oa How effective are the student recruitment methods used by Qatar's EducationCity universities?

This paper is based on a research study conducted to explore the effectiveness of the students recruitment/marketing methods used to recruit students in Qatar's Education City branch campuses. The desire of the author is that university branch campuses in Qatar and elsewhere may be stimulated to revisit their marketing and student recruitment plans and activities to better reach prospective students. The paper also explores the difficulties and challenges of marketing and student recruitment these institutions encounter in an attempt to provide ways to overcome these problems and make marketing and student recruitment more effective.

Previous research on marketing and student recruitment methods in higher education as well as the marketing concept, effective marketing, relationship marketing, student enrolment behavior theory and collaboration in marketing are examined. Following the review of literature, data on marketing and student recruitment methods adopted by each branch campus were collected via a questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to marketing/admissions staff of the branch campuses and semi-structured interviews were conducted for the same population in addition to a few public affairs officers and Education City officials. Detailed information about how effective each marketing method is and the challenges associated with each was collected and analyzed. Some documents and website pages were also examined.

The responses of the questionnaire and interviews revealed that some methods, such as school visits, counselor events, information sessions and a dedicated exhibition for Education City institutions are very effective in student recruitment. On the other hand, educational exhibitions and websites were found not very effective. Student activities recently adopted by some institutions are yet to be assessed. Additionally, the research indicated that the challenges marketing and admissions staff encounter are logistical, administrative, financial, cultural and language-related. Some recommendations were offered to overcome these challenges and enhance the effectiveness of marketing and student recruitment at Education City institutions.