BUILDING THE PRESTIGE OF A UNIVERSITY AS A TOOL TO ACHIEVE COMPETITIVENESS.

The study addresses the importance of a higher education institution's marketing management and brand and prestige building in relation to its applicants. The research employs a wide range of secondary data sources from around the world while mainly consisting of a case study conducted in the form of a survey. The objective is to determine homogenous groups of applicants based on how they perceive the reputation of a selected university/faculty and what their preferences are when choosing a study program. The results of the research are then used to verify whether the brand values defined by the faculty in question correspond with actual perception of its brand. Groups of applicants were determined using a K-means cluster analysis and subsequently tested for the applicants' preferences when choosing a university and their perceived associations to the selected faculty using an ANOVA. The results show 3 basic clusters of applicants and provide an overview of a possible approach to brand building in the context of universities. They can therefore serve as a model example fit for implementation in universities in Europe and even beyond, provided cultural dimensions and the specific environment are accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]