What is branding? It is an organization’s attempt to tell its story. The brand message is important because it suggests a promise to meet consumer expectations. The notion of branding comes from the corporate sector as names given to products evolved to brands. Brands imply a relationship between the company and its customer. The attempt is to establish brand loyalty that is built on promises and trust. Through branding, organizations try to position their products or services as distinct from the competition. Organizations that do not make it a priority to build brand identity find themselves at the mercy of how others choose to tell their story.
Education is now a multimillion dollar industry. In a globalized world, educational institutions like companies feel compelled to build world-class brands. The need for branding is particularly felt by private higher education providers. The proliferation of education institutions in the private sector makes it essential for them to carve out a brand as they have to attract students and compete with other institutions. It becomes a question of their viability. There are a number of factors which naturally draw students to a university:
- A historically established brand based on how long a university has been established, which includes the prior generations of a prospective student having graduated from that university;
- Attractive campuses in good locations;
- Internationally know faculty and researchers as well as well known products which can be attributed to the university or a faculty member;
- Public perception that large, established universities are best suited to educate the young.
- Branding an established university is not difficult especially if it is a publicly funded university. Private higher education institutions are more vulnerable especially because their fees are inevitably higher than those of public universities. Hence the natural choice of students are the public funded universities. Today, students are more aware of the educational institutions than before because of information available online, publications and other tools. All this amounts to brand building.
For any major educational institution, there are four important stakeholders: faculty, students, employers and alumni. In the long run a university is known primarily for its faculty and students. Therefore, the educational institution has to make continuous efforts to focus on maximizing levels of satisfaction of these stakeholders.
Prospective students, like prospective customers, have a vast array of choices, private or public school, large or small, domestic or international, liberal arts or technical. Like businesses competing for talented workers, colleges and universities compete for talented students. In a gloablized world higher education is a broad marketplace and no college or university can rest on its laurels. The business community recognizes that globalization is both inescapable and a golden opportunity. Because higher education prepares students to enter the globalized world, it should be responsive to the same global market forces that effect business. Specifically at least two things are needed. One is the regular upgradation of curricula to reflect the needs of the changing job requirements of student population and the impact of globalization and second, improvement in the engagement levels and operational effectiveness of the institution to enhance the student experience and maximize the return on the money invested. Further, the effects of globalization require not only new academic subjects but also fresh avenues of pedagogy. Institutions must accommodate non-traditional students, an aging student population, more online and distance learning and broader spectrum of student needs. Colleges and universities that manage these will strengthen their brand position.
However, educational brand strategy cannot be limited to marketing and advertising campaigns. An effective brand management strategy can only be maximized if the brand carries a promise – and if every member of the academic community is committed to fulfilling that promise.
However, brand positioning is not enough. It is vital to have the brand experience which is the result of human interactions in an educational institution that boost students’ and employees’ emotional engagement or diminish it. Educational leaders must play a key role in engaging students and the institution’s faculty and staff. Student engagement depends largely on creating a feeling of belonging. This depends on the interactions students have and the relationships they build, not first with fellow students but with faculty, staff and administrators. All of them play key roles in delivering an institution’s brand promise. Levels of student engagement correlate strongly to many of the outcomes institutions care about: retention, graduation rates, achievement gains, and alumni giving. The most important is a satisfying undergraduate experience because that has the strongest impact and stays throughout life.
Academics and the student experience are foundational elements of any higher education institution and are key elements of its brand promise. Institutions that want to actively manage their education brand must first consider how they are perceived. Tis is important because there are institutions that deliver far more than the public perception others far less.
But institution alone cannot build a brand for the country. There are other factors. One is the core values of the country in which it operates. Does the country provide an environment of personal and intellectual freedom, creativity and democracy? For example, uncertain political situation, frequent rioting and violence, all effect student stability and impact on student enrolment. Then, the governmental regulatory mechanism can help or hinder the institution in developing its brand by encouraging innovation and creativity or hampering it. Issues pertaining to quality of education reliability of accreditation and others all depend on the credibility and flexibility of the regulatory mechanism.
Many of the challenges that higher education leaders face are brand-related: student recruiting and admissions, alumni giving, community relations, faculty engagement, staff culture and the student experience. In essence, the emotional and psychological dynamics of an educational institution as a whole influence and shape perceptions of its brand in the marketplace. The brand image of an institution is created by and reflects all those institutional dynamics. What is needed are innovative leaders who can take the best business principles and apply them to the best academic traditions. Such leaders will help higher education preserve its heritage while creating a new legacy by changing the face of academe.
It is easy to say, build a strong brand, but difficult to deliver. The brand promise is based not only on academics but also on emotional engagement and engagement derives partly from the institution’s leadership and partly from all the stakeholders in the institution. The institution’s leadership has to be clear of the institution’s mission; its specific strategic objectives towards the achievement of its mission; and its capacity to reinvest itself. All these issues are critically important and all are severely devalued of the brand promise is fragmented or delivered poorly. For effective communication of the brand, there has to be first an internal awareness and conviction. Therefore, everyone has a role to play from the groundsman to the chairman/ president/ vice-chancellor, from those who teach to those who raise funds. that its staff, the administration and the faculty all need to know what the institution stands for, what makes it distinguished and in what lies its uniqueness. A strong college or university brand can only develop from when the complete institutional community can understand and appreciate itself.
Now, the question is where should Indian Institutions position themselves. I think they should aspire to be leaders in the developing world. There is increasing consensus that if India has to emerge as a global leader, it must gain preeminence in the field of education. Thanks to the groundwork done immediately after independence in establishing institutions for scientific, technical, agricultural, medical education apart from liberal university education and the subsequent rapid increase in the education system, India has emerged as a developed of skilled human resource. What used to be lamented as brain drain is now seen as human capital. Developing countries too look to India for help in developing their own human resource. This was understood in post independence India and it led to the establishment of institutions like the India Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). The First Education Commission of India, popularly known as the Kothari Commission (1964-1966) stated that the destiny of India” was “being shaped in her classrooms.”
The Education Commission was also emphatic that knowledge was international and that there could be no barriers to obtaining it from anywhere in the world. But India could not forever remain at the receiving end of the pipeline. It had to make its own contribution as an intellectual and cultural equal in the human endeavours to extend the frontiers of knowledge. This, as Kothari Commission pointed out, required a large-scale programme for the discovery and development of talent and the creation of centers excellence in higher education that could compare favorably with the best in the world. It was through education that India could grow and find its place in the comity of nations.
There is already a fair amount of cooperation with most of the SAARC countries except Pakistan. Recognizing the importance of education in promoting regional cooperation, India had proposed the establishment of SAARC University during the last summit at Dhaka. It would be useful to accelerate the decision making process for early fruition of the idea. Apart from this, India must take the lead in promoting student and faculty exchange programs with universities in SAARC countries.
Nepal and Bhutan already enjoy a special status in Indian universities. Students from these countries, for example, are eligible to get admission in Delhi University even on scoring 5 per cent less than the basic eligibility for Indian students. India’s being the education destination for the people of Nepal has played a positive role in their bilateral relations. But it has not been possible to accommodate the demand of a large number of Napalese students particularly for professional courses. Seeing this need the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) has opened a Medical College in Nepal. Unfortunately its full potential has not been realized because of political turbulence there. In a deemed university like MAHE, the Nepalese students could have been accommodated in India itself but excessive regulatory framework in India made Nepal a more attractive destination. The institution in Nepal also attracts students from India and some other foreign countries.
India is the first choice destination for higher education for the Bhutanese who look to it to play a significant role in the development of human resources in their own country. Bhutanese society is gradually opening up and education there is bound to grow. It is essential that India play a key role in helping educationally in Human Resource Development and thus shaping attitudes towards India in a newly democratic Bhutan.
With regard to Sri Lanka, while education is playing a positive role in the development of bilateral relations between the two countries, its full potential has not been realized because of paucity of seats and institutions in India. Apart from general education, Buddhist studies need to be paid greater attention. A number of Sri Lankans come to study Buddhism in India. It is necessary to remember that the Buddhist clergy plays an important role in Sri Lanka’s national affairs. Special attention should be paid to Buddhist studies also because of the large number of Buddhist countries in the world who expect India to provide the lead in areas of philosophy and Comparative Religion. There is only one center of Buddhist studies in Varanasi but many more can be developed and departments of Philosophy need to be strengthened.
With the neighbours on the East and West of its borders there are little or no educational linkages. There is some cooperation with Bangladesh in the field of Higher Education but could be improved and strengthened. Bangladesh sends a large number of students to India but India is unable to meet the huge demand for professional and vocational courses from Bangladesh students. There is hardly any faculty exchange among universities in Bangladesh and Indian Universities and few if any joint research projects. Such initiatives would not only enhance cooperation in the field of education but also help develop better understanding. Because of linguistic commonality it should be possible to develop close linkages between academic institutions of the two countries especially with universities in West Bengal. With Pakistan this areas has been a closed one. As part of confidence building measures, it would be worthwhile to begin with small steps like faculty exchange in this field.
The greatest expectation of Afghanistan from India is help in creating human resource for the reconstruction of its war – ravaged country including education facilities. The Government has realized the importance of education in promoting Indo-Afghan relations and has started special scheme for the training of Afghan students in India. This is a challenge because was has interrupted the educational processes there and created imbalances in societal structures, but if India can meet it, it will be an important aspect of India’s cultural diplomacy towards these strategically important neighbours. The Prime Minister of India has offered massive aid in human resource development to Afghanistan. Even earlier, a number of Afghans have studied in India including President Hamid Karzai. The impact of this educational experience in India was visible in the affection with which he remembered his teachers at the Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla from where he did his post graduation in Political Science.
India’s cultural relations with Southeast Asia are one of the most fascinating fields of history. This interaction goes back over two thousand years and has left a lasting impact on almost every aspect of life in a number of countries of the region. The most unique feature of this interaction is that it has been entirely peaceful. There is probably no other example in history of such cross-fertilization between deifferent cultures and people for over two millennia without any involvement of military force. Former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s “Look East” Policy was a major foreign policy initiative in the post cold war era. Relation with ASEAN in the cornerstone of the “Look East” Policy. Recognizing the close cultural ties between the two regions, India had also taken the initiative of launching “Ganga-Mekong Partnership” with the ASEAN countries of the region.
Education too has played an important role in India’s relationship with a number of Southeast Asian countries since India’s independence particularly Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. With the other countries of the region, stronger educational links can be built. A large number of India teachers teach in Brunei but there is little or no educational contact with Philippines and Indonesia. A few Indonesian students have come to India on ITEC and ICCR scholarships but keeping in view the large population of the country and its growing needs for skilled human resources, this relationship can be developed.
A large number of Malaysian students came to study in India till the end of the 1980s. Many of them went on to occupy high positions in Malaysian society. These students played an important role in the all-round development of Ind0-Malaysian relations. Malaysian University Graduate Association (MAYUG) an association of university graduates from India has been active in promoting Indo-Malaysian ties. They have made a mark in academics, law and engineering. A large majority of doctors in Malaysia have been trained in India. However, the number of students has been going down since the early 1990s. A meeting with some alumni indicated several reasons for this. One is that Malaysia has developed its own institutions. Alternate destinations such as Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore have also emerged. With growing affluence bright Malaysian students have started enrolling in larger numbers in universities in the USA and UK. Also, there have been problems of equivalence and recognition of Indian degrees, which have not been addressed by India. On the contrary, because of pressures on Indian institutions, these have become more inward-looking. The Indian regulatory framework has also contributed to these declines. The consequence has been that institutions like MAHE have opened a campus in Malacca to overcome the difficulties created by the rigid regulatory framework of higher education in India. However, discussions with a number of Malaysian academics and other members of the civil society make it evident that interest in Indian higher education remains. Only a more proactive policy in India is required.
There has been close cooperation between India and Thailand in higher education since Indian independence. The situation in the recent years is somewhat similar to that of Malaysia. Discussions with Indian alumni as well as their academics show it is possible to revive the relationship provided India pursues it. People of Indian origin in Thailand have a particularly strong interest in quality education in India. It is interesting that Shivanth Raj Bajaj has given an endowment of 1 million bhat to start an India Study Centre at the Thammasat University.