| dc.description.abstract | Student enrollment is critical to the survival and growth of private universities. This is because private universities are not funded by the government and depend on student tuition fees. Kenyan private universities today operate in a competitive market than they did a decade ago; their survival depends by how well they reposition themselves as distinct academic entities to increase student enrollment as a result of increase on the numbers of universities offering degree. The private universities face challenges of attracting students to enroll in their institutions, thus spending millions of money in marketing and communication to attract studetlt enrolment. This has led to the universities developing many different strategies to attract students for enrollment.
This study sought to assess whether the communication strategies that private universities are using to attract students play a role in enhancing students to enroll in these universities. The project assessed the communication strategies used in four universities; United States International University (USIU), Inoorero University (IU), The Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) and Daystar University The study was done using descriptive research methodology to generate detailed data about the issue that was being assessed. Stratified sampling technique was adopted. The total study population was 4 private universities in Kenya. A sample of 100 respondents was targeted; a total of twenty five respondents from each of the private universities were selected. The selected samples were representative for generalization of research findings. To undertake the collection of data, a questionnaire was designed as an instrument to guide in gathering data.
From the analysis of the interview responses, the study found that communication strategies had significant impact on enhancing enrollment among private universities. The study established that print media (newspapers) was the main channel of communication used by the university to disseminate messages. The majority of the students who responded mentioned radio as their source of information about the university, although would prefer to be informed through social media, the internet and radio respectively in future. The major challenge faced in the implementation of the communication strategies is lack of enough finance.
The researcher recommends that private universities should move from focusing so much on advertising the in newspapers and embrace technological advance that the university students identify with such as the social media like the face book, my space, twitter and mobile phones which has become among their target audience. Universities should encourage their key stakeholders students to assist in marketing their institutions through word of mouth and referrals. Appropriate steps should be taken to boost motivation of the marketing and communication personnel in private universities. | en_US |
