University Branding. An Analysis of University Services Delivered via the Internet

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to assess how the information can be more easily disseminated on the Web sites of higher education institutions. Marshall McLuhan saw the language developed in a book as a proof in favor of knowledge. “When information comes in contact with another information, the results are sensational and effective”. In terms of talent and how fast they adapt, the youth of today, Generation Net as Don Tapscott calls them, have the power to transform the present. They come up with new approaches on collaboration, sharing information and innovation in business and governance from around the world. There is strong evidence that organizations that embrace these new ways of working are more efficient registering a growth and greater success. We selected for this purpose a number of foreign students on master programs (based on the experience they have already) from two prestigious universities Hacettepe in Ankara, Turkey and NUPSPA in Bucharest, Romania, and based on some questions and interviews we set up a strategy for how to improve quality management for university -- Web services for students based on their perceptions. We started with the assumption that better e-integration, infrastructure, and Web-services will go to better quality management and from here to better results on intake of international students (with more successful students, research and education of high quality) -- assuming that internationalization yield increase higher education quality, public benefit, better competition, better access to funds etc. The SWOT analysis will be the centerpiece of our discussions with the students from those two groups -- one from Hacettepe and the second one from NUPSPA.

Keywords: e-services; universities; e-learning; Web services