Branding Higher Education: Neoliberalism's Role in Shaping Students’ Choices Through Market Forces

Abstract

Universities today function more like businesses and are subject to neoliberal demands that place the burden on the person to "identify" a service that aligns with their goals and desires. The objectives of the study is to find out why universities advertise themselves, how they are promoting themselves as brands to enhance students’ enrolment. Through Cluster sampling the researcher has selected physical data of 5 billboards of different private universities from transit areas of Lahore, and a survey consisting of 15 questions was conducted from 36 students. The survey data was analyzed by the App Survey Heart, and the physical data is analyzed qualitatively through Marxist theory by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in 1848, and 4ps of marketing by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960. The research found that universities advertise themselves because they are part of capitalist society that seeks to make money, to demonstrate academic versatility to perpetuate the existing social order by promoting the idea that education is key to upward mobility that serves the ruling class, and to position education as the product for success. Private institutions should not become corporate brands or promote branded education on transit with false claims to attract students.