The European Director : - How International Offices work to market their Exchange Programs

Abstract: As two former exchange students ourselves and studying the International Business and Economics program we were appealed by writing this thesis on commission for the International Office at Umeå University. The marketing of education is an area of research still in development. This lead us to our problem: In what way do International Offices work to market their exchange programs? The purpose of the study was to get an understanding of how International Offices in Europe work to market their exchange programs. We wanted to see and compare how the International Offices work to make students go and come on exchange programs. All this to improve the knowledge of the International Offices in Europe to become more effective and achieve greater success. We started our theory chapter by writing about service marketing: describing a service and how to work with it. We continued with theories about the marketing of education. Australia turned out to be the country where we found the basis for our study. They are researching the most within the marketing of education. Using the theories as a basis we constructed a model called ‘the European Director’ of how International Offices in Europe work to market their exchange programs. The study was done using a qualitative method. Three telephone-, and one face-to-face interview were conducted with persons working in International Offices. Our view of knowledge was hermeneutical and we had a deductive approach even though somewhat influenced by the ‘golden middle way’. Our perspective was that of the International Offices. The results of our study were a compilation of our model that we constructed. Placing any IO in the head of ‘the European Director’ can tell how an International Office is working on a national- and international level towards students, other IOs and other universities. On an international level towards students the Internet and student ‘recruiters’ are tools that are used. Towards other IO’s and universities the Internet, brochures, personal selling and relationships are important. On a national level the Internet towards students is also an important tool, as is also personal selling and direct marketing. Towards other IO’s and universities the Internet and cooperations in different forms are used. The internationalization and the staff is very important in all offices. The internationalization is constantly on their minds and some offices even feel great pressure from it. The internationalization is evident in all offices since they all, except one, use individual marketing campaigns towards different countries.