

1. Introduction

Higher education institutions (HEIs) throughout the world are facing multiple expectations as to how they should respond to a rapidly changing environment. Deregulation and increased competition within the public sector and between public and private providers are creating a more market-like environment, which influences how universities and colleges profile themselves and compete for students ([12] Gibbs, 2008). For HEIs in this situation, excellence and diversity are key issues for consideration when developing their institutional profile.

The promotion of excellence is currently framed as a central strategy that will help HEIs to prosper in an increasingly open and competitive environment, primarily due to advantages HEIs will gain through knowledge transfer, high enrolment and prestige within the scientific community and among the public at large. The striving for excellence may, however, have unintended consequences. For example, there is the issue of whether and how the emphasis on excellence will affect diversity. Excellence and diversity may be mutually supportive, but they may have a more problematic relationship. In a market-like environment, HEIs may choose to identify their niche and highlight their difference and uniqueness, thereby avoiding competition ([4] Barney, 1991).

HEIs compete with one another in a number of areas, including funding, reputation, research grants and research output. They may also compete for students, especially talented ones. Student recruitment is essential to boosting excellence and enhancing diversity. Students represent potential future researchers. Graduates are not only holders of society's diversified body of knowledge, they are ambassadors of their alma mater as well, playing a crucial role in shaping an HEI's reputation. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to analyse the strategic processes associated with student recruitment. There is greater interest in strategy formulation within HEIs, which is leading to changes in the traditional governance and management structures of HEIs; there is also increasing focus on how research, teaching and learning are performed ([2] Allen, 2003).

There are few studies that focus on how HEIs develop their student recruitment strategies, particularly in a European context. Studies on student recruitment tend to focus on student behaviour and thinking: students' choice of university ([19] Ho and Hung, 2008); the information sources they use when making their choice ([5] Bonnema and van der Waldt, 2008); and their loyalty to and...