Title: Internationalisation: a new positioning strategy in the higher education market

Authors: Maha Mourad

Addresses: The Management Department, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo Campus, P.O. Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt

Abstract: Within the growing international competition among the higher education institutions, it is important to investigate the factors that influence their positioning strategies. This study investigates the students| choice of the university focusing on the perception of the internationalisation of universities. Notice that in spite of the new trends of internationalisation in the higher education market, there are relatively few empirical studies investigating the effect of internationalisation on positioning strategies of the universities. The empirical setting for this research is Egypt which has recently liberalised higher education resulting in an increasingly competitive environment. The empirical research includes a small set of semi-structured in-depth interviews with universities| top-level management as well as six focuses groups representing parents and prospective students. This paper could be used by higher education institutions to develop their positioning strategies as it gives a better understanding to the role of internationalisation in determining students| choice in the higher education market.

Keywords: education management; positioning strategies; internationalisation; higher education markets; universities; student choice; parental choice; brands; branding; marketing strategies; Egypt; competition; educational liberalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2010.030875

International Journal of Management in Education, 2010 Vol.4 No.2, pp.185 - 200

Published online: 11 Jan 2010 *

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